New title. Get it right!
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down and a Wagging Finger of Shame

I think it's a very good film and an under rated one. First watched this in 2006 in my teens and didn't think too much of it and fell asleep but chased it down later and it's a personal favourite of mine. Proudly have the DVD now!
James Caan is brilliant in this as is Robert Prosky who plays a great villain. Deserves a higher IMDB rating really. Good prequel to Heat for fans of Heat. And a must watch for Mann fans.

THIEF IS ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES EVER. PERIOD.

beep EVERYBODY on this BOARD!!! THIEF is one of the BEST MANN MOVIES EVER!!!!!

1. THE INSIDER
2. THIEF
3. HEAT
   Those are easily his best 3 movies. In my opinion.

Let's discuss how artful this movie was

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It would have took Frank months to get the same amount of cash that it would have took to work with Prosky 1-2 times tops. He had no reason to think he would get screwed over.
He was with Jesse so he wanted to get out as fast as possible and start his life with her.
Don't think it's fair to call frank a jerk. The guys been in Prison half his life. His tolerance on beep is lower than the average person. The only person i'd say he was little mean to was the doctor who tells his Okla dies.
Jesse's not exactly a princess, she's worked in south america with her BF, with drugs and stuff. and at point she says she was raped.
These are two messed up human beings. The only way they can have a regular life as frank says is to do his magic act. There isn't enough time to live a regular life.
The ending is pretty cool with his destroying all his property with the tangerine dream music playing. And the craig safan song that plays when Prosky's brains fly all over the white wall makes up for any shortcomings.

I'm sorry I wasted my time on this. Caan's character was a complete jerk and I had no reason to care for whatever he did. The man was set up with several fronts at the beginning of the movie; there was literally no reason to get in bed with the devil (Prosky). All that "one last score" stuff is stupid. If he were broke and desperate, owing money to the mob over gambling debts or something, then I could see it. But no, guy just likes to steal stuff and he's too stupid not to avoid the bigger fish. I was laughing during the diner scene. Why that woman would go for this jailhouse psycho is beyond me. And the final shoot-out at the kingpin's compound was completely underwhelming. They ain't all winners.

Well I loved the film.
I think it's actually one of mann's best. This was when he cared about the story as much as the visuals. Now he seems to only care about digital.
The score is awesome, It's unique.

when they were in the diner the cars passing by outside was heard louder then them talking inside, and as it continues there sure seem to be alot of traffic noise as the movie is playing out, and then there is the extremely inappropriate background music alot in his felt weak, i just lost tcm and i wish the other classic movie channels, like where i found this, would show movies closer to the 1950's, i mostly find them more powerful in every way. this didn't feel like it held up as a movie, but more like an episode of an old cop tv series, and when they are breaking into the building it was more like watching fellas doing construction work on the discovery channel than an action flick, the sequence is so long its like watching paint dry. the guy who made this movie was a big fan of welding, right?
the world still new,
every day like with you,
been here such a long time on this ground,
on this road travelled so many miles,
and seem like a new beginning every day,
cause ive got you on my way.

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I thought it was excellent.

"Heavy influence" is still pretty vague as it is very difficult to substanciate as to how much concrete input he had at the end of the day. And when youre not directly involved in day-to-day decisionmaking regarding the shot selection, direction of actors & editing its not really your movie, even if you have the power to establish the general direction in which things are going. Mann may have ultimately approved of various aesthetic choices his directors/writers were making, but that doesnt necessarily mean he would have done everything exactly the same way himself. Thusly, MV the series cannot be considered his artistic expression.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

I am aware of the fact he didnt direct, but I just meant that he had a heavy influence, of course,on the the content of things I listed. I mean executive producer kinda gives you ultimate control.

It should probably be pointed out that Mann did not direct one single episode in the Miami Vice series.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

I don't know how anyone can say this is a great film. This is certainly not on the list of greatest films. I know this is not a popular opinion, but Heat has never thrilled me either. Heat had potential to be a lot better than it was, which made it disappointing to me. Miami Vice (series) had some of his best work and some of his worst too, but when he was on, Mann got it right, boy, he got it right. Collateral and Ali pretty were very good, but I'm sorry, Public Enemies just not good at all.

TCM i recall seeing it late on a movie channel years ago interesting "get out of the mob" type movie - thought it was great - the safe cracking scenes i recall were cool. ??? on seeing again decades later - im curious myself.

The reason why this movie was so great, and perhaps you're not being used to seeing a real movie being a child of CGI, is that this movie drops all pretenses. The actors are playing real characters. Heck, even the band in the Katznjammer bar (Mighty Joe Young) was real, and they were really playing and not over-dubbing. The doctor in the hospital was a real doctor, and the look Frank gave him really scared him; hence, his reaction is real. I think that's what really scared you, is the reality of the movie. Or the "awfulness" of its reality.
That's my take on it.
"I really don't like talking about my flair."

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Thief is easily my favourite Michael Mann film. It's hard to explain why, but for me it just worked with this film. Some of his later films are more revered, but Thief has a soul.

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I think we should discuss how great this movie is.