By [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35013248
The Good Thief - (2002)
I'll just say at the outset here, I haven't seen Jean-Pierre Melville's
Bob le flambeur (I will one day, I really like Melville's movies) - so I walked into
The Good Thief with no idea where it would head. Principally, it's a heist film - and a complex one at that, with a good many characters to keep your eyes on. At the center of it all, a role that
perfectly suits Nick Nolte - a heroin and gambling addict who haunts the French Riviera. He's a thief that still has a very upstanding moral compass, and as such French cop Roger (Tchéky Karyo) looks out for him as much as he keeps tabs on him. When he learns of an expensive art collection a casino owns, he gets himself clean and starts recruiting his crew. So begins an intricate plan - and if you know heist movies, you know that there's a plan behind the plan and then a twist. I love this film's style, and Nolte is better here than in just about any other film I've seen him in - but I felt a little left out in the cold by the film's end, where I ended up questioning every false direction we'd gone in. I'm going to watch the original, then rewatch this - because I think it's worth it, and this film is just such a pleasure to take in, no matter where it loses you. My rating will probably go up in time.
6.5/10
By The poster art can or could be obtained from 20th Century Fox., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10680937
The Vanishing - (1993)
I'm really unsure what to say about watching this. I've seen the original several times and have it on Criterion. I'd seen this version once before as well, and remembered how inferior it was - but having seen the original again recently, I wanted to go back again and see just what Sluizer and 20th Century Fox had done to upset me. I remembered that the ending had been completely hijacked, with an unlikely happy conclusion really stealing all of the power the original ending had. Apart from that, the middle section of this remake drags a little. But when you look at it in isolation, and not in comparison with the great 1988 version (
Spoorloos) then it's not a
bad movie. It just drops back into the pack and doesn't distinguish itself enough to be worth remembering, apart from a memorable turn from Jeff Bridges - one so crazy that I'm not quite sure what he's trying to do. Whenever he's not onscreen though, this movie really grinds. I can see some people who are invested in these characters really ride this film to the end, and like it - but not those who loved what the original did.
5/10