Protraph Lack of good storyline.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

CANpatbuck3664 This was another random pick on Netflix for me. I like heist flicks and the movie had a pretty good cast. It's not Ocean's Eleven calibre with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon but you rarely go wrong with guys like Kurt Russell, Jay Baruchel and Terrence Stamp. I had heard a little bit about this movie, some people were claiming it was a bit of a cult hit so I threw it on while I was having my morning cup of coffee. I think as long as you're not expecting something from Guy Ritchie or Steven Soderbergh, you could have a good time with this.*Minor Spoilers Ahead* Crunch Calhoun (Kurt Russell) is our narrator and our protagonist and he begins the movie by talking about how when you go to jail, you only really remember your first day and your last day. He's not in your normal minimum security prison though, he's been jailed in Warsaw, Poland with a pretty angry prison population. He then takes us back to show us how he ended up in jail. His team, comprised of his brother Nicky Calhoun (Matt Dillon), Paddy (Kenneth Welsh) and Guy (Chris Diamantopoulos) are on the verge of ripping off a powerful dealer by supplying him with a forgery of a famous piece of art and keeping the original for themselves. It almost goes off perfectly but a last minute touch-up by Guy (the forger on the team) leads to the dealer being tipped off that it's a fake while he's driving away. When the team tries to make their getaway, they get in an accident with the police. Nicky rats out Crunch under interrogation to avoid jail time. Crunch then has to spend 5 1/2 years in the jail to spare Nicky and the rest of the team.Crunch gets out of jail and tries to live a relatively honest life. He's got a girlfriend named Lola (Kathryn Winnick) and a friend/apprentice named Francie (Jay Baruchel). He works as a motorcycle stuntman who deliberately crashes his bike in a circus for an extra couple hundred bucks. Things are looking bleak when due to a bizarre set of circumstances, Nicky ends up back in his life. He claims to want to make amends and has a plan to reform the gang and tackle 1 more big score.The Art of the Steal follows in the tradition of the heist movies that came before it. The plot is pretty tight, it isn't without small problems but I didn't find any glaring plot holes. Swiping art from the Canadian border patrol is decently fresh. They include a couple of twists in the plot that are unexpected. I'll admit, other than some new items that they're swiping (the one piece is interesting for sure), there's not too much here that's completely original.So while The Art of the Steal does borrow a little from more famous sources, it does do it well. The movie has a surprising amount of style for a movie that wasn't given a huge budget and it was very reminiscent of Snatch or any other Guy Ritchie movie. The other thing is that you have some very quick and sharp dialogue. The movie was pretty funny in certain scenes and Kurt Russell has a couple of nice monologues to bookend the film.You don't have an A-list cast here but they did a good job casting the film. Kurt Russell is always fun to watch even when he's not on the top of his game and he did some good work in this. It was nice to see Matt Dillon again, he delivers a pretty workmanlike performance. Jay Baruchel fit into the ensemble nicely, he kind of offsets the more reserved Russell and Dillon against Diamantopoulos and Welsh who aren't bad but they're laying it on a little thick. In a small aside, it was also cool to see Kathryn Winnick here. She's been really great on Vikings, they don't give her much to do but it's good to see her getting more roles.I wouldn't nominate this movie for any awards but for a small-release genre film, this definitely was a decent effort. It doesn't have high aspirations but after having seen The Art of the Steal, I'm wondering why didn't it get a bigger release? It's a satisfying caper movie that checks off all the necessary boxes for a good time. You could do worse when you're clicking through Netflix looking for something to watch.

andylacza This could be a good movie but i turned it off at the 3rd minute into it. Why? These people have the nerve to show prettiest city in Europe, Budapest (i grew up there, so i know every square inch) and have the big sign over it, WARSAW! Go and get educated. Or you are just t average liberal film media where things does not matter? It matters for me. How do you dare to miss lead people? Guess beuse you think we are dumb enough here to know. But there is when you are wrong, there will be always someone like me to have a word. Will that matter? Probably not. With the billions of dollars y'all make do not give a s.h.i.t about me. But i will be there.

prodigychild2008 Well just seen it and very shocked, most of the films you never hear of or go straight to DVD, tend to have good reason (there is many horrible big budget films also) and so as a Kurt fan I watched it.Its a lower budget Oceans 11, but what it does have is a good story, great cast who work well together, good direction, and a hell of a script.........its a very funny film, not often I laugh out loud, but there is loads of quotable lines.Its a shame it never got any real cinema time, I would rate it very high on the entertaining side, and if you get a chance to watch it, do so.

leonblackwood Review: The director really tried to make a clever Ocean's Eleven type movie about a group of friends who still paintings, but I didn't know what the hell was going on half of the time. When the story comes together at the end, it is pretty cleverly put together, but for some unknown reason, it just didn't gel together that well. The characters were lacking chemistry and the movie seemed to jump right in at the deep end so you don't get any depth about the individual criminals. On the plus side, it was good to see Kurt Russell back on the big screen with Matt Dillion and Terence Stamp but the storyline needed some work. Personally I think that the whole heist aspect was achieved way to easy, even with the police on there behind from beginning to end, but its way too confusing and it could have been more witty. Average!Round-Up: Were has Kurt Russell been? The last time that I saw him on the big screen was back in 2007 in the weird Death Proof by Quentin Tarintino, we're he was driving around, killing people in his car, until he meets his match with a be bunch of girls who don't take any crap. Anyway, I've always liked his quirky acting style from the Big Trouble In Little China days but he seems to have slowed down in the latter part of his career. Terence Stamp was a weird choice by the director for the ex criminal who helps the law take down the criminals, but he brings a sense of professionalism to the film. His annoying sidekick just won't shut up throughout the movie but I enjoyed the banter with Stamp. Matt Dillion plays the money hungry brother-in-law who gets his comeuppance in the end and Jay Baruchel plays his usual whining sidekick role which I have seen him play many times before. With all these personalities in the mix, the director really didn't use this actors that well because the script is sketchy and not pieced together that well.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $78,000 (Terrible!)I recommend this movie to people who are into there heist comedies about a group of criminals stealing paintings. 3/10