Confidence (2003)
Written by Doug Jung / Directed by James Foley
Starring Edward Burns, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Luis Guzman and Paul Giamatti
97 mins / Lions Gate / Rated R
Retail: $26.99 / Street: $20

by Alex Mestas 9/21/2003
More info: Confidence
DVD Cover
The Cover
Jake Vig (Edward Burns) is a con man who's always at the top of his game. Along with his his crazy and talented crew, they scam other scumbags and make tons of money. That is until they scam the wrong guy and one of their team ends up dead. Soon they are forced to work for "The King" (Dustin Hoffman), a creepy thief / con-man who is amazingly creepy and overtly sexual at every turn. James Foley takes a similar approach in Confidence as he did in Glenngarry Glenn Ross, in which a bunch of men stand around, speak rudely and yell at each other. Not only that, but there's a whole lot of but there's a whole lot of back-stabbing.

Confidence can easily be described as the cinematic cousin to Ocean's Eleven. We're aware of the plan and how it's supposed to go down, but in order to keep it interesting and exciting to the audience, there's a few things that are left unsaid, so that later we may revel in the enjoyments of plot. And like that movie, the cast here oozes cool. It's not like you have super stars here or anything, but just a bunch of great actors who all do their thing well as part of the ensemble.

Perhaps we don't feel as much for these characters as we should. We know that they're never in much danger. Nor do we get to see them at their most vulnerable. We only watch them scamming and winking and otherwise acting like huge bastards. Not exactly the thing to make you care about the characters.

Nonetheless, it's a fun ride and that's all it should be considered. You won't discover a cinematic gem here, but you'll enjoy yourself and smile at all the cool actors that you see on the screen.

Movie Grade: B+

Video: 4 out of 5
Clean, with strong primary lighting that really gives the film a stage look.
Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1


For once, I wish I was Dustin Hoffman.

Audio: 3 out of 5
A dialogue heavy flick with lots of cool music cues.
English (Dolby 5.1)

Extras: 4 out of 5
The always good "Sundance: Anatomy of a Scene" is here and manages to pack more in 30 minutes than most documentaries do in an hour. Other than that, there's some deleted scenes and trailers. Hidden away in the setup of the disc are 3 commentaries. Each one is pretty active. James Foley, the director, speaks to his craft, the writer to his and Rachel Weisz and Ed Burns both cover their angles. Hoffman even shows up occasionally, recorded seperately. It's a nice thing that not all the commentaries cross over into boring, cover the same territory, thing. Rachel Weisz is particularly lovely to listen to (and look at, in case you haven't noticed.)

Overall: 3.5 out of 5
It's definitely worth a rental, if you like Ocean's Eleven and heist pictures. Buy it if you like it, and how could you not with such a cool cast?

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