Focus

Plot synopsis:
Con man Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith) goes to a bar in New York City. There, he sees a beautiful young blonde woman (Margot Robbie) with another man, who seems to be pestering her. She escapes from him - he later falls asleep, drunk - and goes to Nicky's table. Her name is Jess. They go upstairs to her hotel room and start to make out. A man then bursts into the room with a gun, threatening to shoot Nicky. Jess says he's her husband. Nicky then quips that he's got cancer, and the man says he doesn't want to shoot a guy with cancer. Jess figures that Nicky is on to them. Nicky says how they should have handled it if they really wanted to rob him before he leaves.Jess finds Nicky a few nights later and begs him to teach her his ways after she's done her research on him. Nicky mentions a story to her about two partners involved in a con gone wrong where one partner had to shoot the other to make it seem like they weren't working together. They happened to be Nicky's father and grandfather, and the former shot the latter in something called the "Toledo Panic Button". Nicky agrees to teach her and says the act of conning people is a game of focus. He shows her how her works his hands so that she can't tell when he's swiped something off her person.Nicky takes his business to New Orleans with his friend Horst (Brennan Brown), and their own team of con artists. It's Super Bowl week, so the city is packed full of people. Jess joins them down there for a practice round of conning. They take her through the crowded streets where they swipe watches, wallets, and other trinkets off unsuspecting people. They also take Jess through a hotel casino for another round. After she proves her worth, she is allowed on the team. On a sidenote, we see Nicky may have a gambling problem as he loses money at a horse track.Jess meets Nicky's friend and associate Farhad (Adrian Martinez). He is involved in more complicated schemes, as he is seen removing a fake ATM that is used to nab private information. Jess takes a liking to Farhad despite his often crass behavior.Over time, Nicky and Jess develop a mutual attraction. After sex, Jess asks Nicky why some people refer to him as "Mellow". He says his father used to call him that because he told him he was soft like a marshmallow. Nicky believes that there's no room for heart in this game because it can get you killed.The night before the big game, with all their conning complete, Nicky addresses the team and congratulates them on a record week, $1.2 million worth. He sends everybody home with his usual promise to send them their cut. Horst gives Nicky the bag of cash, and makes Nicky promise he won't gamble with it. Nicky promises as Jess looks on.Nicky and Jess go to the football game. They make small bets with each other such as if one fan will catch a hot dog, and if another is too drunk to get up for the wave. They see a woman in short shorts and bet how many men will look at her ass as she walks by. Jess bets 8 while Nicky bets 3. A curious man named Mr. Liuyan (B.D. Wong) joins the game and bets 5. Seven men check out the woman as she walks by, making Jess the closest. Liuyan makes more bets with Nicky over the game, practically begging him to play when Nicky tries to back out. Nicky plays and loses $1,000. The bets escalate as the two men double the bets, even as Jess tells Nicky they should just leave. After losing $100,000, it looks like Nicky has finally had enough and is about to walk away. Mr. Liuyan goads him back in, and Nicky bets all the remaining cash ($1.1 million) on a simple high card draw. Liuyan pulls the card with a higher number, winning all their money. Nicky and Jess are heartbroken. Nicky chooses not to walk away and decides to double the bet again. He tells Liuyan to pick any player on the field, and he will guess which one, seemingly impossible odds. Mr. Liuyan thinks he is crazy and doesn't bet on crazy, so he refuses. Nicky sweetens it when he says Jess will pick the player that Liuyan spotted, much to Jess's terror. Liuyan can't turn down free money, so he picks a player. As Jess nervously looks through the binoculars, Liuyan gives them a chance to back out. Jess looks to Nicky, seemingly begging him to take this chance to back out, but Nicky tells her to pick. Jess again nervously scans the players. All of a sudden, she spots Farhad wearing a jersey with 55 on it. She grins and picks him, and to everyone's surprise, that's the correct answer.On the taxi ride home, Nicky, now with a LOT of money on him, explains to Jess that this was set up from the beginning of the day. He knew that Liyuan is a notorious gambler, so he had it set up so that Liuyan would see the number 55 throughout the day, thereby subconsciously getting him to pick that number when the moment was right. Nicky then has the taxi pull over while another car pulls up behind them. He tells the cabbie to take Jess to the airport. He leaves her with her share of money and departs without another word, leaving Jess confused and heartbroken.Three years later.In Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nicky is working with a billionaire race car owner named Rafael Garriga (Rodrigo Santoro) and his associate, Owens (Gerald McRaney). They are in possession of a revolutionary new fuel burn algorithm, which will give them an edge in the upcoming season. But Garriga is nervous this won't be enough, so their plan is for Nicky to pose as a disgruntled former employee of Garriga, and sell a fake version to another team owner McEwen (Robert Taylor), who is Garriga's biggest competition. This will make the competition slower, while Garriga gets faster.Nicky goes to a party at Garriga's mansion where he sees Jess for the first time since he left her, descending the staircase in a stunning red dress. She kisses Garriga, to Nicky's disdain. He approaches Jess afterward, where she assures him that she's doing just fine on her own. Nicky plays his part of disgruntled employee, and is later approached by McEwen.Nicky spends a lot of his time trying to get closer to Jess, even though she's done with him. This eventually leads to them going back to Nicky's hotel room and having sex. The next morning, Owens goes to Nicky's room while Jess stays out of sight. Owens complains about his feelings toward the younger generation and his lack of progress in the job.Nicky eventually sells off Garriga's REAL algorithm not only to McEwen, but to every other race team as well for the same price, amounting to about 27 million Euros. He also convinces Jess to run away with him. Before they can escape, one of Garriga's men rams his car into theirs, and the two of them are abducted and taken to one of Garriga's warehouses with duct tape on their mouths. He takes the tape off Nicky's mouth but leaves it on Jess and plugs her nose until Nicky tells him how he managed to hack Garriga's system and get his hands on the real algorithm. First Nicky tells him Jess wasn't a part of it so he can let her go. Garriga plugs her nose again, so Nicky finally admits that he used Jess (again), and planted a bug on her so that when she returned to Garriga's hotel room, the bug picked up his computer password. He laughs, knowing it's a lie, and takes the tape off her mouth. She admits to Nicky that Garriga isn't her boyfriend - she just wanted his watch, which is worth two hundred grand. She's never slept with Garriga, or even been to his room, despite his numerous attempts. Nicky finally resigns to telling the truth, and right as he's about to start, he gets shot in the chest by Owens, which horrifies Garriga and causes him to leave. Nicky appears to bleed out as Jess cries and tells him she loves him. It looks like Nicky dies until Owens says he shot Nicky in the right spot to avoid any major arteries, although he did puncture his lung. Owens gets the blood out of Nicky's lung, reviving him. Owens then calls Nicky "Mellow", making Jess realize that Owens is Nicky's father, Bucky Spurgeon, that he was in on the con the whole time, and that they've just performed the "Toledo Panic Button."Owens drives Nicky and Jess to the closest hospital. He reminds Nicky of what he said regarding putting your heart in the con game, and adds that he's taking all the money. Jess helps walk Nicky to the front of the hospital. Nicky smirks when he notices that Jess is wearing Garriga's watch on her wrist.

Tags: revenge, psychological, comedy, flashback

Review:
That's when Will Smith and Margot Robbie come to life, they are at their best when they are given more to work with and they keep the movie interesting.
But much later when the big twist came I wasn't shock or surprised.I probably would have had a better experience of the film if there were hidden clues leading up to the cons or if there was one character, who wasn't a con artist, that I could have trusted allowing me to let my guard down and get conned.The leads, Will Smith and Margot Robbie, work well on screen.
Overall, Focus is a terrible con movie which cons the audience with it's good trailer and impressive cast, which can't save this convoluted mess from it's filler filled plot..
Just watched "Focus", a movie which made some buzz 2-3 years ago mainly because the rumored romance between the two main actors, Will Smith and Margot Robbie.
Margot Robbie is good but she is merely rehashing her sultry goddess performance from The Wolf of Wall Street minus the Brooklyn accent, adding very little substance to Jess and making her merely something nice to look at which is really troublesome considering Jess is probably the best character in the film.
No wonder the movie could barely paid production costs, by the way too expensive for what was presented.Nothing at all to remember but the scenes with Margot in bikinis.Really impressed how movie distributors can go along trying to push some movie like that into the market.Will Smith only resembles himself on this movie and Margot does what she can , be a bimbo girl.This is a bad film and I do believe your enjoyment hinges even more on your expectations when going into itGood actors, not acting that well here and that is all..
And the movie is infused in a lot of what I find about US young urban contemporary culture to be abhorrent.The last part of the movie was filmed in my hometown, Buenos Aires (gratuitously so, since it involves a con operation involving a Formula 1 race, which hasn't been set here for many years), but even that part I didn't find to be terribly interesting, as it's all shown with a tourist lens.The only good scene in the movie here has Smith playing a game of escalating bets with a Chinese businessman (BD Wong)..
oh yeah he was never a superstar-just a wannabe,i actually thought he got robbed at the Oscars,concussion was a very good movie, eexcept for the chase scene which never happened ) but back to this crappy movie,focus.well it appears that time has passed.this is one of the worst pile of crap I have seen actually put me to sleep , it is a copy of so many other films in this genre.take a almost leading man add a buxom blond and con someone.
this movie is a total waste of time , rent one of the ocean movies or some movie along this line.will smith was a star ,he had a good following then the last few years took place,his choice of roles was more about the again if you knew here taste in movies you would understand just how bad this movie is ,it amazes me how people on this site give some really terrible movies good marks,are we settling for this?i watch over 200 movies a year and well very few are great I have learn to enjoy a lot of bad movies in some ways ,but this is not good -don't waste your money!!!
-Focus (2015) movie review: -Focus is a crime flick that follows con-man Nicky, played by Will Smith, as he meets and trains a new counterpart Jess, played by Margot Robbie, in the ways of being a con-artist.
Will Smiths character especially had a lot to offer in the way of charisma and twists.-The music was fitting and some of it was memorable.-Another thing I liked was seeing the inside of the whole con-man thing you see in movies.
Going into it, I was not sure if I wanted to see a movie with big Willie not saving the world, but who better than Mr. Smith to prove that he does not need to battle aliens from outer space to make a blockbuster.He is the blockbuster, and though his last movie, After Earth was a failed lesson in movie stardom for little Jayden, Will Smith makes a comeback as a charming con man who falls for a up and coming con girl and needs to stay focus on keeping the con.It's All about Will's star power as he shows the world how well he's aged and that he's still got the charisma to fill theater seats, and he does.Getting my lips off Will's butt for a second, the movie in itself was charming and cleaver.
Although, Will's eye candy, Margot Robbie did not need much help in the sexy category.So the movie can hold it's own with a sophisticated story of the art of the con game, that was more interesting and less predictable than most movies about the subject, but it does not hurt that this is Will Smith's vehicle, as he proves he's still got what it takes behind the wheel.Definitely ago see..
In "Focus" Will Smith plays Nicky, a con artist from a long lineage of con artists, who takes under his wing the beautiful and talented pickpocket Jess (Margot Robbie): a great example of the sort of apprentice system that the UK Government is looking to encourage!
The action moves from New York to more picturesque locations in New Orleans to Buenos Aires, building to the ultimate con in the febrile gasoline-fuelled environment of the Formula 1 circuit.The key requirements of a first class con/heist movie like "Ocean's Eleven" or "The Sting" is a charismatic lead, a clever and intriguing story and getting the audience to really care that the characters succeed in their quest against their (typically well deserving) mark.
Focus differs in just three respects.Will Smith has to be one of the more charismatic stars in the A-list today: on talk shows (like the recent edition of the Graham Norton show) he just shimmers with fun and good humour.
I'm a fan of Smith, and after "After Earth" he could do with a hit vehicle – unfortunately this is not it.The surly performance largely destroys any chemistry between his character and Jess, which is a great shame since Margot Robbie is otherwise the best thing in the movie: aside from looking absolutely stunning (both in and out of an F1-babe bikini), she also knows how to act: following on from "The Wolf of Wall Street" she is building a great name for herself.Elsewhere Adrian Martinez is effective as Nicky's foul-mouthed side-kick Farhad and for female fans of "Love Actually", the Brazilian 'hunk' Rodrigo Santoro appears as Garriga, the owner of an F1 team (shirt on though this time).The script aims for "Ocean's" levels of cleverness, with some good comedy lines, but falls short.
The story builds to an unsatisfactory Hollywood finale, where a cliffhanging "Italian Job" approach might have worked much better.The film showed in the UK with a '15' certificate for "strong language, violence, sex, sex references", although it is difficult to see why it really merited this rating, at least from the sex angle – – the scenes between Smith and Robbie are very tame indeed.Directors – plural, never a good sign – are Glen Ficarra and John Requa ("Bad Santa", "I Love You Philip Morris") who also wrote the screenplay.
The film could have done without the romance, since Smith and Robbie have about as much chemistry as shoe polish.Focus's faults are exacerbated by the poorly paced plot that relies upon telling rather than showing, a lazy tactic typical of a substandard story and script.
It saves itself by having ridiculously good looking and well dressed lead actors set in the richest locations imaginable, once again letting the viewer get lost in the film living vicariously through the leads.This isn't to say that Focus is a bad movie, the audience I was with laughed consistently and regularly at the film and even waited with baited breath when things went awry.
However, the movie recycles this material too often and having too much investment in lovey-dovey banters does wear the tension thin.Story follows Nicky (Will Smith), a veteran thief who meets with Jess (Margot Robbie), an aspiring thief.
He's still every bit the playa we want him to be in a movie directed by Glenn Ficcara and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love) that has a stylish sexiness in almost every scene.Smith plays Nicky, the kind of confident, well dressed mystery man who doesn't seem to mind eating at a fancy restaurant alone.
Gerald McRaney has a few good scenes as a hard-ass, suspicious bodyguard here but it's Smith, playing a guy with a gift of gab, and Robbie, a beauty with not just a great smile but also poise, charm, and humor, who keep Focus afloat even when the movie doesn't seem quite sure of itself..
Unfortunately, just like Smith's character suffers as his focus shifts from crime to romance, so does the movie's quality.
Moreover, this film is so stupidly convoluted it thinks it is smart and thinks it can get away with it by explaining things really fast with witty faces on characters, but as soon as you think about it you realize the movie is actually treating you like you're stupid.
You know I was about to give this film a 5, because it really doesn't have huge technical issues except its editing, which by the way is really off, but the more I think about it the more it makes me angry: not only it treats you as an idiot, it also has a disgusting message and portrayal of robbers and Morgot Robbie's character is so one note it actually comes close to being misogynistic.I will admit I had some fun in the theater, but overall the film fails both on a storytelling-filmaking side and even more on the "intellectual", for the lack of a better word, side..
His performance is too wooden at times and he is having trouble reflecting back the chemistry he gets from Robbie at certain scenes.Focus is aware of the story structure problems so it comes up with a twist after a twist, especially during the final stage to keep things relatively interesting.
A big mistake the producers felt to see which probably will cost them millions of dollars.Also the movie cannot convince you that Robbie and Smith really has the skills to pull these jobs and you never have this issue with similar movies like Ocean's Eleven or Catch Me If You Can.Overall, Focus is an okay movie which you should just watch on your favorite movie platform instead of going all the way to a movie theater.
This film really did not impress me, but I will say this, the general story line minus the BS stats, the poor performances, and the chemistry between Robbie and Smith kept me wanting to stay and find out if it was as predictable as I thought it was, which it is with one twist at the end that I didn't see coming.
Quickie Review:Nicky (Will Smith), a professional con man comes across Jess (Margot Robbie) who he thinks has a lot of potential.
However, apart from the acting talent and the initial intrigue behind the schemes, the movie as whole has trouble excelling beyond an acceptable level of mediocrity.Full Review:With Will Smith and Margot Robbie starring, Focus seemed like a promising con movie with some good amount of drama.
Overall good little tease movie to see of fun and dreams a showcase for the up and coming sexy Margot Robbie..
The way Will Smith executed the role of Nicky had me scratching my head thinking "Why wasn't he in the oceans eleven movies." He did a great job and don't let me discredit the supporting roles.
It's also great to see Margot Robbie in a lead role, not only is she drop dead gorgeous but she can hold her own in a movie like this.
For those who haven't seen the surprisingly limited aired trailer, here is what you might expect in the film.Expect: A romance of some sort with sex thrown in, a tale about pulling off the big con, Margot Robbie showing off her body, and Will Smith playing a relaxed, devil may care role.
The biggest thing that con-men can't stand is being coned be other con-men, now try to let that sink in.The story is about a long-time grifter decides to mentor a young, attractive woman, but things get complicated when he the two become romantically involved.Okay I got to admit I wasn't very interested in Focus when I first heard about it, I just thought it was another mediocre Will Smith film that's trying to be a box office hit, even when the trailer came out I still wasn't interested in it.
Until I sawed my favorite YouTube reviewer Chris Stuckmann reviewed the movie and give it a positive rating and shortly after that I sawed this movie hit number one at the box office, and now I was interested and after seeing the movie I can say that the movie was...okay.Will Smith is the kind of actor that he can be in a good or bad movie and it will be a box office hit, but I think his range of be successful is going side ways for him and I thought Focus was going to be another one of those movies that Will Smith is trying to be a success again, but this time I was wrong because Will Smith was actually pretty good in this movie.Margot Robbie won me over in The Wolf Of Wall Street.
Smith plays Nicky, a master con artist who's at the top of his game when he meets Jess (the drop-dead gorgeous Margot Robbie), a down-on-her-luck small-time scammer.
Moving at a consistent and smooth pace, I never found myself bored by what was happening on-screen and by the time that the film had finished, I was left feeling very satisfied.The chemistry shared between Smith and Robbie works and creates a movie romance that audiences are able to root for until the very end.
Focus is the newest Will Smith movie, and with his recent track record many moviegoers will likely stay away from this film.
I cannot honestly say the score was bad or awful, but it was average at best.In closing, Focus is a fun film with an overall good story even if the story gets absurd at times.
While there's certainly some great on screen (and more than likely off-screen) chemistry between the slowly losing his charms Will Smith and the ever impressive Aussie starlet Margot Robbie, no amount of sizzle or pizazz can save Focus from its own lacklustre core and for a movie that was supposed to be exciting and energetic, Focus meagrely meets its mark as a Friday night time filler.Co-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have found success before with their impressive rom-com Crazy, Stupid, Love and while the two possess a neat visual flair, whether it be in the colourful streets or New Orleans or in the capturing of the natural beauty of Robbie, there's a sense that the core material at the heart of this con-artist tale lacks the ingredients that was going to allow it to compare to an Oceans 11 or such similar themed film and while Focus may start out in an intriguing fashion, alarmingly it drops off at such a rapid pace that by the film's final reel it's quite possible that you'll find yourself barely awake.Focus's largest hurdle in keeping the audience engaged lies within its inability to be in any way shape or form realistic and while with these caper like movies audience suspension of belief is to be expected Focus just goes too far out of its way to be spectacular when a smaller more believable scenario was often called for.
Smith's well renowned con man Nicky is also a figure we don't ever get to care for and whenever his away from on screen partner Robbie it's all to evident that Smith is continuing on with the form he showed in his recent string of stinkers like After Earth and Winter's Tale with a raft of below average material and elements it's safe to say Robbie is the star attraction here and we can now hope that her upcoming turns in the intriguing looking Z for Zachariah and Suicide Squad showcase further development of her exciting career.It's meant to be exciting, it's meant to be thrilling and it's meant to be the smartest kid in its class but Focus barely scraps by with it's over the top situations, set ups and twists and unlike most films of this ilk slowly dies a death as time goes on when it should've been ramping up the fun at every turn.
You just have to love a movie with will smith and Margot Robbie.
The last thing I expected was to be absolutely blindsided by how fun this movie actually was.Synopsis: A female pickpocket (Robbie) is recruited by the head of a con-man empire (Smith) to join his "crew" in a series of well choreographed and highly elaborate heists.Sounds like a "fun little" "Ocean's Eleven"-type film, right?
I watched the new Will Smith movie FOCUS.You don't have to.This con-man caper flick, co-starring the lovely Margot Robbie (Wolf of Wall Street) is a slow moving, nothing appears as it seems, film of people robbing each other.
Filled with the twists and turns of plot and personality that are essential to the genre, the screenplay by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (who co-directed the film) is sufficiently clever without ever being overly original, while Smith and Margot Robbie make a very appealing couple as Nicky and Jess.