80
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
The ultimate caper, a work of brazen ebullience.
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50
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
The result is yet another remake that should send viewers scurrying to video stores for the original.
60
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
In the end, what started off as playful becomes tedious.
80
Indeed, The Good Thief is a fairy tale, not just in the plotted fun of the heist and counterheist, or in the clever twist thrown in at the end, but in the grandiloquent myth, so passionately espoused by Melville, of the crook as a man of honor and elegance.
40
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
Of the original and the remake, only one film feels authentic, and it's not The Good Thief.
25
Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman
It's as French as a half-smoked Gauloise and, like a half-smoked Gauloise, it stinks.
70
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Propelled by a soundtrack as diverse as its international gallery of thieves, Jordan's cheerfully scruffy neo-noir caprice even lays on the religious imagery with a palette knife and sweetens Melville's ending without seeming terminally sappy.
40
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
His movie (Jordan's) winnows the original's existentialist fable into a busy caper thriller, copping plot devices from Soderbergh's "Ocean's 11" and even straining to Wong Kar-wai its camera's way around the fleshpots of Nice. It's all pizzazz, and the pizzazz is all borrowed.
88
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
There's a zest and brilliance in Neil Jordan's racy heist thriller The Good Thief that makes it almost intoxicating to watch.
75
For a movie that earns its R-rating for drug content and violence atop language and sexuality, it leaves you with the next thing to a mellow smile.