Grifters

Pros: Story, Cast, Direction, Score

Cons: The story will knock the wind out of you. Not for the faint of heart.

The Bottom Line: The Grifters is an original idea put across with real style. The best film noir since the old black and white ones that starred Humphrey Bogart. See this!

Review: The Grifters (1990) is a great change of pace movie for those who think they have seen everything. My bud Stephen_Murray is a film noir buff but even he hasn’t (I think) seen The Grifters, which couldn’t be a better example of noir ...

Pros: Angelica Huston in her best role to date.

Cons: This film is not for the faint of heart. It is psychologically disturbing.

The Bottom Line: This excellent suspense-filled film is not for the young or the immature. If you like typical Hollywood films -- don't watch this one.

Review: Occasionally, a film comes along that defies Hollywood stereotype by eschewing its sub-standard conventions for “the bottom line” of offending nobody and liking everybody so we can all whistle on the way home. The worst offense for me in Hollywood films...

Pros: direction, script, cast, costumes, characters, originality

Cons: not for kids

Review: "The Grifters" is a lurid, tense film that explores the lives of three con artists and their relationships to each other. While the violence, language, and sexual situations may offend some people, it does not detract from the film's message,...

Pros: Annette Bening looking very wuzzly. A fascinating look at a different way of life.

Cons: Cusack's a little flat.

The Bottom Line: The Grifters is a crime movie with a distinct difference. The crims aren't your usual criminals. They're grifters!

Review: The Grifters was the film that put the Miramax studio on the map back in 1990. Dark and dirty, it’s the story of three twisted individuals that put foxes and rats to shame in the sly and cunning stakes. All three of the film’s players are professional...

Pros: Tense, noirish drama

Cons: None to speak of

Review: The Grifters is the film that put Miramax on the map, an ambitious and gritty film noir that is formula free and without an audience-tested ending. Based on a seedy '50s novel, The Grifters revels in a criminal world -- it glorifies the crime of its...

Pros: All involved in fine form

Cons: nothing major, to speak of.

Review: The Grifters are an amoral little trio, gritty yet semi-sophisticated, cunning but cool, both seedy and sassy.

Cusack, Benning and Huston play crafty characters who scratch out a living from cons, hustles, shams and scams.
The three...

Pros: Cusack is good, Benning gets nude

Cons: Bad ending, drags at the end

Review: I rented this movie about 9 years after it was released on video on the recommendation of a trusted co-worker. I came into the movie as a big John Cusack fan and remain one - but this is not one of his best movies in my opinion.

Cusack plays...