Product Description

A phobic con artist and his protege are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the con artist's teenage daughter arrives unexpectedlyRunning Time: 116 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085392467723 Manufacturer No: 24677

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25276 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2004-02-24
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 116 minutes

Amazon.com
Marking a welcome return to the breezy style of Thelma & Louise, Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men reminds us that the director of Gladiator is equally adept with quirky comedies and offbeat characters. Smoothly adapted from the novel by Eric Garcia and set amidst the sunlit, 1950s-style architecture of L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, this gently dramatic comedy centers on Roy (Nicolas Cage), a divorcée whose career as a con artist is complicated by: (1) his ongoing struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder, which manifests itself through various quirks and rituals; (2) a wily partner (Sam Rockwell) whose criminal ambitions are greater than Roy suspects; and (3) the arrival of 14-year-old Angela (Alison Lohman), claiming to be the daughter he's never known. Turns out she's got a knack for dad's profession, and that turns Matchstick Men into a multilayered comedy with unexpected twists and surprising revelations. To say more would spoil the fun; suffice it to say that Hans Zimmer's playful score and a Sinatra-laced soundtrack are perfect complements to Cage's engaging eccentricities. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
Future filmmakers (and probably some current ones) could learn a lot from the 72-minute "Tricks of the Trade," which follows director Ridley Scott from pre-production through test screenings. The viewer is a fly on the wall as Scott partakes in location meetings, costume fittings, music-scoring sessions, and the like; everyone is as at ease as the director with a camera crew follows their every move. "Tricks" has all the usual DVD extras--interview segments, deleted scenes, ego-massaging--but documentary filmmaker Charles de Lauzirika is so smart in incorporating these elements, his final result is one of most deft--and most entertaining--DVD extras in the format's young history. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker
Nicolas Cage plays a man called Roy, who is both a head case-paranoid, agoraphobic, eaten up by nervous tics-and a smooth professional con artist. How these two sides mesh is never made clear; the director, Ridley Scott, is perhaps too busy making beautiful patterns out of Southern Californian sunlight to notice that his hero doesn't add up. Roy and his partner Frank (Sam Rockwell) rip off the unsuspecting, and the entire movie depends on the extent to which they may or may not choose to practice their skills on each other. The scams feel small, however, beside the big news in Roy's life-the reappearance of his daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman), fourteen years old and as tolerantly disposed toward the world as her father is petrified by it. The film, in fact, belongs to Lohman, who is so easy and unaffected that she makes the surrounding players look like freaks. Scott, normally so adept at leaping from one genre to the next, seems torn between the suspense of the con and the gentler demands of a parental love story; Lohman alone is bold enough not to notice the difference.-A.L. (9/22/03) -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

A Must See
As one of the best actors of our time Nicolas Cage may have increased his already huge star power with his performance as Roy the "Con Artist" in Matchstick Men. As a divorced con man who left his pregnant wife, Cage gives an unbelievably believable peformance of a struggling soul with a guilty conscience. Facial tics, stuttering, and strange noises when expressing himself through words are executed with frightening realism by Cage as someone tormented by an obsessive compulsive disorder. Playing Roy's foil and partner in crime is Frank played by Sam Rockwell, who turns in a great, if not equal performance. Roy's penchant for cleanliness is challenged by Frank's slovenly behavior and shoot from the hip attitude. This relationship works well as Frank portrays the rough around the edges protege of Roy the mentor. Angela(Allyson Lohman) is Roy's 14-yr. old daughter that he has never known. Until now. In the middle of the biggest score of Roy's life, Angela shows up and begins to pull Roy out of the funk that began 14 years ago. Connecting on a criminal level, son and daughter forge a common bond that is engaging and enjoyable to watch. Cage's obsessive compulsive behavior seems to lessen each time he shares a pizza with Lohman. These characters are truly flawed and represent the human condition in all of its tragic imperfections perfectly. In the end we all may have do something emotionally upsetting to make ends meet in a world revolving around money. With equal amounts of comedy, drama, and suspense; Matchstick Men is a movie that truly has purpose. Discovering the purpose makes for one of the best surprise endings , as well as movies, of the year.

It's nice to see that Nicolas Cage & Ridley Scott can still make a good film
"Matchstick Men" may not have been a box office success (compare it to the total gross of "National Treasure" [Cage's next film] and "Kingdom of Heaven" [Scott's next film]), but it certainly is one of the better-crafted & better-acted films to be associated with either of these men. I was beginning to wonder if Cage could ever repeat a performance like what he did in "Leaving Las Vegas." While his obsessive-compulsive con-man may not be the disaster along the lines of a suicidal alcoholic, he comes close with the impact he makes on the viewer. This could easily have veered into caricature, but Cage creates a creditable & believable obsessive-compulsive.

Perhaps this could be classified as a comedy, but it has an awfully bittersweet quality to it which makes the movie difficult to categorize with any ease. The characters of Roy & Angela (a very very good performance by Alison Lohman, who is entirely believable as a 14-year-old) are real enough to cause the viewer to have a vested interest in their ultimate fate, as the movie takes numerous twists & turns.

Ridley Scott did quite a good job at crafting a movie that avoids being too obvious, and which flows along nicely, maintaining viewer interest throughout. This was a very satisfying film, through & through...I wish these two guys could make more like this.

Gage is a master
Ok, Nicolas Cage is a wonderful actor with tremendous talent, and this flick certainly bares this out. So I have to ask, why in the world does he take some of the dumb roles he does? But I digress. This is a great movie and very well acted.
While the "con" type movie is done over and over, this movie really isn't so much about action and pulling off a con, like say "The Italian Job" a fun movie in it's own right, but rather a movie about a person with a mental disorder that works as a con for a living and isn't really connected to the human race. Enter a girl. It's always a girl, isn't it?
I won't give away any surprises here, but I will say I didn't predict the ending to the movie and was very entertained by the whole thing.
A strong recommendation and probably not a bad one to own, although since it's not really an action flick it'll probably be some time before I'd be excited about seeing it over.