All Things to All Men

I cannot recommend this movie. I am a fan of all the lead actors. All play their parts well but in this case, the sum is far less than the parts! It is a very complicated movie and I soon lost my way. If there was a clever plot to keep me entertained then I'm afraid it went over my head. My main criticism is that I was always aware that I was watching a movie. Not once was I drawn into and absorbed by the action. The dialogue was unoriginal and to some extent the overall outcome was quite predictable. Oh, and I hate it when a man suffers severe gunshot wounds but moves around apparently uninjured a few scenes later; the rest of us mere mortals spend a week or two semi-conscious in hospital! Nothing new in this movie; don't waste your money.

I have to disagree with Nick Stones review. Either he wasn't watching it at all or his interpretation was somewhat misguided.

I found this to be a good movie typical of the type of English crime drama i have come to expect over the years.

I thought the plot was well thought out and the twists and turns quite fascinating.

Yes one does have to keep focused on whats going on but that is the whole idea.

It kept me glued to the screen wondering who was going to do what next.

The ending for me was an ending i believe was appropriate. 3/4 of the way through i had a feeling it would end that way.

I was left feeling this was not a waste of my time and, unlike Nick Stone, i would recommend it.

When a movie I see on TV starts with the logo for popcornflix.com, I know that I likely can't count on too much appearing on IMDb, so I watch these movies more carefully to provide IMDb with as much information as I can. In this case it didn't help. I had no idea what was going on. A car blew up and a man in bed with a beautiful woman got a phone call. There were cops in London, some of whom were apparently corrupt, and a rich man who wanted to get his drug dealing son out of trouble. I think one of the cops may have gone undercover, but I'm not sure. I couldn't remember which person was which. There was a car chase which was pretty good. There was a chase on foot that was also somewhat exciting. London was interesting to look at, if that was where the movie was set. There was a fascinating futuristic glass-walled room high in the air that overlooked a river. The Thames?

I saw what looked like that scene from "Mission: Impossible", but if you enjoyed that scene, there's really nothing here. That sequence ends with rappelling down a building, but it's not a big deal. I remember one really good acting performance from Terence Maynard, who ended up being tougher than he looked at first.

Do I have any more to say? Not really.

When I came across the DVD for this movie at my local library, I hadn't even heard of it before. Without looking it up at the IMDb, I decided to give it a chance since it promised to be a crime movie filled with twists and turns. Even before getting to the end of the movie, I was regretting that I hadn't looked up the movie at the IMDb before deciding to watch it. I agree with most of the previous posters here that the movie simply isn't very good. It's filled with little action and suspense, and is instead padded with endless talk - and not very engaging talk. The main problem with the movie is that it is VERY confusing - even though I read the plot description off the back of the DVD case before watching the movie, it didn't take me long to get utterly mystified as to who was who and what was exactly going on. I guess the acting is competent, and the British backdrop does give the movie a different look and feel from Hollywood product. And the movie's production values are okay for what had to have been a small budget. But those things don't save the movie from being an utterly confusing bore.

"All Things to All Men" is a film where the viewer has great expectation, based on the names of the veteran actors Gabriel Byrne, Rufus Sewell and Julian Sands. Unfortunately confused screenplay and edition does not help and this film frustrates any expectation. The deleted scenes in the Blu-Ray disc shows important parts that should have been included in the final cut. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Jogo Mortal" ("The Deadly Game")