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Ordinary Decent Criminal

Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000)

January. 07,2000
|
6.3
| Comedy Thriller

Michael Lynch is a notorious criminal with two wives and a flair for showmanship. He's also a huge embarrassment to the local police, who are determined to bring him down once and for all.

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CommentsXp
2000/01/07

Best movie ever!

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Stoutor
2000/01/08

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

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MusicChat
2000/01/09

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

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Salubfoto
2000/01/10

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

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msbull
2000/01/11

I was really looking forward to watching this film. It had all the ingredients of a great tongue in cheeker, but it just didn't come together AT ALL. Kevin Spacey's accent was tolerable except that sometimes he forgot to use it and I would rather NOT have had to listen to Linda Fiorentino's pale attempt. She and Helen Baxendale were totally lacking in charm and personality, thankfully their screen kids had loads, so you could find at least some members of his 2 families endearing. You could have strained spaghetti with the plot and I'm sure that the script was written by some adolescent schoolboy in a high school English competition. That said, when I wasn't cringing, I was smirking so it wasn't a totally wasted 90 minutes. I did find the superimposing of Kevin's face on the painting very clever and quite funny. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh but I was expecting a bit of quality viewing and it just never came.

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harpsgrl
2000/01/12

Go see the The General, the story this movie is based on. The General is much better and acted. The ending not plausible in this film plus Kevin's accident annoying. I know they changed the names of the real people giving them "license" to mess with the facts but this is still the story of The General, a criminal who gave no second thought to murder and torture. I can't believe anyone would want to try and imply this man was noble. I found Kevin's accent distracting. He is a good mimic but keeping the Dublin accent going for an entire film was more than he could handle. One positive about the film, Kevin was impressed with the work of a mainly unknown actor named Colin Farrell and helped spread the word around the U.S. film community about him.

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Travis_Bickle01
2000/01/13

Very amusing crime comedy with Kevin Spacey as the star of the show. We already knew that Spacey is capable of playing any role and also in this movie he truly delivers. Kevin Spacey is Michael Lynch, an ordinary decent criminal who loves playing some games with the cops. I think you can compare him to Thomas Crown (performed by Steve McQueen in 1968 and by Pierce Brosnan in the remake 31 years later). A criminal, a gentleman and womaniser in one person.Kevin Spacey was excellently casted as the male lead. Furthermore we see Linda Fiorentino as Lynch's wife, Peter Mullan ("My Name Is Joe") as Spacey's right hand and a very small part for Colin Farrell. The story is very well written and it contains a lot of twist. A must see for a Saturday night. Not a deep or difficult story, just fine Saturday night entertainment.Recommendable! 7,5/10

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Philip Van der Veken
2000/01/14

After seeing "Ordinary Decent Criminal" I'm starting to wonder if there are still other genres of movies being made in the UK. Since their success with movies like "Snatch", "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels" and of course the best one of them all "Trainspotting", I'm getting the feeling that almost all movies coming from the UK are about criminals. I guess I can only name a couple of movies in which the emphasis lies on another subject. However, that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy them of course. Certainly when you get a nice example like this one, I must say that I keep having fun with it.Dublin's most notorious criminal, Michael Lynch, has become a hero to the working class inhabitants of the city, but is hated by the entire police force because they can't catch him. When he isn't playing the loving husband of a happy family with his children and his two wives, the two sisters Christine and Lisa, he is busy plotting a new heist. But the loot isn't the only thing that interests him, he wants to give away a nice spectacle as well. Gradually a showdown between his gang and the police force is getting inevitable...What I like about this kind of movies is the typical good robber / bad cop situation. We are supposed to hate criminals and to like the men in blue, but in this kind of movies, you can only support the criminals in their acts and hope that they never get caught. That's of course thanks to the humor that is used. If it hadn't been for all the laughs that they provide, you wouldn't like them all that much. But that's not the only reason why I like this movie. What's also good about it is that the acting is more than OK. I know that many people have pointed out that they hated Kevin Spacey's and Linda Fiorentino's accents, but personally I didn't have too much problems with it. For once I was able to see past that and enjoyed both actors' performances. In my opinion Fiorentino even deserved a bigger role.Is this a perfect movie then? No, certainly not. The story for instance has been done before, I would say a couple of times at least, and all originality has gone. But again, I could see past it. This movie offered me plenty of laughs, I was entertained from the beginning until the end and I liked what I saw. I give this movie a rating of 7.5/10.

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