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)

Yesterday I wouldn't have believed myself to go to the cinema to see a film with the label comedy/crime/romance/drama and today I feel like going to see it again, because I haven't seen a more entertaining film since Kingsman this year. Incredibly funny, entertaining, well acted, very cleverly written and damn stylish. The whole thing is one big con that fucks with everyone in the film as well as the viewer and it works out great. The whole organization works more than successfully, Will Smith gives the ultimate performance, I don't remember him in this form, and the final twist is one of the best I've ever had the chance to see. It's an adrenaline rush that you instantly fall in love with and love the film immediately. You won't find a more beautiful and entertaining film involving thievery, pickpocketing and fraud. A gem. 100%. (08.03.2015)

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)

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)

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)