Focus

I put Focus on at a very emotional time in my life, when I was feeling everything much more intensely and perhaps quite uncritically. Anyway, it's a perfectly ordinary movie, of which hundreds have been made in America, but I still have my heart in my eyes and I'll argue that this one is much more powerful and profound. In fact, things spark like thunder between the truly divinely beautiful Margot and Will, and I felt that even Romeo and Juliet's love couldn't match theirs. (02/11/2015)

A pleasant, genre hybrid with interesting twists and great actors. Smith was in desperate need for a come-back, and if it wasn’t for that (over the top) final twist, it would have worked. However, Margot Robbie confirms her abilities and comes across as a talented actress who has more to her than “just" the luck of catching Scorsese’s eye. A visual feast for the eyes. (21/06/2015)

The first half of the movie, before the whole plot moves three years forward, I quite enjoyed. But then it started to become unbelievably predictable, mainly due to the fact that Will Smith is in it and that it simply cannot experiment with the plot a little. Yes, it's not a typical feel-good movie, but still, his character is cliché, and with it the whole story, which is occasionally enticing, but other times it was painful for me, especially from a screenwriting perspective. (26/06/2015)

Focus started, offered something, and then bewitched me with the scene where Will Smith tricked a greedy gambling Vietnamese guy. During the scene, I literally stopped breathing, but afterward, it all went too hell because the movie became incredibly boring. Towards the end of the movie, it again scored some points with a more interesting scene and after that, it was already the end. Focus is like that. Overall, it was shit, but here and there it offers a cinematographic delicacy. Well, and whether it is worth watching, you have to judge that for yourselves. If you ask me, were it not for Will and Margot Robbie I wouldn’t even remember it a day after watching it. (01/06/2016)

Focus has one great advantage: it is entertaining and unpredictable in its heist plot twists. And it’s also visually beautiful. The costumes, set designs and everything else are glamorously polished to the finest detail. Will Smith and Margot Robbie are cool, the point of the American football scene is top notch. Only the climax loses credibility in its effort to conjure up the biggest and most surprising twist yet. Less would have been more. Despite that, I’m giving this film four stars because it was a pleasant surprise, a rare sight among Hollywood mainstream flicks with lower ambitions. (17/03/2015)