tomsview I love this smartly made caper movie. In fact, I think it is one of the best of its kind, and it has a clever ending.Caper films are sometimes pitched too lightly, more comedy than caper, or have too heavy a back-story, but "The Score" gets the balance just right. Although we have seen many of the elements before, they are put together here in a way that seems quite fresh.Veteran safecracker, Nick Wells (Robert DeNiro), agrees to do one last job for his long-time associate and fence, Max (Marlon Brando). The job involves a complex robbery as well as the need to partner up with Jack Teller (Ed Norton), a young hotshot who Nick doesn't totally trust. However, the job is worth millions and it's a chance to retire and head off with Diane (Angela Bassett), his air hostess girlfriend. The movie winds up with a great robbery sequence and a few unexpected developments.Ed Norton holds his own against the two ex-Don Coleones, but Marlon Brando steals the picture. Although he is in only a few scenes, his fat, stressed out old fence is unlike any other character he ever played.Frank Oz has made some impressive movies including a couple of brilliant comedies - who can never forget Michael Caine's run-up with the cane to test the feeling in Steve Martin's legs in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels".The Score has a sharp script and some amusing dialogue, especially in the character of Steven (Jamie Harrold), Nick's geeky computer expert. Steven has an interesting relationship with his mother. When she asks from the kitchen if he wants some lunch, he screams back affectionately, "I'm on the phone bitch!" The score of "The Score" is by Howard Shore. You have to be impressed by this guy's range, which goes from dark scores for "Seven" and "The Game", intimate and atmospheric ones for "A Dangerous Mind" and "Hugo" to soaring orchestral opuses for "The Lord of the Rings". Twenty years before, somebody like Lalo Schifrin would probably have done the score for this film, and Shore has given it a certain Schiffrin-esque quality with propulsive, jazz influenced themes.The Montreal setting also gives the film a point of difference, but by and large, it's the straightforward telling of the tale plus a crisp script and editing that amps up the pace and tension.

nukfan I can't help but feel that this movie would be far less interesting if not for the intriguing trio of Robert De Niro, Edward Norton and Marlon Brando. It doesn't even have a lot to do with their acting, which is solid from each. De Niro is a more cautious version of his cool, professional persona, Brando is enjoying himself as an easygoing late-career mobster, and Norton handles a character whose quirk involves acting as a mentally challenged individual skillfully, managing to be completely inoffensive and uncannily convincing when the plot calls for it.The conclusion of the film unfolds swiftly, especially when compared to the film's two hour length (I felt that, with respect to the small number of characters and the focused nature of the plot, this could have been reduced to 100, maybe even 90 minutes). Norton's character, impressive due to his skills despite being "inexperienced", is perhaps slighted by the screenplay at the end, but I'll leave that up to you.The main characters are fairly well written. This, combined with the faces that we see speaking these lines, make the film interesting, despite being a little long and lacklustre in the suspense department.

bowmanblue The Score is about a hardened thief (DeNiro) who gets cajoled into doing 'one last job' by an up-and-coming criminal (Norton). That's about that. The plot isn't anything to sing about, but we watch it anyway because of the impressive casting (not to mention Marlon Brando as a mob boss).I found much of the first half pretty dull. It's all 'scene setting' and I was getting pretty bored. However, it all picks up the pace when they finally get round to pulling off the heist. The second half of the film is much better than the first. I know many people will say that the film needed the first half in order to build up character and get to know them, but, personally, I found that you could probably start watching the film about an hour in and still get everything out of it.The second half of the film makes it all worth watching. There's plenty of hiccups along the way of the heist and it definitely isn't all plain-sailing.If you enjoy the whole film - fair enough, but if (like me) you were tempted to turn it off, my advice is: don't - it definitely gets better!

SnoopyStyle Nick Wells (Robert De Niro) is a safe cracker living in Montreal. He's almost caught in the last caper and now his fence Max (Marlon Brando) tells him that the buyer is dead. Instead Max has a possible $40M job at the Montreal Customs House. Nick never does a job in country and he wonders if he should retire. Nick's girlfriend Diane (Angela Bassett) is a flight attendant. Jack Teller (Edward Norton) is the inside man. He's been pretending to be a mentally challenged janitor for 3 weeks. He surprises Nick on the street and Nick's not amused.The movie has 3 great actors and they should be able to chew up the scenes. However this is not very intense. That's deadly for a thriller. I can't pinpoint the exact problem other than a lack of tension. It could be the editing, or the lackluster music. I have to blame most of it on director Frank Oz. This is not his genre. He doesn't do action thrillers unless there are puppets involved. This movie could have worked 20 years ago but this genre should have more excitement.