a i scan the many laudatory review of this movie post above and i find myself ask myself just what kind of movie from the past 30 or 40 year these reviewer have be watch and or indeed if they have watch any . no genre age more quickly and more badly than the big con movie and since the whole satisfaction of the viewer hinge on the big final scene which we know from every con artist movie from the sting to mamet house of game and which and inevitably and recurs in every familiar detail a the big closing scene of criminal in which all the character who have be present to u throughout the film a have no connection with one another street robber and cop and mark etc . be revealed gasp . to have secretly be part of some big coordinate scam after all . in a sense and that scene have be use up and dramaturgically useless since the sting and and all the subsequent big con movie of the 80 and 90 and have have to add some very special extra ingredient such a mamet plumbing of the sexual and psychological abyss beneath the con or mark relation in order to be movie of any even limited note . criminal offer no such special angle or special depth and try to trade on nothing but the by now hopelessly threadbare fascination of life lead accord to the principle of the double double cross and the nothing be what it seem . precisely that and however and be the film psychological downfall in the face of an audience which be or which one would have assume ought to be a familiar by now with the convention of this genre a it be with those of the mafia movie . the cinema must surely have teach u all enough about the life and work of conmen by now for u to find it ludicrously improbable that either of the two main character would be willing to expose thousand of dollar of money already in hand in order to secure the alleged sure thing of a deal that be to net them many thousand more ( after all and it be the endemic idiocy of such greed and of the general greed drive tendency to forget the bird in the bush principle that be the very basis of a conman livelihood ) . around this central cry improbability there cluster a dozen others and hardly less egregious represent the john c. reilly character would really have agree in twenty second to the offer of the currency expert not to reveal that the note be a fake in return for a share of the money . hardly and since it be hard to imagine a simple way for the mark to find out that the note he be buy be indeed a fake than to send the currency expert along with just such an offer . would he really have permit any arrangement which might even possibly result in his parting with the note and have in hand and in return and only a check which need to be take to a bank and cash . the idea be ridiculous and since it would clearly involve run the risk of there happen what actually do happen at the bank in the penultimate scene . it seem that filmgoers and dvd viewer be so desperate for that ever more elusive wow i do not see that come . kick that large number of them be willing and these day and to bring their own willing paralysis of basic cogitative capacity to that walk dead genre and the grifter movie . well and at least i will be spar hour of head shake incomprehension when i read on here in a couple of month rave review after rave review of a new mafia movie which feature a scene in which the rat receive with relief and unconditional enthusiasm the message from the bos represent sure and i know you help set up the hit on my kid brother and and i be not too happy about it . but i really need someone to help me watch out for the arrival of a drug shipment down at the dock at 3 be tonight and so i be willing to say represent let bygone be bygone . but remember to bring a couple of bag of cement so we both have something to sit on .