george.schmidt THE OPPORTUNISTS (2000) ** Christopher Walken, Peter McDonald, Cyndi Lauper, Vera Farmiga, Donal Logue, JoseZuniga, Tom Noonan, Anne Pitoniak. Walken gives another of hispatented sublime performances in this somewhat stilted andstandard `last heist' crime drama as a ne'er do well automechanic in Queens lured back into the fray by a self-proclaimeddistant relative (McDonald, who has no screen presencewhatsoever) from Ireland. Lauper acquits herself as Walken'slong-suffering girlfriend. (Dir: Myles Connell)

The Amazing Sharkboy I think the writer/director's aim was to make a simple crime story (on a low budget) that had a very credible and believable feel - presenting characters that seem to come from any local neighborhood. At this the movie succeeds. The scenes and dialogue are carefully crafted and the film as a whole is very well cast and acted. I liked Walken's understated performance. It's consistent with the other actors. Also, it seems more natural and devoid of the self-acknowledging flippancy found in some of his other work. The movie is low-key, and one can probably see the end coming. Yet someone looking for a caper film without contrived suspense or melodrama - and a little bit of a character study - will find this rewarding.

TxMike Christopher Walken and his girlfriend played by Cindi lauper are both New Yorkers so I'm certain they both felt right at home in their roles. Many who like fast action, snappy dialog types of films will be bored with this one. However, for those like me who enjoy a great, well-developed character study carried out in about 88 minutes, this is worth a viewing.Walken plays a safe-cracker who has served his time and trying to go straight, working as a mechanic, and paying for his old aunt to stay in a home run by nuns. Always on the verge of debt, the sale of his car is saboutaged by someone wanting to get him to do one more job, the safe at the armored car office. So, pressured from all sides, he agrees. In the safe, his halpess "helper", posing as a cousin from Ireland, gets Walken trapped and caught by the cops. He gets out of it when the business owner, who also runs an illegal laundering operation, fails to press charges. We see walken going back into Lauper's bar, presumably to live straight from then on.The story thus is sorta victimless. Although Walken and the others are helped by the one money bag that is successfully stolen by the Irish guy, then split up, it was money illegally gotten. We are, I suppose, to forgive Walken because he had no choice. The most interesting scene was where he was practicing "cracking" the 3 different safe combinations within 6 minutes to avoid setting off the alarm.The DVD is "budget" all the way - Dolby AC-3 sound, no menu, no extras. However, the sound and picture are not deficient, given the formats. Just a well-acted, low-budget film, and I enjoyed it.

overdone Sorry, but even Christopher Walken was unconvincing in this lazily written thing. I felt compelled to stay because it made me laugh for some odd reason, and not many movies in English come to Rome. During the intermission (a routine Italian thing), a man behind me said: Let's hope things get better for him. I replied: Let's hope things get better for US.Alas, they didn't, for us. I'll leave the plot alone.