Ordinary Decent Criminal

2000 "Stealing Is The Best Revenge"
6.3| 1h33m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 07 January 2000 Released
Producted By: Miramax
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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Michael Lynch is a notorious criminal with two wives and a flair for showmanship. He's also a huge embarrassment to the local police, who are determined to bring him down once and for all.

Genre

Comedy, Thriller

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Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000) is currently not available on any services.

Director

Thaddeus O'Sullivan

Production Companies

Miramax

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Ordinary Decent Criminal Audience Reviews

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews
Beanbioca As Good As It Gets
Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic
Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
jason_13 Kevin Spacey is without a doubt one of the best actors of the 90s. After his performances in The Usual Suspect, Se7en and American Beauty, you expect more and more from him. That is why Ordinary Decent Criminal is a huge disappointment.Michael Lynch is the most artful criminal in Dublin who is never in a bad mood. His next heist becomes an obsession when his partners start questioning Michael's ability to plan everything perfectly, although this is the only thing he does when he isn't playing good father at home.I guess, it's partly my fault for not paying enough attention to the thousand plot details which sadly turn out to be the "essence" of the film. I gave the movie a chance by calling it a parody and.... well, parodies are always funny, no matter what they spoof or how they do it. So, it wasn't after all a complete parody on purpose. It's just a different con movie that desperately tries to be funny and fails.Unlike some of his "colleagues", Ordinary Decent Criminal depends too much on story development and logical continuity, forgetting what's the main reason, the viewer has picked this kind of movie - to be entertained. This is definitely not entertainment. It includes one of the most ridiculous scenes ever - the introduction of Michael's TWO wives. I don't know whether it's some kind of a mindless metaphor or strange, dark humor, but the chicks are sisters. Remember, Spacey's character has kids.Ordinary Decent Criminal is complex and confusing. You are not waiting for a funny scene. Instead, you carefully follow the dialog, because there is a big possibility of losing yourself into the boring, pale universe, the film has inhabited.Let's go back to Spacey. I wonder in what condition he has been, signing for that movie. It's not miscasting, but something much worse. An insult to his work in American Beauty, released an year before Ordinary Decent Criminal. The character Michael is eccentric and talkative. Spacey is almost pathetic at times. The only cure for this, is thinking of Lester Burnham and Roger Kint.Writer, Gerrard Stembridge should definitely re-consider his screen writing abilities and be more objective this time. Because, the dialog is very weak and the scenes are often pointless. And we are still talking about a comedy.Ordinary Decent Criminal is a really bad crime comedy which does not deserve your attention.
Kristine Kevin Spacey is my favorite actor of all time, he is without a doubt on other's lists as well when it comes to great actors. He even pulled off a good Irish accent in Ordinary Decent Criminal as well. But Kevin Spacey, as a Mafia leader? Or even a burglar? I'm not so sure he could go that far. The movie to me just didn't make any sense and the some of the story just didn't feel solved to me.I know once again that IMDb is going to make me write ten more lines. But I'm not so sure on what I could say about this movie because I am still trying to figure it out. Silly, isn't it? But I'm pretty sure that more than a few of you IMDb users have been in the same predicament as I am in right now where you just want to say a line or two about a movie, but now you have to do ten lines? Wow, that should do it. :D 3/10
Philip Van der Veken After seeing "Ordinary Decent Criminal" I'm starting to wonder if there are still other genres of movies being made in the UK. Since their success with movies like "Snatch", "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels" and of course the best one of them all "Trainspotting", I'm getting the feeling that almost all movies coming from the UK are about criminals. I guess I can only name a couple of movies in which the emphasis lies on another subject. However, that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy them of course. Certainly when you get a nice example like this one, I must say that I keep having fun with it.Dublin's most notorious criminal, Michael Lynch, has become a hero to the working class inhabitants of the city, but is hated by the entire police force because they can't catch him. When he isn't playing the loving husband of a happy family with his children and his two wives, the two sisters Christine and Lisa, he is busy plotting a new heist. But the loot isn't the only thing that interests him, he wants to give away a nice spectacle as well. Gradually a showdown between his gang and the police force is getting inevitable...What I like about this kind of movies is the typical good robber / bad cop situation. We are supposed to hate criminals and to like the men in blue, but in this kind of movies, you can only support the criminals in their acts and hope that they never get caught. That's of course thanks to the humor that is used. If it hadn't been for all the laughs that they provide, you wouldn't like them all that much. But that's not the only reason why I like this movie. What's also good about it is that the acting is more than OK. I know that many people have pointed out that they hated Kevin Spacey's and Linda Fiorentino's accents, but personally I didn't have too much problems with it. For once I was able to see past that and enjoyed both actors' performances. In my opinion Fiorentino even deserved a bigger role.Is this a perfect movie then? No, certainly not. The story for instance has been done before, I would say a couple of times at least, and all originality has gone. But again, I could see past it. This movie offered me plenty of laughs, I was entertained from the beginning until the end and I liked what I saw. I give this movie a rating of 7.5/10.
tomimt Who doesn't like witty, lovable criminals, who out wit every copper and other rival criminals in a heartbeat? That's a crime movie genre, which actually appeals to me: smart dialogs, funny action and so on.So, in "Ordinary Decent Criminal" we have one of the greatest living actors, Kevin Spacey, who is playing Irish mobster named Michael Lynch, and he's just such a fellow I described. There's also Colin Farrell in a small role as one of the thugs in Michael's gang. Actually rather good acting all around from all of the actors and that's the only reason this movie stays afloat, because the script is not that funny as it tries to be.Sure, it has couple of good laughs in it, but most of the jokes feel little forced.Direction is pretty decent, not worst thing ever directed, but certainly not the greatest crime movie either.Good for couple of laughs.