An entertaining homage to crime capers.

Rating: 8/10 (7 December 2001)

I was lucky enough to view this film in a sneak preview the night before it's opening. I have never seen the original, but I must say that this movie was great entertainment that had me laughing, and on the edge of my seat.
The characters in the film could have been developed some more, but their chemistry together was particularly both amusing and cooperative.
The director of this film, after his huge success with Traffic, has definitely shown himself again as a somewhat experimental filmmaker. His various uses of Extreme Close Ups and rapid montage are excellent and thought provoking, and his hypnotic way of using just the right volume of music at the right time puts you in perspective with the characters.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this film is that I, myself, felt like Andy Garcia's character. This is because the main cast of thieves kept on surprising the audience little by little, leaving the detective work to us. I truly could not figure anything out of any one scene until the scene was over. This was experimental, because some viewers don't like to try and figure things out, but I believe that it worked.
There are a few problems with the film. One of the problems is that the very talented Matt Damon seemed to have been placed on a low key throughout the film, and the hysterical Bernie Mac seemed to have been given a low profile in the editing room.
However, I still enjoyed this movie tremendously, routed for the bad guys like I was supposed to, and I would recommend this movie to anybody with a free Saturday night.
I rate this film : ******** (Eight out of Ten)