"The Sting" is an entertaining and suspenseful film. After the death of an old friend, budding con man Johnny Hooker (Redford) teams up with retired FBI agent Henry Gondorff (Newman) to steal the identity of a top crime figure in order to exact revenge. But before they can pull it off, however, their elaborate plan goes awry, resulting in one of the funniest scenes you'll see in a movie…
Johnny and Henry are introduced to each other by their mutual friend and former partner Richard Parker (Martin Sheen), whom they meet to discuss the possibility of a new partnership. As the two men start to build their friendship, Johnny becomes intrigued by the woman who's always around: Doyle Lonnegans. After a little more digging, they discover that Doyle is actually the son of the man named Albert Lonnegans, a criminal who has been a major player in the criminal world.
When John and Henry are introduced to each other as con artists, they're immediately suspicious of one another, but both believe that the other will help them with their scheme. One of the biggest questions is whether they'll be able to catch their target. Because of this, they go about hiring a hit man called 'Joker' to go after the target…but it doesn't work out quite as planned. At the end, after being forced to shoot their own target, the duo must decide whether or not to kill each other…or whether to pull out of the scheme. Ultimately, neither choice is good, but both are hilarious in their own way.
The movie ends with a series of long, drawn-out scenes depicting how Doyle and Johnny meet and fall in love. They spend the night in each other's arms before deciding that they'd rather die together. They do and they get a lot of laughs before Doyle decides to commit suicide by jumping into the Hudson River. He's soon followed by Johnny, but he's left holding the gun of his fallen lover. as he realizes what he's just done…
As the movie progresses, Johnny and Henry have more successes but then fail again
They need to find a bigger, better con man (Doyle's son is already married), which they end up getting when they hire Robert Shaw (Kevin Kline) to impersonate an important figure. But, again, this ends up going terribly wrong and one of them gets killed…before the plan comes to light. They learn that Shaw isn't who he says he is and he ends up in jail.
In addition to these plots, the movie also touches on other issues like the hypocrisy of certain characters, which I found to be a refreshing change from the over-the-top revenge flicks of yesteryear. The sting, however, lacks humor and I didn't care for many of the subplots. However, it still had its share of entertainment value. Overall, this movie was fun…but not very original.
I enjoyed the movie overall, though…a fun ride with great character development and great twists. The movie had a little bit of everything and was a fun time…for a few minutes. I would recommend "The Sting" to anyone looking for a good thriller.
Overall, I thought it was entertaining. Although it didn't have much plot, I still felt connected to the story…even though it took a lot of twists and turns. The sting was good, if not spectacular.
Redford does a nice job of playing a character who's full of contradictions
I liked that part. His acting was decent too, but he could have done better. I wouldn't call the acting a liability, but I would certainly say that it wasn't outstanding either.
I'm pretty sure that Redford and Shaw will appear in more of his movies, although I haven't heard about it yet. I think we can expect that from any actor. who's done such films as "A Few Good Men." and "Get Shorty!"
Overall, Redford gives a second life as an icon of the 'good guy' type character and, as I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed his performance. It's a good watch if you like a lot of twists and turns in your movies. If you don't enjoy twists, you'll probably want to pass this one up…but it's worth a look. to be sure!