hk-36 "The Opportunists" is finely acted. Obviously the writer/director gave strict orders to all the actors to use a subdued style. I usually prefer movies with this style because it makes the movie more realistic although a little less exciting. This is the main reason why "Rosemary's Baby" is a great film while "The Exorcist", although more exciting, is a very good film. Back to "The Opportunists". The director's overall style, mood, and pace were excellent too. Christopher Walken's performance was the best part of the movie but that shouldn't surprise anyone. Then why does this movie go beyond failing miserably? Warning!, the criticism I am about to give will give away key plot twists. The movie fails miserably because it completely falls apart during the middle of the heist scene where Christopher Walken's partner, shockingly and (I claim) intentionally, locks Walken inside the money vault of an armored car company then presses the alarm button. This act of sabotage would make perfect sense if Walken's partner either stood to gain by the act or was out for revenge. Not only does Walken's partner not gain by this treacherous deed; he greatly hurts himself! At the moment when the partner slammed the vault door between himself and Walken, the following facts existed: * The partner had one small bag of cash (the viewer is never told how much) in his hand, while there were many more bags and boxes of cash remaining in the money vault where Walken stood. If I had to estimate the percentage of cash in the partner's bag vs. all the cash, I would say 10%. In other words, Walken's partner could have gotten about 25% (because there were 4 partners overall) of all the cash in the vault but opted for just 10%. Was he blind? Did he not see all the boxes of cash inside the vault? * There was no time pressure on Walken and his partner to collect all the cash in the vault because once Walken had solved the combination lock, the alarm was knowingly disabled. Also, the 2 guards who were sitting just outside the vault were in on the caper. So they had hours (maybe as many as 6) to collect all the paper cash (we are not talking about heavy gold bars or large paintings). Walken and his partner could have transferred all the cash to a car outside the building in about 15 minutes! * By intentionally locking Christopher Walken in the vault, the partner knows that Walken will be apprehended. Doesn't the partner realize that if Walken is apprehended, Walken and the 2 security guards will tell the police everything they know about the partner including a physical description, his accent (Irish), and where to find fingerprints that he left in Walken's house and business! Since the partner was clearly reducing his own chances of a clean getaway with a large take, then the only other explanation for intentionally locking Walken and the money in the vault was revenge. This scene would make sense if it turned out that the partner had a secret hatred for Christopher Walken. I was expecting the movie to show that many years earlier (when Walken was a steady safe cracker) that Walken either stole from the partner's father or bumbled some aspect of a heist which caused the partner's father to do jail time thereby forcing the partner to grow up fatherless. But no such explanation ever came to fruition. Less than an hour after the partner runs away from the alarm with the money bag in hand, he enters a train station ready to continue his getaway but never gets on the train. He just turns around, exits the train station and eventually apologizes to Walken. The final 1/2 hour of the movie is so detached from reality that it ruins all the good aspects of the earlier part of the movie: * Christopher Walken is let out of jail with no bail! * The main police investigator hires Walken to repair his own personal car (this is not undercover work)! * The owner of the armored car company doesn't press charges (doesn't want bad publicity concerning laundered money) * Walken and his treacherous partner become more friendly as if nothing happened! * The 4 thieves get to keep and spend their small take with no apparent pressure from the police! * Basically everyone lives happily ever after! Keep in mind that this movie is clearly not directed for kids who might overlook an illogical plot twist like it has. In a world where most movies fall apart at the end, I nominate this one as the all time king of movies which fall apart at the end and are not science fiction. Another way of stating this award I bestow on "The Opportunists" is it has the highest ratio of believability in the beginning of the movie to believability in the end of the movie. This movie's only usefulness should be as required viewing at film schools to demonstrate the tendency to rush through the end of movies thereby ruining them. If the writer/director was trying to make a study of a smart, talented safe cracker surrounded by 3 incompetents as opposed to 2 incompetents and 1 saboteur then this scene still does not make sense because Walken's partner did not act incompetently when he shut the vault door; he clearly acted intentionally. The words that he used and his facial expressions clearly show him closing the vault door intentionally. I finally came to the logical conclusion (just to stop my mind from short circuiting) that the writer/director may have been stating that sometimes a person can be so incompetent that he appears to be acting as a saboteur, even though he is not. If the director intended for the partner to lock Walken in intentionally then can anyone out there answer why the partner locked Walken in?

The Amazing Sharkboy I think the writer/director's aim was to make a simple crime story (on a low budget) that had a very credible and believable feel - presenting characters that seem to come from any local neighborhood. At this the movie succeeds. The scenes and dialogue are carefully crafted and the film as a whole is very well cast and acted. I liked Walken's understated performance. It's consistent with the other actors. Also, it seems more natural and devoid of the self-acknowledging flippancy found in some of his other work. The movie is low-key, and one can probably see the end coming. Yet someone looking for a caper film without contrived suspense or melodrama - and a little bit of a character study - will find this rewarding.

E.B. Hughes (ebh) Christopher Walken plays a loser auto mechanic in Queens, New York whose life is hitting rock bottom. His checks are bouncing all over the place, and his relationship with his girl friend, nicely played by Cyndi Lauper is heading nowhere fast. He becomes involved in a heist, with some bumbling locals. The film works well enough, but the writing is a bit weak, and it could have been directed a little better. But well worth a look. By the way, Walken is excellent.

Matthew Stechel Ah, the joys of watching Walken -I could watch him read the phonebook and be captivated (hey he should do that sometime) This film is an excellent one. It has a very nice low-key mood. It takes place in Queens (where I live and breathe) It has a great safe-cracking heist plot as well as enjoyable scenes of Walken practicing his craft. see this movie when you are feeling well i don't know if i should say down but when you feel that you're miserable i guess this is a fine film to watch--not that its depressing but I mean thelow-key approach works perfectly and the score fits in perfectly with the movie. which i for one enjoyed here more and really only noticed during the end-credits and it has actuall characters as opposed to cardboard cutouts that the actors take and make nbeautiful music with. . The real joy in watching this movie is in the performances and in them the way the story unfolds. It is so great to see walken acting in a calm role that is much more of a person then the usuall role he takes the scene-stealing villian (which I must admit I am a huge fan of) but walken is so much more than that as witnessed in great films like this, and(I'm not comparing films here) natrually his oscar wining role in "The Deer Hunter" I"ve seen him on stage in Joyce's "The Dead" and a play which he wrote himself some years ago called "Him" Ah that was a great play seriously best damn play! Ok, so you know I think the world of Walken and that any and every movie could benefit form giving him a bit part in it but I don't mean to take away from the rest of the cast here and this film is excellently acted all around I mean this is truly a character film and this movie simply could not work if they didn't have a good cast First of all- Who knew Cyndi Lauper could act?? I mean I liked the three or four epiosdes she did on "Mad about You" but she wasn't holding her own with walken there. While she's not in that many scenes she's surprisingly good and therefore hope to see her in something else that's good Donal Louge who's everywhere now (thoughts I once had about Walken) continues to build up his resume quite impressivelyand of course Peter McDonald as the instigator of the whole film He has a reletively thick irish accent but if you listen carefully its not hard at all to get what he's saying and Jose Zuniga and Vera Farmiga and oh hey Tom Noonan who makes a brief return from career obscurity (or is it oblivion at this stage) to play that wacky supplier of safe-bustin materials His career should be resurrected if only briefly Ok well the characters are great and its the actors who bring the characters to life so they deserved acolades for that but the biggest accolade has to be for writer director O'Connell who made a heist film that's really a character film and how many films can we say that about.I honestly will keep an eyeout for his next film. (I hope that Abel Ferrar is taking notes after The New Rose Hotel although The king of NY is awesome and The Funeral is terrific too but still I'm digressing again) Its low key charm was nothing short of brillant and its running time well who needs running time was without a doubt just right. While not like a fast movie the movie moves pretty swiftly as it reaches its ending without any real lull in the procedings Ok while the movie isnt perfect (i did find myself wishing that walken would just get to deliver a line in signature style which he does very quickly (you know the whole theatric gestural thing that i love)and he does have some good lines that he gets to deliver deadpan while remainning perfectly in character. ("i'm beginning to think there's something wrong with you." is just such an example) )So in Summary as you can tell I am a huge Christopher Walken fan and even with some of the dreck he's been in--he's always entertaining and this film I can say with the utmost confidence is not dreck and if you're in the right mood-- really enjoyable. So Thank You Mr. O' Connell for writing a good script for the greatest actor in the universe!!!!