Surprisingly disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (20 June 2014)

I had really big expectations for this movie. A number of good (if not very good) actors, a plot revolving around a series of heists, and an impressive trailer meant that I started watching it knowing that no matter what, I wouldn't leave disappointed...
... and I was wrong. I won't get too far into details, but this movie has many wrongs.
First of all, though the actors are all pretty good (I liked Zombieland and The Social Network a lot, and am usually not disappointed by Morgan Freeman), they only play themselves. Jesse Eisenberg is a stereotypical pretentious-yet-unsure genius, Melanie Laurent a Frenchwoman with secrets, Morgan Freeman is the old-wise-dog, you get the idea. This creates two problems. The first is that this make it very hard to bond with the characters, but the biggest problem is the other one: the actors never actually play together. It's like seeing several one-man-shows mixed together.
Then there's the plot. I promised IMDb I wouldn't include spoilers, and I won't, but let's say that in addition to chasm-sized plot holes, it appears that whenever the storyline seems stuck, we get a one-liner from an actor, dramatic music, and suddenly the plot has changed and the intrigue is back on the move. This would be disappointing if used once, and it just gets annoying when used multiple times. Probably to cover the fact that the plot is indeed not very good.
I can see what Leterrier was trying to achieve by giving the movie its fast pace, but this also just leaves the impression that he's actually trying to confuse us so we don't see the movie's lack of actual interest.
I'll give it 5/10 stars for its overall slick visuals and because it still didn't bore me enough that I wouldn't get to the -below average- ending. But you should use your time on something better than this, and keep it for that winter afternoon when you'll be home, sick, and won't know what do to.