Even with the acting talents of Kurt Russell, Matt Dillon and Terence Stamp this feels like a low rent and lower budget version of the Ocean 11 type films but with more grittiness and less smugness.Some of the Canadian location shooting helps with the atmosphere. Rusell plays a likable ex con Crunch who has done time in a Polish prison for his brother Nicky (Dillon.) Crunch recruits his old team together including his deceitful brother to forge replicas of valuable historical books that they plan to steal.Jay Baruchel plays the rookie so he gets the exposition along with the audience. Stamp plays an informer forms a comical double act with an uptight Interpol agent who is hell bent on bringing down Crunch and his gang.The film wants to be a stylish caper film like Gambit, with fast action and plenty of quips. Its formulaic and succeeds largely due to the charm of its cast. Anyone who have seen the television series Hustle or Leverage will suspect that there is more to the plot and the denouement is told in alternate flashbacks as we find out who the real mark was all along.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Scam artiste Crunch Calhoun (Kurt Russell) pulled off a job in Poland, that saw him turned in by his own brother Nicky (Matt Dillon) for a reduced sentence. A few years later, after a motorcycle stunt went wrong, he finds himself holed up in casts, until he's asked to retrieve the real copy of a stolen book, reuniting his old crew and setting out on a mission that is not all that it seems and everything can change in the blink of an eye.Kurt Russell seems to have disappeared in to the background in recent years, flitting as he always did between hit and miss, and now he pops up in this technically impressive, but overly flawed thriller, that actually declines in quality the more it goes on.The things that make it interesting to start with are the things that come to be it's downfall, with the slick, stylish opening, and the plot that requires your attention becoming respectively over whelming and just convoluted and overly complex. But it maintains a sense of substance and sophistication that never stops commanding your attention throughout, and while it's not the sum of it parts, it doesn't fail to cover the cracks. **

A real gem! This film deserves much higher reviews!The way the film was edited and shot with flashbacks and flash forwards intersecting the current storyline makes The Art of the Steal very engaging. Too many films nowadays throw together big names, action and crude humour without any substance. Art of the Steal managed to do a solid job focusing on the story while feeding the audience bits of information that will come together at the end.The Art of the Steal is a mix of Ocean's Eleven series with Gambit and Incognito (1997). Highly highly recommended

This was just a shocker and a giant surprise of a movie. I didn't see any advertising for this flick but rented it as it looked good and I liked the cast members. Boy was I in for a treat. Not only is the acting just great but the humor abounds in this film without mindless killing, sex and cussing. It felt good just seeing an authentic, high brow, heist show with a crew of guys who just mesh perfectly.Things are not as they seem and I indulge you to please not read too much about this movie before seeing as it as too many spoilers will make the movie experience a bit flat. This movie is about surprise and twists all done with class. I paid very close attention to the planning and dialogue which made the entire ending come together in a crescendo of guttural laughter and one the best GOTCHA moments I have seen in a movie in a long time.If you have kids in the house I can tell you that there is some swearing but nothing they are not already hearing in school. It's great for most ages over 12 and demands a group. This movie will generate discussion after viewing as well as laughter from the start. I had to write this review seeing as the ones already on here are not so well put and who needs to know what the movie is about when what anyone wants to really know is "what can I expect" from this flick.Just don't let the funny stuff foll you. Pay close attention to the setup, execution and the conversations. Some of the most innocent scenes play right into the master plot!