John Woo's Die Unfassbaren

Once a Thief focuses on the lives of three people, each with his/her own deep background, that unwillingly become secret agents and pawns of an almost maniacal woman - the director of a shaddowy government agency.

The movie is, in short, a work of art.

Both elements of seriousness and humor are portrayed seamlessly and stylishly. Each episode is an independent part of a large collection that, when complete, is a master piece.

The movie is slow, and the writing, acting, and even directing are lame.

I fast-forwarded through most of the DVD. The only cool part is the "twisted leather freak." She's a babe!!

A sad case of a series being created to cash in on a name. John Woo had very little to do with "John Woo's Once A Thief"; he certainly didn't direct any of the episodes. Consequently, the action sequences one might expect from a John Woo project were lacking -- which is actually no surprise considering the constraints of a television shooting schedule. However, it was the writing of the show that was the real villain. Viewers got treated to the worst features of lowbrow action flicks (shallow characters, absurd dialogue, implausible situations, leaden pacing), and none of the compensatory strengths (a sense of humour about it all).

Towards the end of the series, the writing got a little better, and a couple of episodes were almost passably entertaining in a campy sort of way. But it was too little, too late, and the series mercifully came to an end after 22 episodes.

This series didn't have even three original episodes. Everything was taken from something else, which explains in part why it failed so badly. Putting John Woo's name on the show didn't help -- especially when anyone who knew his style could tell he had nothing to do with it.

Canadian series' are typically low-budget, low-viewership dives, but "John Woo's Once a Thief" had potential. The two starring cast members, Ivan Sergei and Sandrine Holt, are both semi-talented individuals with a history of stealing the screen. Unfortunately, the non-existent plots and ridiculous story lines and dialogue helped kill this series pretty early. Supporting actors Nicholas Lea and Jennifer Dale both deserved better than filler time, and supporting cast member Vicky Pratt certainly deserved a spot in the opening credits, since her character was not only more interesting than BOTH the stars, she, unlike Lea and Dale, was given a storyline.

Anyone thinking of starting a series in Canada should take note of OAT's ending. This show was so low-rated, it barely finished the year intact. Only a few fervent Nicholas Lea fans (which is precisely why they hired him for the show), who followed him from FOX's soap "The X Files", managed to keep this show on the air long enough to finish the season.

John Woo's Once a Thief is one of the most interesting television which I have the pleasure of watching again and again. With a thick La Femme Nikita-like story-line and John Woo's unparalleled action scenes, Once a Thief is an action-comedy you do not want to miss.