Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000)

Ordinary Decent Criminal has the rare gift of making a crime caper feel like a night out in Dublin: brisk, slyly funny, and carried along by the sheer audacity of its central character. Kevin Spacey plays Michael Lynch less like a hardened thug than a born performer, and the movie leans into that showmanship—heists as theater, police work as wounded pride—without ever turning the stakes into a joke. Thaddeus O’Sullivan keeps the tone light on its feet even as the pressure tightens, with Linda Fiorentino adding heat and edge and a young Colin Farrell flashing the kind of presence you can’t teach. It won’t satisfy viewers looking for a gritty, procedural deep-dive, but if you’re in the mood for a charming, offbeat blend of comedy and thriller energy, it’s an easy film to enjoy.

Ordinary Decent Criminal wants to be a cheeky, swaggering crime caper—part thriller, part comedy—built around a larger-than-life Dublin outlaw who treats heists like performance art. The problem is the script rarely lands the jokes or the tension, so what should feel roguish and fast becomes oddly flat and, at times, just plain dull. Accents and character beats can feel off enough to pull you out of the story, which doesn’t help when the film is asking you to buy into its charm. If you’re mainly here for Kevin Spacey’s confident screen presence and a few stylish set-piece moments, you may find something to enjoy, but if you want genuinely sharp humor or a gripping cat-and-mouse thriller, this is likely to waste your time.