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Thief

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Thief (1981)

March. 27,1981
|
7.4
|
R
| Action Thriller Crime
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Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a home, wife and kids. To accelerate the process, he signs on with a top gangster for a big score.

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UnowPriceless
1981/03/27

hyped garbage

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Sexyloutak
1981/03/28

Absolutely the worst movie.

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Robert Joyner
1981/03/29

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

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Maleeha Vincent
1981/03/30

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

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851222
1981/03/31

Greetings from Lithuania."Thief" (1981) is a great movie. Amazingly directed by one of my all time favorite Michael Mann, this is a kinda simple story, yet amazingly told. This has to be one of the two best performances ever by James Caan ("The Godfather" comes in a first place). First feature film of Michael Mann, the ones whose movies i always liked to say the least.All in all, "Thief" is a pure movie gem. Great soundtrack, simple yet very involving story, great script and amazing work by Michael Mann - this is a one superb movie.

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betty dalton
1981/04/01

Many gangsters movies have tried to look cool, but end up as wannabees. "Thief" is the real thing. Or as close to it as I have seen it. The screenplay was actually written by an ex-thief and the tools used in the heist were real and were provided for by ex-thiefs who were used as "technical advisors" on this movie.Director Michael Mann's debut has everything in it that a cool heist movie needs. It is probably for that reason that this classic is on Quentin Tarantino's list of favorite gangster movies. Starring James Caan as a guy you really really dont wanna mess with, playing a specialist in cracking high end security safes. After a big heist James Caan gets cut out by a crimeboss of his deserved share of the loot and responds by threatening him that he has got 24 hours to deliver his share or "he will wear his ass as a hat"."Thief", is a gangster classic, wherein men are real men. And James Caan is as cool as it gets. But Caan's character is still a human with needs and imperfections. A part of the movie is dedicated to his wish to settle down with a wife and kids and get out of the heist business. I think the time given to learn to know Caan's character is essential. It is done with broad strokes and in short conversations with his wife and friend. But those words are very powerful and I must restrain myself to not literally copy and paste them into this review. The dialogues in this movie are really to die for. Caan co produced this movie and I truly think it is one of his best roles ever. Great supporting role of James Belushi too. "The hell with me, the hell with you, with everything" is James Caan's motto. No attachments. Walk away in a second and burn everything behind you. This cold gangsters view of life is also a recurring theme in another classic of Michael Mann called "Heat", starring Robert de Niro and Al Pacino. You GOTTA see that movie if you are into heist movies!"Thief" features a mesmerizing soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. Music has always played a lead part in ALL of Michael Mann's movies. This soundtrack really is gorgeous and creates a constant mood of alienation. It can become too dominant sometimes, but often the music really enhances the suspense."Thief" is a slowburner. Tension is built up slowly. The climax only comes at the very end. Don't expect big shootouts or action movie heists with "Mission Impossible" break in schemes. Everything is done like a real professional heist man would do it: low key. However James Caan's character is nothing close to low key. The man is a volcano waiting to errupt. And explode he will...

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avik-basu1889
1981/04/02

'Thief' epitomises the phrase 'style over substance'. This film was released in 1981 and one can sense a confluence of various elements found in both the 70s as well as the 80s era of American cinema. Mann wants to conjure up the naturalism and grit of the 70s New Hollywood Anti-hero films, but at the same time one can see the elements that scream the 80s like the synth-pop score by Tangerine Dream, the overly stylised climactic gun fight, some of the overly dramatic dialogue,etc.The basic storyline involving a criminal wanting to move on from his life in crime and settle down by having a family, but being prevented from doing so by the bosses is something very derivative. However it is still possible to make us care about the characters and make an effective film with that tried and tested premise. But unfortunately the lack of depth in the characters and the themes made it tough for me to stay invested and I found myself completely uninterested during the climactic action scene and that can never be a good sign.

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BasicLogic
1981/04/03

What we saw in this film were lot of unnecessary segments of scenes that should have been edited to cut off. The poor amateurish script of a vault cracking thief was absolutely laughable. Guy with a partner and another driver who, like what we saw in the very beginning, was another vague partner of this thief, but it never explained and appeared later. And you should have to ask, where this guy got his heists information, from whom? If his activities inevitably involved such things, how could it possible that mafia, the syndicate, the outfit or, whatever it was in New York would have allowed him to play solo so freely and and so long? The other problem of this film was that this guy actually acted very unprofessionally. His rude, head-strong behaviors were so stupid and so direct without even have the ability to think twice before he took action to deal with the situations. We saw him late for his date and showed up two hours late and exposed himself so noticeable in the bar, and even showed his gun when some of the customers saw his rudeness to his date. Then he grabbed her and forced her out of the door, then when more people saw a scene more like a kidnap, he beat up them, forced her into the car, then drove away like nuts. You think nobody would have called police for what they saw inside the bar and in the street? Most of the dialog was so exaggerated and unnatural just like those unnecessary scenes. But the real cut-off moment when I decided that this film was badly directly was when he took his woman to a all-night cafe to have a heart-to-heart chat and laid out his ground rules for this new relationship, we still saw how arrogant and how rude he was to that woman. But here, we also encountered one of the most stupid scenes and arrangements in movies: He ushered the woman and kept going further and farther to the back of the seating booth, where many other customers sat, and the woman sat down with her back right back to the next booth behind her. And then, he and she openly and so loudly pow-wow to each other with their personal bios. This scene was just so stupid and so hard to take in if you were logic enough to realize that Mann not only wrote a very bad amateurish script but also how badly he directed. A careful thief would never chose such public place to talk about his intention to have a relationship to a woman he liked to be There were so many heavily flawed holes that Mann thought he could get away with most of the moronic viewers, but I simply refused to be one of them. This is a very bad movie with many take-for-granted plots, scenarios and storyline, very crappy and absolutely unforgivable.

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