Gambit: Arnaque à l'anglaise

Colin Firth obviously wanted a less taxing role after stammering as King George VI. In this remake of a Sixties Michael Caine comic 'caper' he plays a disgruntled art dealer who decides to trick his unpleasant billionaire boss into buying a fake Monet. Shirley MacLaine's Hong Kong dancer roped in as co-conspirator and candy-floss in the 1966 version has became a Texas rodeo queen - Cameron Diaz doing her best with a one-dimensional part.

Alan Rickman does an appropriately pantomime turn as the monstrously egotistical tycoon and gets some of the movie's most embarrassing scenes, but he seems to be having fun. Colin Firth makes a visible effort to enjoy losing his pants on a ledge outside the Savoy Hotel, but the role would have perhaps been easier for Hugh Grant. Stanley Tucci plays a German art expert who may (or may not) be inspired by Albert Schweitzer. The London scenes are livelier than the scenes at Rickman's Downtonesque country house, though a farting dowager moment targets a younger audience than this is likely to pull in.

This piece of fluff comes from the Coen brothers who usually apply themselves to something zanier and zingier. If they wanted to revamp a comedy heist movie, why didn't they take on Peter Ustinov's all-star Istanbul romp TOPKAPI (1964) or, if they wanted to keep the budget down, Warren Beatty's KALEIDOSCOPE, also from 1966, which had more pace and plot than the original GAMBIT but not such deft performances? It's really only the actors who raise this year's GAMBIT from being potentially dire into something that is merely mediocre.

Art heist comedy.

An art curator (Colin Firth) in London devises a way to rob his wealthy art collector boss (Alan Rickman) with the help of a rodeo champion from Texas (Cameron Diaz).

It's a remake of an old Michael Caine film I remember really liking because you see the heist plan smoothly imagined and then you get the somewhat different reality. In this version the imagined plan is brief and sadly does not firm a key component of the movie.

Overall, the film is just okay, mildly amusing with a mediocre plot, but not that memorable. Rickman and Firth are entertaining though.

I'm not sure why it got so many low ratings. It's one of those movies I've passed over many times, despite my love for Colin Firth, because reviews were so low. Finally, Redbox sold out of anything better, I gave it a try and now I'm so glad I did.

If you're looking for Oceans 11 or The Italian Job type intricacies in the plot, it isn't going to happen. However, it's still cute and interesting with enough of a twist to be worth it. Where this show really shines is in the hilarious writing - the insults and comments are really really funny - and in the acting abilities of Colin Firth and Alan Rickman. Both do tremendous jobs. Colin Firth can take impossibly stupid situations, the kind Steve Martin and Ben Stiller do, situations almost painful in how absurd and moronic they are, and yet he makes them hilarious. A guy on a hotel ledge several stories up, no pants, is old old old, but Colin Firth makes it remarkably entertaining, as if this is the first time you've ever seen that scenario in a movie. Alan Rickman plays a SOB like no one else and he's the total jerk you love anyway (think his Sheriff of Nottingham role) because he's just so good at it and his muttered comments and blatant insults keep you busting out in laughs. I got to the point I was jotting down some of the lines in the show, and thinking I may need to go back to the beginning to write down others, because they're absurd, clever, and all-together brilliant.

If you need lots of intricate plot twists and details - maybe not for you. If you enjoy understated yet remarkably hilarious verbal humor, witty comeback, diverting insult and repartee, ridiculous colloquialisms and a few side-splitting guffaws, this is the show for you.

You know that relaxing movie that you wanna play sometimes, but you're ashamed to, you know what I mean... That mix of comedy, somewhat intelligent humor and a good cast to top it all off, but not too romantic, modern or lame... Well, these are the gambits you are looking for (actually gambit, but then I couldn't make that Star Wars reference showing you that, I too, have watched the trilogy at some point (oh wait, is that another remark about Star Wars, now showing that I don't acknowledge the last three parts(oh snap, we got some Inception stuff right here...))). Anywhoo, Gambit is a cleverly written light comedy with an excellent cast, each character seems to be specifically written for that actor, although this movie could have been starring a completely different cast: Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock, and Ben Kingsley.

Lionel Shahbandar, a media mogul and a lord has one more title to his name, a horrible boss. Especially to his curator Harry Deane (Colin Firth, long live the king) who looks after his art collection, a simple fellow with good manners and a big heart, but really depressed because of the fact he has to be humiliated on a daily basis by his pompous boss. Harry and his good friend Major, devise a plan to stick it to the man, well in this case, Lord Shahbandar, magnificently played by the almighty Alan Rickman. This complicated and yet simple scheme involves a third person that could not be farther from the business and art world, miss PJ Puznowski (Cameron Diaz). PJ is a country girl from Texas, that enjoy cattle rustling and plucking chickens, so a plan that will make her rich very quickly sounds very good to her. But, as in all good plans, things don't go quite well as you would expect them to...

Written by the Coen brothers who brought you many legendary movies, Gambit is good for one watching and perhaps a second, when you accidentally catch it on cable. Still, I liked how the romance was shifted out of the focus, and the clumsiness of our dear fellow Harry brought into the spotlight. In the scenes which take place in a hotel, he reminded me very much of a timeless performance by Peter Sellers in the movie The Party (1968). Other than that, I think that this sums up my thoughts about this movie, enjoy...

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This film is about an art curator who decides to seek revenge on his horrible boss by tricking him to buy a fake Monet painting.

"Gambit" is a delightful lighthearted comedy about a heist that deviates from the plan. The original plan that Harry had was displayed in the beginning ten minutes of the film, then the rest of the run time is about how things do not go according to plan. Actually everything goes wrong and the situation becomes so hilarious. Colin Firth is great as a frustrated and disgruntled art curator, while Cameron Diaz is charming with her distinctive accent. She makes her character so interesting, her mischievous simplicity is a sharp contrast to how she gets things done in a well controlled manner. The ending twists are well executed, making it a truly Coen script. I find "Gambit" funny and entertaining.