CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

The Movie Diorama I believe Mann is a good director. From acclaimed works like "Collateral" and "Heat" to underrated gems like "Blackhat". He has always been known for creating gritty realistic crime thrillers. This all started back in 1981 with this uncommonly different piece of cinema. Having the desire to rid his past life of crime, a thief is hired for one final heist. However, we all know greed gets the better of us as soon he is trapped in a contract that requires him to perform more heists. If you're good at something, you will always be in demand. Much like our eponymous thief. This is a good solid thriller that is fuelled by dialogue. I mean, if a fifteen minute scene is just two characters talking in a diner, you know you'll need to focus on every word spoken. It's sharp, and I mean very sharp. The problem with this is that the need for dialogue feels far too forced. It's just fluff, and really doesn't develop these characters. The thief perhaps more than others, the supporting characters were redundant. I was completely disinterested during the first hour, I didn't connect with any of the characters and did not care for what was happening. James Caan was effortlessly in control though. Then the final heist begins and somehow my eyes are glued to the screen. Mann's slick urban directing style, the synthesised musical score, the flashing neon lights and city backdrop. It all worked. Then silencing the background music during scenes of tension, like breaking into the vault, was genius. I was intrigued by the thief's methods and thought it was intricately executed. Then the final twenty minutes arrive. I was in suspense heaven! I just wished the thrills were maintained throughout. Think of this as a precursor to "Heat". This is technically accomplished, whereas the latter is that and full of investing characters. A great debut though, just too much focus on dialogue that I didn't care about.

rodrig58 Tuesday Weld is very convincing in her role, I also liked her in "I Walk the Line" (1970). Best role for James Caan from all the movies I've seen him. Willie Nelson, a small but important role, well played, in his dramatic, well-known, effective way. Robert Prosky, in the role of the villain, better than in his other roles, also as a vicious guy, from other films. Jim Belushi is OK. Dennis Farina, and all the other actors, as well as associates of Prosky or bad cops, all very good. In short, Michael Mann's best movie of all I've seen. The music signed Tangerine Dream, one of my favorite bands, is cool too.

Fluke_Skywalker Plot; A jewel thief's plans for a normal family life are disrupted when he strikes a deal with a powerful high end fence.Michael Mann's signature style is already fully formed in his first feature film. All of the hallmarks are there, if not quite yet perfected. But it's all held together by an exceptional performance from James Caan. He rarely gets mentioned in the same breath as contemporaries like De Niro, Pacino and Hackman, but at his best he's absolutely their equal and perhaps their better. Well, maybe not Hackman. Dude's the G.O.A.T. in my book, for whatever that's worth.

tomgillespie2002 The 1980's seemed to define what is to be expected of a crime movie. It was an era of machine guns, tooth-picks and body oil, with little attention paid to the all-important details. Michael Mann's Thief was an ultra-slick, ice cool and, most astonishingly, highly realistic alternative, which is very impressive given that this was Mann's feature debut. The film revolves around James Caan's safe- cracker Frank, a career criminal looking for one big score before retiring. We meet him mid-job, using a specially-designed drill to steal the diamonds locked within. We are given little background to his character, but, like the rest of the film, the history is embedded within every frame.Mann, wanting the film to be as close to real-life as possible, employs real cops and criminals as actors, reversing their roles to further blur the line between the 'good' and 'bad' guys. John Santucci, a recently paroled jewel thief, plays a corrupt cop, and Dennis Farina, in his first movie role, was a real-life ex-cop and here plays a criminal henchman. The idea that the cops and robbers are merely two sides of the same coin was explored further in Mann's 1995 masterpiece Heat. With Thief, it feels like we are thrust into this very real but secret world of crime, where Frank, who works alone when possible or employs his entrusted friend Barry (James Belushi) when necessary, agrees to work for shady crime boss Leo (Robert Prosky, who, along with Belushi and Farina, makes his film debut).With so much time spent with Frank (he appears in every scene), a lot rests upon Caan's shoulders, and he thankfully delivers what is undoubtedly his greatest performance. He's the typical tough-guy loner, but he brings so much to his character that we see much more in him than a mere brute. In the diner scene, where he seduces cashier Jessie (Tuesday Weld) and lays out his plans to start a family, Caan's marvellous monologue further layers his character. But Thief is also an exciting thriller. Thanks to the plausibility of it's characters, it's easy to become concerned when a spanner is inevitably thrown into Frank's plans. If there's a criticism to be had, then it's in the formulaic plot. But when a film seems to know it's characters so well and is filmed so stylishly by cinematographer Donald E. Thorin, it's hard to avoid becoming completely immersed.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com