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Confidence
(Reviewed February 28, 2003)
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Look, forgive me, maybe it's just a personal thing, but I simply can't stand Ed Burns. The guy makes my skin crawl. He comes off like such a pompous, insufferable, full-of-himself prick that I can't believe he keeps playing roles that require charm and likability.
In "Confidence," he proves to be equally as lousy at conveying edgy menace...mainly because a guy in his character's line of work (con man) also would require, you guessed it, a certain amount of charm and likability.
How Dustin Hoffman got roped into this bomb is a mystery for the ages. We are supposed to believe that Hoffman is the baddest of the bad, a beyond-psycho underworld figure on the level of Monty Python's Doug Piranha. ("Everyone was terrified of Doug. I've seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Doug.") When Burns and his band of hoods discover they have ended up with some of Hoffman's dough after conning the wrong guy, Burns tries to make amends by going to Hoffman's den of ill repute...where Hoffman turns out to be more of a flakey weasel than a Piranha, which fatally hamstrings the entire plot. Simply put, he just isn't scary.
We also are expected to believe that Hoffman's top-of-the-food-chain character is stupid enough to advance Burns DOUBLE the amount that Burns owes him, to set up a con job that Burns says will net them an even bigger pile. Oh, yeah. I can totally see an underworld boss being that gullible.
Worst of all, the movie's final "surprise" twist is one that any idiot could see coming from from down the block. Hell, make that from across town.
The real people getting conned by this movie are the ones unfortunate enough to shell out for tickets.
Back Row Grade: F
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