I usually dislike Will Smith in film but I really loved the trailer and I am excited to see more from Margot Robbie. Hoping this one is good.

focused

How focused on Margot Robbie's body?

not nearly enough

This was really good. Had a little Oceans 11 vibe. Not a super strong plot, but had some excellent set pieces. The "Big Game" in the suite will be one of my favorite scenes of 2015 at the end of the year, guaranteed. Margot Robbie is a smokeshow. Will Smith is awesome.

It's just a good time. And the ending is very well hidden.

But yeah. Margot. Smokeshow.

B+

b+, fun movie, very welcome return of Will Smith and Margot Robbie continues to shine as a growing star. wished there was some bigger twists or a more ambitious screenplay, but it handles its modest goals very well.

Logically and narratively, Focus would fall apart if you thought about it for more than a minute. But, as a romantic caper, it works. Will Smith and Margot Robbie share a sultry, easygoing chemistry. Smith is the best he's been in a while, but this film really belongs to the luminous Robbie. The Wolf of Wall Street made people sit up and take notice, and this film does nothing to dispel that notion: the camera loves her. B

A really, really solid first half... and a sort of lame second half. Overall I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would. If Robbie nails Harley Quinn she's gonna be huge. Also it's strange how uncreepy the relationship is, bu replace Smith with some other actor in his 40s and it'd be creepy.

I agree that the first half was much better than the second. The gambling scene early on was great and easily the best scene of the film, IMO. Will Smith and Margot Robbie are just great here and they have excellent, believable chemistry. Robbie is just sensational, I hope she becomes a household name. I still say she was robbed of an Oscar nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street. The movie was slight but entertaining. The performances elevated the material quite a bit. Enjoyable but ultimately forgettable.

B-

It also helps that Robbie absolutely doesn't look like she is 24. She looks around 30.

Worst ever is Julia Roberts (at 26) playing Nick Nolte's love interest.... at age 53.... in 1994's I Love Trouble. Absolutely terrible movie, highly disturbing due to the indisputable lack of Nick Nolte's sex appeal (and some awful writing). Highly recommend it.

[haven't seen Focus yet nor do I plan to, sorry for polluting the thread]

lol that movie is also infamous because Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte absolutely detested each other and made no secret about it.

It's breezily enjoyable, although the ending definitely loses some points for all-too-convenient plot twists that are foreshadowed so heavily and obviously elsewhere in the film that the "twist" isn't particularly shocking. Nevertheless, Will Smith gives his loosest, most laid-back performance in an entire decade, and Margot Robbie is consistently engaging as the love interest/fellow con. It doesn't have as much bite as the other films with which Requa and Ficarra have been involved, but it's solid enough to warrant a recommendation.

B

I had a lot of fun with this. The first half is especially good and that gambling scene with BD Wong's character is easily the highlight of the movie. The second half was ok too, but I think what really saves this movie is the believable chemistry between Smith/Robbie. They have some great back and forth scenes and honestly the age difference never bothered me. Also, I really liked the guy who played the no bullshit bodyguard.

I thought he gave a pretty strong performance for a supporting character at least until the very end and I almost wish he was the main antagonist of the movie instead of wimpy Rodrigo Santoro.

D

What a piece of crap.

Completely unlikeable from the off, more nonsensical romantic bullshit only men in Hollywood could come up with, unbelievable twists and a generally incoherent non-story.

I hope this really had a $100m budget because it's a really good thing this lost money. No points for the non-style that you can find on B-grade TV these days.

The kind of film that Hollywood should stop making.

And I disagree, Margot Robbie's wide eyed teenager impression after her first sexual escapade with Smith was creepy. Let's encourage more "You're a 30 year old woman? Too old for a 70 year old man" crap Hollywood still peddles.

This entire project deserves the trash.

Focus has it's fun, likable moments, but even it wasn't for the A-level cast it's just an attempt of a B-level movie. I cringe when they use events like the Superbowl and Formula 1, and just fake names and everything in it's representation. That takes the realism out of it straight away.
The film starts of well enough, it's kinda fun how Smith is this guy really good in what he does, and Margot Robbie does steal every scene with her hotness. But the movie goes nowhere, it just a following of scenes of who's cheating who, with a romantic subplot that doesn't catch on.
Smith was fine, but he has lost the on-screen charisma to win a viewer over. He's just whiny and annoying.

The score is good, and most set pieces are well done, but the lack of a compelling story and characters make it sizzle out quickly.

C

A light, yet fun little crime film. The Smith/Robbie chemistry really makes the film's lesser moments work.

The first half is fantastic. The second half, while nowhere near as good, is still enjoyable. The movie is so evenly split into two that you wonder if the script was originally intended to be the first two episodes of a TV show.

Smith is very good, but Robbie is the standout. She proves she wasn't just a one-trick pony hired for her amazing body. B.D. Wong also steals a key scene. I'd see a movie dealing with his craziness.

**** (A-)

A rather dull and vacant movie beyond the attractive, colorful, almost fetishistic photography of various locales (New Orleans, Buenos Aires). It just never springs to life beneath the surface gloss. The screenplay is too lethargic and precious for it to satisfy as a suspense caper. It transcends the question of predictability. I simply never cared who was playing whom, and a few of the twists are seriously, seriously corny and strained. And the stars have muted-to-nonexistent chemistry, so it also fails when it plays the Thomas Crown Affair-style can-love-overcome-deceit? card. Also, Will Smith seems a bit bored and uncomfortable throughout even though the film is clearly designed as a valentine to what a handsome, hip, soulful movie star's movie star he is.

C

Also, this is neither praise nor criticism, but almost everyone they steal from in the first half are just John Q. Publics trying to let loose at a bar or a sporting event and will realize shortly thereafter their credit card is gone, their identity is stolen, etc. Most Fun Crime Movies (the arguable classics of the genre such as the original Thomas Crown Affair or The Sting or the Ocean's trilogy) focus on protagonists targeting an even more nefarious figure. This movie says, "Ha ha, fat assholes should be honored people as sexy as Will and Margot stole their wallet."

The characters are actually just very unlikable, and that can work for a movie (Nightcrawler is a recent one that comes to mind), but for Focus because it's such a by the books made film with thinly written characters you just care for them even less.

Focus

Ugh. Groan.

Such a boring load of crap. The is a chicken-shit film if ever I've seen one. The whole film is consumed by Will Smith trying to con us into believing that he's a super smart and calculating confidence man. I have never seen anyone so fucking full of themselves as Will Smith in Focus. And then just as I thought the film did the dirty and took the difficult route (killing Smith), it completely pussies out and he lives. And the whole ending sees a tonal shift from suave and cool (if tedious) conning to Mr. and Mrs. bickering. It is pathetic. It reminded me of those cop films where partners are caught and in order to make a distraction they begin to argue among themselves. It was so stupid. And again (but earlier in the film) where Smith is betting and losing against Li Yuan....he just had to have something up his sleeve where he ends up the victor. Sorry, but that's just so fucking lame.

Ok, good things. BD Wong is ace. Probably the most enjoyable thing about it. Oh, and Rodrigo Santoro's henchman's trip to the convenience store leading to his collision with Smith's red car was very nicely shot. I enjoyed that part. But the rest of the film just sucked. I just couldn't give a shit about anything going on.

D+

You didn't mention Robbie! She was great, and what kept the film interesting for me till the end. And yeah, it was trash for the rest of it.