Dr_Sagan
Just watched "Focus", a movie which made some buzz 2-3 years ago mainly because the rumored romance between the two main actors, Will Smith and Margot Robbie. I don't know what they actually did off-screen, but on-screen they have no chemistry at all.Focus is a movie about con-artists. It doesn't try to follow the steps of "The Sting" or "Ocean's eleven", but it has the same goal, to confuse the audience on who is playing who... and here is where the problems are starting to arise...The plot is paper thin and every con seems unnecessary and overcomplicated. There aren't that too many cons to begin with, but every one of them seems forced. A futile effort from the writers, to "amaze" the audience.You see, to make the audience to expect a twist is basically a bad thing. Even the average viewer had, possibly, better twists in mind than those in "Focus". More plausible and more fun to watch. Here the tricks are too over-the-top in their execution to swallow, and overall unimpressive, leaving a bad aftertaste...The movie looks colorful, but the acting is pale. Will Smith seems bored possibly because of an early realization that this movie won't work.Overall: Not a satisfying movie, including the lukewarm ending. The twists you expecting from a con-artist's movie are there, but they are unclever and forced. Maybe its time to dust that DVD of "The Sting" from the selves....
MusicDivine
I really would like to give you my review about the part BD Wong played in the movie Focus, and I hope you will place it on IMDb.com for everybody to read.As a partly Surinam/partly Dutch 50 year old woman and absolute filmfan, living in the Netherlands, I have seen quite a lot of movies, mainstream or not, documentary, art-house movies, it doesn't matter, I find almost everything interesting. Two years ago, 2015, I've seen about 300 movies, if not more . . .In the movie "Focus" all elements were superb : the script, the actors, the director, the cameracrew and the music. It was one big, beautiful symphony, like perfectly braided hair.AND in particular, I have never – and I mean NEVER EVER – seen a greater star shine in his role than BD Wong did in the movie "Focus"!!! He plays a dandy, deadserious yet humorous Asian gambler, a business man with too much money to spend , too much free time apparently to spend it, and nobody to stop him from acting like a child when he doesn't get what he wants and setting him straight when crossing the line.I say BD Wong outplayed everybody in this movie, even Will Smith and Margot Robbie, who acted great also and shared some sort of rare chemistry, seldom seen, like between Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. But BD Wong outshines them all. I mean, he got his 15 minutes to play and by God, did he play! He deserves an Oscar for this role because you don't see BD Wong, but you see only his character, Liyuan, and I think not even the script writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa could have dreamt of a better performer than actor BD Wong for this small yet utterly well played part. (together with a defining good choice of music and camera shooting angles). In Holland (and France), when somebody excels so greatly, we say "Chapeau!". So here's to my new movie hero, whose beautiful voice I also LOVED in "Mulan", mister BD Wong : Chapeau!
adonis98-743-186503
In the midst of veteran con man Nicky's latest scheme, a woman from his past - now an accomplished femme fatale - shows up and throws his plans for a loop. The first time i saw Focus i absolutely hated it but as it turned out the 2nd time was the charm the movie was awesome really funny and 2 great leading performances by Will Smith and Margot Robbie and it really doesn't surprise me that they worked again in Suicide Squad and they had such a great chemistry. This movie has a long backstory it was originally going to star Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart but they both dropped out but i think one way or another the movie would be really great. It does have flaws tho with the ending a bit that i won't spoil but still a pretty great movie 9/10.
