bowmanblue
Okay, I'll admit one of my main reasons for watching 'Focus' is because I saw Will Smith and Margot Robbie in 'Suicide Squad' and thought they were the best part about it. It was only then that I found out they'd already starred together in a crime-caper and, based on their super-villain chemistry, thought it would probably be worth a watch. And I was pleasantly surprised… to begin with.Smith plays a suave conman who stumbles on a not-so-suave conwoman, played by Robbie. However, she is endearing to him enough for him to feel like he needs to take her under his wing and teach her to refine her scamming ways in order to keep her out from the law's reach just that little bit longer. Luckily for him (and the speed of the narrative!) she takes to it pretty quickly and in a matter of seconds (well, 'screen-time' seconds anyway!) she's as much of a pro as he is. And so, he inducts her into his gang and off they go scamming people during a big festival-type event.And I was quite enjoying this. Yes, you do kind of have to leave the fact that, despite their charming exteriors and witty quips, these are criminals and although it's quite fun and cool to watch them 'work' we'd most likely be a little less tolerant if one of them lifted our camera while they pretended to ask for directions in a crowded public place. Anyway, it was fun seeing them scam – even if it does serve as a warning to watch out for these types of people and the tricks of their trade which allow them to operate.However, about a third of the way through the film everything changes. The group goes their separate ways after their major scam is complete. After this, everything sort of slows down. There's only really one storyline going on which – obviously – centres on our two attractive leads and the single scam that's now taking place. It was about this time that I stopped watching intently and enjoying the light-hearted caper and had that burning desire to check my emails on my phone. That's what happens to the plot – it sort of drifts away from you and you stop really paying attention. I think I may have checked Instagram once or twice during the second act and I'm pretty certain that I didn't miss much. It becomes the sort of film where you can quite easily nip out for a cup of tea and you won't really have missed anything vital.Overall, 'Focus' isn't a bad film. I really enjoyed the first half and the chemistry and coolness-factor of the two leads just about took me through the rest of it. I'm not sure how often I'd bother watching it again. I could probably go many years before really bothering to invest another couple of hours on this one. Definitely one of those films where you're better off watching it for free on one of the internet's 'streaming' services rather than buying the Blu-ray at full price.The first half I'd rate 7/10 and the second half just 6/10, but overall I'm feeling generous!
MusicDivine
I really would like to give you my review about the part BD Wong played in the movie Focus, and I hope you will place it on IMDb.com for everybody to read.As a partly Surinam/partly Dutch 50 year old woman and absolute filmfan, living in the Netherlands, I have seen quite a lot of movies, mainstream or not, documentary, art-house movies, it doesn't matter, I find almost everything interesting. Two years ago, 2015, I've seen about 300 movies, if not more . . .In the movie "Focus" all elements were superb : the script, the actors, the director, the cameracrew and the music. It was one big, beautiful symphony, like perfectly braided hair.AND in particular, I have never – and I mean NEVER EVER – seen a greater star shine in his role than BD Wong did in the movie "Focus"!!! He plays a dandy, deadserious yet humorous Asian gambler, a business man with too much money to spend , too much free time apparently to spend it, and nobody to stop him from acting like a child when he doesn't get what he wants and setting him straight when crossing the line.I say BD Wong outplayed everybody in this movie, even Will Smith and Margot Robbie, who acted great also and shared some sort of rare chemistry, seldom seen, like between Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. But BD Wong outshines them all. I mean, he got his 15 minutes to play and by God, did he play! He deserves an Oscar for this role because you don't see BD Wong, but you see only his character, Liyuan, and I think not even the script writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa could have dreamt of a better performer than actor BD Wong for this small yet utterly well played part. (together with a defining good choice of music and camera shooting angles). In Holland (and France), when somebody excels so greatly, we say "Chapeau!". So here's to my new movie hero, whose beautiful voice I also LOVED in "Mulan", mister BD Wong : Chapeau!
Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Focus" is an American 100-minute movie from 2015, so by now it is two years old. It was written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, a duo of filmmakers that has collaborated for a really long time and this resulted in some good and some not so good works apparently. I guess this one here is somewhere in-between, maybe closer to the not so good. It features Will Smith and Margot Robbie as the lead actors and while both are really big names, I still don't see that great talent in both of them, especially Robbie. They aren't bad actors, but they are also far from convincing unfortunately when their characters require true range and depth and they can only partially may make up for these shortcoming with their great deal of charisma. Then again, they fit nicely in here because this movie (and the script in particular) are also about make-believe. The two filmmakers I mentioned earlier definitely need a lesson in subtlety. There are many many scenes and moments, and eventually the entire film, where they go way over the top and not in a good way at all. The first meeting between the two protagonists is a good example. Yes they want to depict that teacher-student relationship and show us how skilled Smith is, but all those tricks, all that he steals from her is just too much. Half of the items would really have been enough. This is a bit of shame as the "angry boyfriend" scene before that was actually not too bad. And there are more food scenes like the one with BD Wong (he gave a nice supporting performance and is probably among Asia's best in Hollywood right now), which was somewhat fun to see and the best thing is you don't even have to care about American Football to appreciate it because I sure don't. But these bright moments are quickly made up for and the negative element wins eventually. It's all so pompous, pseudo-intelligent and exaggerated that it's almost impossible to appreciate the film as a whole. Robbie and Smith are just means for the story and they also do not manage to elevate the script. The weakest moment of the film is probably the ending. I was tempted to give it a better rating before that final scene with Smith's character's father, but lets be honest here. A dad who shoots his brother in the chest (even with the medical justification) is just too much and this is where the film really loses it all and hits rock-bottom. I guess you can check this one out if you really care a lot about the world of con men, but it is still not a satisfying take and elaboration on the subject either. So maybe only check it out if you are a huge Smith and/or Robbie fan. Otherwise skip it and you are not missing much, especially not in terms of realism and fraud as the biggest trick pulled off in here was to make audiences believe this is actually a convincing work. Thumbs down.
Dom Nickson
I would like to start this review by saying that I was honestly excited about this movie. Will Smith and Margot Robbie play two thieves who can pickpocket anybody without them knowing. Sounds interesting right? Well first of all this isn't even that big of the story. SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!After making money they decide to have a betting game against BD Wong. This scene was pretty intense especially seeing that Will keeps losing the money little by little. He continuously states, "One more game!" Eventually though they win when Margot has to guess the player BD picked out. They end up getting it right. Then after an explanation about Will Smith making BD see the number of the football player constantly. Will takes most of the money and leaves Margot in a car ride. The rest of the movie is about this boring love interest thing between Smith and Robbie. Overall is this movie good? No, it was simply boring. Was it worth watching? No, in fact I'm not watching it ever again. Who would you recommend it to? I'd say anybody who believes they should waste their time in a movie where nothing really interesting happens. Also I think this film is along the lines of a chick flick. Rating: 1 out of 10.
