ThiefHott Too much of everything

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Uriah43 The United States is in an oil crunch. So when the banking firm that "Tom Hanson" (Christian Slater) works for gets an opportunity to make a deal with an oil firm that might have the inside track on some foreign oil, the firm is only too happy to jump at the chance. But there are risks involved and Tom doesn't know the oil business that well. Add insider politics, the Russian mafia along with corporate greed and you have the basics of this movie. As usual, Christian Slater performs quite well. So too does Selma Blair as his environmentalist girlfriend, "Abbey Gallagher". Unfortunately, I didn't care too much for the performance of Angie Harmon as the mysterious "Anna" mostly because her Russian accent seemed too artificial. One minute she's speaking in perfect English and the next her accent is off the charts. Likewise, I thought the ending was too quick and convenient. But in any case, I still enjoyed the movie and believe it's worth a look for those who like films of this nature.

bobbobwhite Poorly done TV-grade story about two very important global issues, one manipulated by Wall Street scoundrels for criminal gain(really?), and the other was nearly overlooked in this rambling and disjointed story that was lowered to moronic and absurd due to poor storytelling and editing, and some really terrible acting by Angie Harmon. Selma Blair was not much better, but Harmon was over the top obvious as a Russian mafia operative, and made her part a leering, grinning joke in a story that should hinge on personal control, secrecy, duplicity and treachery. In her role as the main squeeze of Christian Slater's Wall Street mover and shaker, Blair was allowed facial expressions and body language of a high school freshman girl in a role of a grown woman. Nobody noticed that a bit more shown maturity might be better for her professional role, on Wall Street? Hello! The interesting and compelling part of this type of story should be its devious mystery, secrecy and who-done-it quality, and not in exposing every aspect of "the deal" to the viewer as it unfolded. What a totally dumb film made for dummies and an insult to the talented male lead Christian Slater, who made a big mistake taking a role in this TV level junk. He did well, but was overwhelmed by others' poor acting, and bad casting and overall filmmaking. Only thing good about it was the really ominous and sinister soundtrack. Very effective, so something actually was done right.But, showing again a lack of creativity, the film's title "The Deal" has been used as a film title about a million times before, thus is another perfect example of this filmmaker's total lack of knowing and using just about anything that would make a good movie. A lot of money was lost on this dog that cost way more than it made. And, if he didn't gain any satisfaction from it, and I am sure he didn't in this loser, at least Slater got paid for his good work. He was the only one who deserved it.

davemed I was afraid that it was going to be bad when the "maguffin" as Hitchcock called it was tacitly revealed as an oil company executive was having a conscience attack over something...and it was not a science fiction film! I couldn't say for sure if the problem was the lack of a real story or the misdirection of an outstanding cast, but this movie is slow, muddled and doesn't deliver at the end of the film. Christian Slater and Selm Blair are two of my favorites and it really is painful to watch them trying to give this doa project a bit of life. When I say that this is "Much Worse Than Awful", I mean it! Talent and budget can't go anywhere without a real story. Stay away from this one.

Travis M. Nelson Slater stars in and co-executive produces this film, which means they got to use both his likeness and his money to try to help this film succeed, and it still flops. The movie is second-rate (or worse) in virtually every respect. With the exceptions of some of the names in the credits, this movie has almost no redeeming qualities, and of course the credits occur right at the beginning of the movie, so it's all down hill from there.Loggia's a solid character actor, and Slater's decent playing the same character he always plays. Even though he's 36 now, he looks like he should be drinking a Shirley Temple during the bar scenes. Blair is a stone, and an anorexic-looking, awkward stone at that. She has no talent that I can detect, with a delivery that has all the depth and warmth of a petri dish. Think Keanu Reeves, only less attractive and with boobs. Very small boobs. She's also 32, not young enough to play the recent Harvard grad she's supposed to be. Angie Harmon is gorgeous, but unimpressive as an actor, and no one else in the movie gives any sort of memorable performance.Blair's character's romance with Slater's is completely unbelievable, as there's no chemistry between them, so the audience is left thinking "What did I miss?" when the two of them suddenly start kissing for no apparent reason. Evidently the romantic music playing on the soundtrack while they sat in meetings with clients was supposed to demonstrate the build-up of their amorous feelings. It didn't.The plot is the one thing this movie should have going for it, given the current state of gas prices and the war in Iraq, but it's such an obvious parallel and so close to home that it's too easy to dismiss, thereby undermining the entire premise of the film. Not that the poor writing, poor direction and poor acting do much to revive it, but this Deal should have died on the table.