Why You Might Like It: This is a very good hostage/heist film that will entertain you from start to finish. The pace of the movie is great and it has plenty of action to keep you entertained. There are many notable actors in the movie and everyone involved does a solid job. I also thought the directing was well done and the movie also has a bunch going on to keep you guessing. Overall, a fun watch.Why You Might Not Like It: One of the knocks might be that this film just has too much going on for an hour and a half movie. There are flashbacks, intertwined story lines, twists, etc. that some viewers could find confusing and hard to keep up with. It does seem like an extra 30 minutes or so might have made the movie considerably better.Acting/Casting: 6.5* Directing/Cinematography/Technical: 6.5*Plot/Characters: 6* Entertainment Value: 6.5* Total - 6.5+6.5+6+6.5 = 24.5/4 = 6.375* - Worth a Rental

Truly...All I can figure is that there MUST be some reason or agenda to take a perfectly good, well made, gripping, and most of all FUN Crime Thriller like this and then for some unknown cosmic reason, just P*$$ the hell all over it. And what really gets me about THESE particular reviews concerning this film is the unmitigated arrogance of the comments...Anyway, that's not why you called... : )Clearly, at least *I* thought it was a great and very entertaining film. I frigg'n LOVED the main bad guy (Chiklis - who also was one of the producers) He was VERY Guy Ritchie, which is ALWAYS fun! Seriously, right from the clever way the film opened and then the way the film makers kind of bent your mind around by sort of rewinding it and replaying it differently (I STILL honestly don't quite get the specific logic of why they did that) it honestly REALLY grabs you by the nuts and does NOT let you go until the end.Now, *IF* this were indeed the cheeeeezy, poorly done, quickie Crime film that others here are bloody SAYING that it is, there is NO frigg'n way that it would have been this sharply put together. Everything truly was done very well. In a film like this, you would think that maybe the writing, dialog, and acting might suffer; that maybe the characters or what they say would not come across as believable. But actually, it was all quite well done. Even though ALL of the primary elements that make up this film were executed extremely well, I feel that the editing was particularly good. The one scene where Ray Liota is telling the story about the clock makers was an outstanding example of this. Crap movies don't do that. Pure and simple...Soooooo, I have NO bloody idea WHAT these knuckle-dragging Cretans are talking about with all these negative comments, but if you like Guy Ritchie's films (this one is not QUITE up there with his though) and you just enjoy REALLY fun Crime films with lots of twists and turns, then there is absolutely NO reason why you shouldn't completely enjoy this movie. It does PRECISELY what it sets out to do, and it does so splendidly. And that is a solid '8' in my book...

Before i type about the film itself, i would like to discuss my dismay at the so-called actor that goes by the name of Sean Faris. His performance in this film was so bad i was tempted to turn it off, take out the disc and snap it in half. That bad. And just to stick the knife in, his on screen brother is also unwatchable. Trying to make up for their abysmally, cringe worthy roles are Ray Liotta, Max Beesley, Michael Chiklis and what can only be described as a cameo by Forrest Whittaker (why he's on the front cover amazes me, he's in it for 5 minutes). Liotta is as cool as ever and Beesley follows suit in that respect. Chiklis is solid as the leader of the trio of bandits. And as for Whittaker, he's good in the 5 minutes he's allocated. The story starts off mid-way and then flashes back, then flashes forward, then back, then forward, then back... and so on and so on.And whilst that style of film works in certain cases, it becomes a headache in this. It quite simply runs out of gas and i started to not care what was going on. And as for the big reveal at the end; anti climax at it's finest. But never mind that, in films like these the end is a good thing, but as for the last scene in this film....well i'll let you rip your hair out when you see it. If you're looking at a career in acting and you want to know how NOT to act, just watch Sean Faris.

This can be heavy going at times. The complexity of who is and who isn't in on the scheme becomes a bit laborious and detracts from the tension. Although it does matter to be intriguing enough to enjoy as things move along with an economy of events. There are enough twists and turns to keep one interested as to who is involved but it is really overwritten.That is to say that a few of the Characters motives have little time in this short Movie to play out and completely compose the story. All of the Acting is acceptable and right up to the end it is a rather tense situation, as most hostage Movies strive. It is just a little too full of itself to be fulfilling. It's a pretty good nail-biter, but overall fails to nail down a completely satisfying wrap up as things get wild and quite muddled. This kind of stuff works much better on the page than on the screen. There have been a lot of Detective Fiction from the likes of Raymond Chandler to prove this time and again. This just tries to be a little too clever for a little Movie.