A lot of fun.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I liked Criminal. Almost a lot. This is a good film about the art of the con. Not a great film, but a good one. The Grifters, The House of Games, and, of course, The Sting, are great films about the con. Criminal is a peg below them, but still very enjoyable. The film stars two standard bearers, John C. Reilly and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and an actor I had not previously known, Diego Luna. Reilly plays Richard Gaddis, a professional con man who thinks he is something special. Gyllenhaal plays his sister, Valerie, a concierge at a swanky hotel in Los Angeles, who is more cunning than she lets on. Luna portrays Rodrigo, Gaddis' seemingly compliant understudy. All three give solid performances.The film is well crafted in every respect. I understand now that the film is basically a remake of a foreign film, Nine Queens, which I didn't see. Maybe if I had seen that film I wouldn't have enjoyed this one as much. Since I didn't see it, I don't really know. But since you probably haven't seen that film either, I recommend you see Criminal.I have yet to see a film yet in which Reilly puts in a bad performance, so I wasn't surprised that he did well in Criminal. As a good con man, and as an accomplished actor, he doesn't tip his hand, he's polished, and he is credible. Actually, that goes for the other cast members as well. Unlike The Sting, where you know who is getting stung, and by whom, and even why, in Criminal you think you do, but you don't. It's more like The House of Games, where you don't know what you think you know. Suffice it to say, I didn't see the curve coming. One thing I didn't like about the film is its title. Its bluntness undermines the skill of subtlety with which this film was made. So enjoy this film and find out what you know. And what you don't know.

I don't understand people who write review a movie without to see the original movie.The original Nueve reinas (9 queens) was a unique twisted tale from two con artists, who want to sell some extremely rare stamps. They motivation, they relationship is a big question all over the film until the end.In this remake we have a cut version of the original movie.. No exposition some things which is perfectly showed in the original movie. Some plot holes, like how they know about the yellow envelope is very embarrassing.The original movie was a twister.. only the end when you understand everything. This was a little wind, what shakes you up, but not as great as the original movie.

Nine queens is one of the greatest Argentinean movies.Criminal,that movie's remake,is not a bad movie and it's way better that almost all recent remakes but it's not at the same level of the original.The superb and unexpected ending on the original movie,on this movie lost surprise for me because I knew it.But Criminal is a fun movie.The people who saw Nine queens will be fun with this movie but without surprise but the people who did not see Nine queens will enjoy it much more.I knew all the surprises from the beginning but I was fun watching this movie and it's way better that recent remakes.Rating: 7

Nueve Reinas, the original story, is so much better, that is difficult to see that copy. Why Hollywood insist in don't translate the dialogs of the foreign films that American audiences could like, and release them? What is the reason that they are so f..... chauvinists? The rest of those lines is only to fill that obligatory rule of ten lines. Why ten? Why not twelve or fifteen? Maybee is the same reason for the actual blockbusters have 120 minutes or more. If you could't tell a story in 90 minutes, forget'it. I'm tired of those idiot "epilogues" that don't do nothing to the film narrative. Blá, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.