Their courting scenes are masterpieces of flat-out negotiation, harshly lit, and yet somehow Caan and Ms. Weld touch their mutual attraction with an aura of romance.

| Jul 7, 2022

Thief looks like a good movie... But, in spite of director Michael Mann's authentic sets and a workmanlike performance by Caan, the film never crackles. It merely ambles across the screen with no particular place to go.

| Jul 7, 2022

The film's big acting surprise is the performance by Robert Prosky as Leo. In addition to the film's nighttime photography, it is the character of Leo who gives Thief much of its power and realism.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 7, 2022

Caan is a study in emotional contrasts, a character at once likable and unsympathetic.

| Jul 7, 2022

James Caan contributes a good performance as a sometimes-sympathetic title rolist, but a handful of secondary players are more memorable. Thief is full of that sort of contradiction.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 7, 2022

[Michael Mann] pounds his film into you in a combination of big, clean images; taut, edgy performances and a score which intertwines both sound and music. There is no respite from Thief; it is bravura movie making.

| Jul 7, 2022

Mann’s romance with the technology and his preoccupation with this strange panorama intrude upon and occasionally digress statically but never eclipse his intent to show a topsy-turvy world.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 7, 2022

Loaded with striking night shots of back alleys and glittering skyscrapers, Thief has an all-pervading atmosphere of gloom that suggests it could have been the work of a European director, someone who is as much a master of his craft as Antonioni.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 7, 2022

It is James Caan's tough-cocky-chilling performance that turns Thief into a disturbingly gripping character study -- and that, judging by the title, is what the movie is supposed to be.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 7, 2022

In his recent films, Caan has made some odd and, in Rollerball, self-defeating decisions about his roles. In Frank, the outwardly contented Chicago thief, he has found a character who plays entirely to his strengths.

| Jul 7, 2022

Unfortunately, the story is a rather thin one, not helped at all in the Caan-Weld scenes... Still, the caper sequences are enough to hold interest, and so is Caan's performance.

| Jul 7, 2022

Thief is a hyped-up heist movie replete with glitzy camera work, moog music, strong acting, spurting blood and -- a hollow core.

| Jul 7, 2022

What distinguishes the film is its sense of atmosphere and tension, the way Mann takes you through, pace by pace, the contemporary world of big-time crime. It's a subculture of its own, and [Thief] understands it.

| Jul 7, 2022

At heart, though, Mann is more concerned with the seductive technicalities of crime.

| Jul 7, 2022

Given its limits, Thief is well-researched and well constructed. One for the crime addicts.

| Jul 7, 2022

There are two outstanding acting performances in Thief, but they cannot save the film from the effects of hollow sermonizing and a style that is often on the level of a spaghetti Western.

| Jul 7, 2022

The bloodbaths that follow are flashy but empty exercises, pseudo-tragic searchings for a big finish. They make one tired and edgy -- and dissipate the promise that has energized much of Thief.

| Jul 7, 2022

There's a strain of self-consciousness in Mann's macho, mechanistic style, but he's got power on his side. Thief envelops you in its tough, doom-laden grip and never lets go.

| Jul 7, 2022

By the time Thief winds down, Caan's characterization is listing several degrees starboard of The Exterminator. Keeping the major reservations in mind, Thief remains a fascinating and provocative movie.

| Jul 7, 2022

Mann’s observations are trite, derivative, and frequently sentimental; by giving us a professional burglar who yearns for the suburban security of wife and family, he comes weirdly close to an amalgam of Taxi Driver and Kramer vs. Kramer.

| Jul 7, 2022