Yapian zhanzheng (1997)

nine queend
the movie was ok.. i just bought beacuse my boyfriend wanted it
but the movie case came broken

Two con men meet at a convenience store . . .
I found this movie about two con artists wonderfully unpredictable. The script is nicely complex, the characters are cleverly duplicitous, and the plot - compressed into 24 hours - is full of twists, turns, and red herrings that kept me guessing from beginning to end. Part of the unpredictability is not being able to gauge the level of potential menace in the story. At almost any point there's the possibility that all could go terribly wrong.

Director Fabián Bielinsky has very skillfully woven together a cast of believable characters, playing out their roles in the streets and public places of what seems to be Buenos Aires. As a kind of odd-couple buddy film, its pairing of Gastón Pauls and Ricardo Darín is continually fascinating as the high-stakes alliance between them keeps evolving. The pacing of the 2-hour film is just fast enough to keep one step ahead of us, and while a Hollywood version would surely find ways to trim, simplify and accelerate it, I was happy that I had time to take in the visuals and read the subtitles, too. In a related vein, viewers may also enjoy the Argentine film, "Burnt Money."

A great Con Movie- Made in Argentina- the Hollywood replica does not cut it
Ever since I began studying the Influence methods, I truly enjoy seeing and reseeing con movies, because you can really tell how well documented the movie is in this aspect.

Nine Queens is not only an encyclopedia in con techniques, but is also so well acted.. you can feel the astuteness of the swindlers, yet feel the "eagerness of the rookie", the conceited and psychopathic nature the character played by Ricardo Darín, almost to the point of "hating the guy" thoughout the whole movie.. No I am not going to give anything away.

I saw the Hollywood version and , though no two movies are alike, the excellence of the argentinian original just overshadows it.