Watch Thief For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Let's be realistic.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Personally I love Michael Mann's works, and Thief is no exception. In fact, you can see that it served as a template for his later work. A big reason Thief works so well (and probably why a few viewers will Not enjoy the film) is that it's very true to criminal life from all angles. There is no hero, there is no happy ending, there is no trust. It's every man for himself on a road to nowhere. Thanks to an amazing performance by Caan, and a great script, Thief is incredibly entertaining while being depressingly realistic. Bottom line - if you like Mann's other crime dramas, you'll love Thief!

Professional safe cracker Frank (superbly played with fierce steely resolve by James Caan) lives by his own personal code of honor and yearns to amass enough money so he can leave crime behind in order to lead a more normal life. Frank gets involved with a major jewelry robbery that he believes will be his ticket out, but things don't go exactly as planned.Directed with tremendous style and precision by Michael Mann (who also wrote the taut and involving script), with a tough gritty tone, a substantial amount of tension, striking glittery cinematography by Donald E. Thorin, a riveting story that unfolds at a constant pace, a great moody pulsating score by Tangerine Dream, complex and believable characters, and a fantastic and meticulous major heist set piece that's both gripping and exciting in equal measure, this film packs one hell of a punch. Moreover, Mann astutely captures a harrowing sense of raw desperation bubbling just underneath the glossy surface which explodes in the rousing last third with Frank resorting to desperate measures in a violent last bid to retain his integrity and autonomy. The terrific acting by the super cast keeps this movie humming: Tuesday Weld brings a touching vulnerability to her role as Frank's sweet, but damaged wife Jessie, Robert Prosky delivers a supremely chilling portrayal of ruthless and domineering crime boss Leo, James Belushi lends sturdy support as Frank's easygoing partner Barry, and Willie Nelson shines in his regrettably small part as Frank's folksy mentor Okla. An excellent and impressive film.

With Thief, Michael Mann distilled his crime film style into an archetypal, haunting aura that would go on to influence not only his excellent later work, but other filmmakers as well, everything from Refn's Drive to the police procedural we see on television today. A style that consists of kaleidoscope neon reflections in rain slicked streets, Chrome cars bulleting through restless urban nocturnes and a lyrical, pulsating score, here provided by underrated German electronic maestros Tangerine Dream, who would go on to provide their dulcet tones for Mann's phenomenal 1983 The Keep. Thief weaves the age old tale of a master safe cracker(James Caan in a beautifully understated performance) the high stakes at risk of him performing one last job to escape, with said stakes represented as his angelic wife (Tuesday Weld) and newborn son. Robert Prosky in his film debut is a serpentine wonder as Leo, Caan's boss, whose chilling metamorphosis from paternal employer to domineering monster is a joy to watch. The jewel heist scenes are shot with a researched, assured and authentic feel, spurred on by Tangerine Dreams cosmic rhythms and are especially dynamic points of the film. Thief, for me, belongs that special subcategory of Mann's career along with Heat, Miami Vice and Collateral, (Public Enemies doesn't get to come in this elite cinematic treehouse club, it didn't do anything for me) that are very special crime films. They possess an intangible, ethereal quality of colour, metal, music, and shady people moving about a thrumming urban dreamscape, professionals at what they do, cogs in the ticking clock of crime that inexorably drives toward the narrative outcome, be it bitter confrontation and violence (of which Thief has an absolute gorgeous, poetic revenge sequence) or cathartic resolution (like the conventionally satisfying way Collateral ends). Mann has captured neon lightning in a bottle with Thief, and against the odds of people saying you can't catch lightning twice, he has spark plugged a good portion of his career with that same lightning, creating an artistic aesthetic all his own. To me that is the ultimate outcome of filmmaking, and art as a medium.

The 1980's seemed to define what is to be expected of a crime movie. It was an era of machine guns, tooth-picks and body oil, with little attention paid to the all-important details. Michael Mann's Thief was an ultra-slick, ice cool and, most astonishingly, highly realistic alternative, which is very impressive given that this was Mann's feature debut. The film revolves around James Caan's safe- cracker Frank, a career criminal looking for one big score before retiring. We meet him mid-job, using a specially-designed drill to steal the diamonds locked within. We are given little background to his character, but, like the rest of the film, the history is embedded within every frame.Mann, wanting the film to be as close to real-life as possible, employs real cops and criminals as actors, reversing their roles to further blur the line between the 'good' and 'bad' guys. John Santucci, a recently paroled jewel thief, plays a corrupt cop, and Dennis Farina, in his first movie role, was a real-life ex-cop and here plays a criminal henchman. The idea that the cops and robbers are merely two sides of the same coin was explored further in Mann's 1995 masterpiece Heat. With Thief, it feels like we are thrust into this very real but secret world of crime, where Frank, who works alone when possible or employs his entrusted friend Barry (James Belushi) when necessary, agrees to work for shady crime boss Leo (Robert Prosky, who, along with Belushi and Farina, makes his film debut).With so much time spent with Frank (he appears in every scene), a lot rests upon Caan's shoulders, and he thankfully delivers what is undoubtedly his greatest performance. He's the typical tough-guy loner, but he brings so much to his character that we see much more in him than a mere brute. In the diner scene, where he seduces cashier Jessie (Tuesday Weld) and lays out his plans to start a family, Caan's marvellous monologue further layers his character. But Thief is also an exciting thriller. Thanks to the plausibility of it's characters, it's easy to become concerned when a spanner is inevitably thrown into Frank's plans. If there's a criticism to be had, then it's in the formulaic plot. But when a film seems to know it's characters so well and is filmed so stylishly by cinematographer Donald E. Thorin, it's hard to avoid becoming completely immersed.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com