Life of Crime

Checked "Life of Crime" in Amsterdam and loved it, as did most of the audience... Unlike many of the reviewers here, who may have gone in expecting something different.

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Mos Def and Tim Robbins, "Life of Crime" is NOT a romantic comedy or straight crime story. Rather, it is an Elmore Leonard-derived caper tale set in the late 70s, with the soundtrack and mustaches to match. Staying true to the author's ethos, the dialog is smart, the jokes are hilarious in quite subtle ways, and the storyline gently bends until the protagonists end up in an entirely different place than they were planning to.

Actors usually love doing Leonard scripts - he prefers to let mouths do the talking, not fists - and the cast pretty much nails it here. I loved Mos Def, Isla Fisher and Robbins in particular, but it is Aniston who steals the show. All those years post-Rachel, her comedic timing is still impeccable, and she still has the capacity to get you to care for her, even when cast as a hopeless housewife.

The verdict: I thought "Life of Crime" was just as enjoyable as other recent Elmore Leonard adaptations (that had way bigger budgets and box office mojo): Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" and Soderbergh's "Out of Sight", and would recommend "Life of Crime" especially to people who loved the latter.

Based on late Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch, 'Life of Crime' is an interesting watch, that is funny & finely acted, too! But the slow-pace, makes you feel restless at times.

'Life of Crime' Synopsis: Two common criminals get more than they bargained for after kidnapping the wife of a corrupt real-estate developer who shows no interest in paying the $1 million dollar ransom for her safe return.

'Life of Crime', at 99-minutes delivers a story of crime & deception, admirably. But, as I mentioned before, the slow-pace gets to you after a point. Right after the kidnapping incident, one expects the pace to get faster, but it doesn't. Fortunately, the final act picks up momentum. But better pacing was the need of the day!

Daniel Schechter's Adapted Screenplay has merit & the dialogue, are wonderful. Schechter's Direction is neat, as well. Cinematography is standard. Editing is the weakest link of the enterprise.

'Life of Crime' would've fallen flat had its casting not been right, but over here, each & every actor is perfectly cast. John Hawkes continues to perform brilliantly. Tim Robbins is tremendously despicable, enacting a moron to perfection. Jennifer Aniston is good, but looks aged here. Isla Fisher is first-rate. Will Forte is excellent. Mos Def is superb. Mark Boone. Jr impresses, as well.

On the whole, 'Life of Crime' gets some things right, not all. Watch it if you must!

"We need to find a way o put him against the wall." Frank Dawson (Robbins) is a businessman with many enemies. When a group of men are looking for revenge on him they decide to take what is most important to him, his wife Mickey (Aniston). They kidnap her and demand a ransom from him. The only downside is that he was going to divorce her and is with his mistress when they call so he's not all that concerned. This puts strain on the kidnappers when plans have to change. This is another movie based off an Elmore Leonard book. If you have seen the other movies from his books (Jackie Brown, 3:10 To Yuma, Get Shorty and most recently Justified) you will know what to expect. The feel of all of them are pretty much alike. This one does have more of a Get Shorty feel to it in the way that it is a very dark comedy and you aren't sure who to root for. The acting is very good and the movie keeps you interested and entertained but I never really got all that into it. I did like all the twists and the events of this but there was just something missing to make me really like it. I also wasn't a big fan of Get Shorty so if you liked that movie you will probably enjoy this much more then I did. Overall, a movie that I thought was OK and worth watching but nothing that really made me think wow, this is good. I give it a B-.

I enjoyed this film a lot. It's not ground breaking or stylish or full of violence. It's nice and easy with funny characters and some laugh out loud moments. A we'll put together, charming film.

In Life of Crime, unlike many crime thrillers, the focus is on the characters rather than on achievement of maximum possible violence. All of the major characters have their stories and some of them seem to learn from their foolish and sometimes implausible actions. To me, it's refreshing to watch a crime movie in which things continually go wrong as the limitations of the characters are revealed. There's violence, a natural accompaniment to crime, but it's normal violence, not extreme and glamorous solutions to problems of psychotics. And people respond to it in ways that are sometimes smart and sometimes stupid. This is a genre movie that's far better than most.