Matchstick Men (2003)
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 182
Fresh: 150 | Rotten: 32
Breezy and well-acted, Matchstick Men focuses more on the characters than on the con.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 41
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 10
Breezy and well-acted, Matchstick Men focuses more on the characters than on the con.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 149,852
Movie Info
Ridley Scott directs the crime comedy Matchstick Men, based on the novel of the same name by Eric Garcia. Neurotic con man Roy (Nicolas Cage) suffers from several emotional problems, including obsessive-compulsive disorder. He and his partner Frank (Sam Rockwell) swindle people out of money by posing as money collectors who promise things like tax refunds, package vacations, and other fabulous prizes (which they never get). Frank wants to pull a really big job, but Roy is too consumed with fear
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Cast
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Nicolas Cage
Roy Waller -
Sam Rockwell
Frank Mercer -
Alison Lohman
Angela -
Bruce Altman
Dr. Klein -
Bruce McGill
Chuck Frechette -
Jenny O'Hara
Mrs. Schaffer -
Steve Eastin
Mr. Schaffer -
Beth Grant
Laundry Lady -
Sheila Kelley
Kathy -
Fran Kranz
Slacker Boyfriend -
Tim Kelleher
Bishop -
Nigel Gibbs
Holt -
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All Critics (188) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (150) | Rotten (32) | DVD (31)
Matchstick Men never really casts off its cloak of artificiality and calculation; its pleasures are minor, however distracting they may be.
Top CriticRidley Scott lets us enjoy the satisfying clicks and whirrs of the well-oiled celluloid con trick, while leaving plenty of head room for Cage to twitch and fret in.
A thoroughly absorbing hour and 56 minutes of entertainment.
Matchstick Men is really two movies brilliantly spliced into one, each enriching the other.
It's a blah little exploitation picture that thinks it's a deep humanist parable.
Matchstick Men isn't even remotely intricate; it's not even particularly interesting.
This is a movie about con games at every level.
Nicholas Cage gives his best performance since "Leaving Los Vegas" as con man Roy Waller in this sophisticated movie about familial responsibility, self-imposed barriers and the possibilities of a well executed long con.
A cleverly planned switcheroo story in which the twist at the end is the knife in the back.
Scott tucks away his visual athletics in favour of something leisurely and quietly devastating. It's ultimately far more cunning a script than we can reveal here.
Something less than the sum of its parts, Matchstick Men is a decent film that should have been a considerably better one.
Matchstick Men works because of the way the key players handle the material. This is the work of professionals acknowledging a good story and knowing better than to get in the way.
A lot more fun than most of the director's pompously inflated output.
What saves Matchstick Men from being a complete washout are the performances by Cage, Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman.
Mathstick Men se compare aisément à Catch Me If You Can sans atteindre la qualité de Ocean's Eleven.
Despite its string of crime-caper clichés, [director Ridley] Scott's focus on character and relationship helps the film transcend the typical mediocrity of its genre.
Cage is absolutely terrific down to his eye twitches and neck jerks.
Director Ridley Scott, whose recent history has brought us wonderful action films like Black Hawk Down and Gladiator, translates Eric Garcia's book about a neurotic con man into a compelling film.
... tenuous and beautiful interaction between Cage and Lohman.
...the sort of light, breezy entertainment that feels a lot more like George Roy Hill or Peter Bogdanovich than it does Ridley Scott.
The characters are so good that you'll forget about the con game.
The story darts in unexpected, dark directions, but is told by such talented people, we follow it willingly...
The revelation here... is Alison Lohman... [Y]ou will be amazed by the depths of this talented young woman.
Delivers some double-crosses worthy of the best con flicks, with twists that are both punchy and poetic.
Audience Reviews for Matchstick Men
Super Reviewer
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- Roy Waller: To some people, money is a foreign film without subtitles.
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- Roy Waller: Hey have you ever been dragged to the sidewalk and beaten till you PISSED... BLOOD!
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Movie: ID: 11033 Title: Matchstick Men Release Date: 2003-09-12 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 3 Status: 1
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Things here are not helped by awful performance by Nicolas Cage whose acting here is annoying as hell.
Ridley Scott has never been that good with comedy and this is a good example of that. I just could not figure out that was this film supposed to be comedy, drama, thriller or somekind of a heist film. Whatever it's intentions are it fails miserably.
It is also alarming how visually bankrupt this film is. Even at his weakest director Scott has often managed to bring visual flavour to his films, but this has none of that. It looks like a film made by some random MTV-commercial director.
Honestly i cannot find anything good to say about this film. It truly is film where everything seem to went completely wrong for director Scott.