January 9 Is a Sad Day for Will Smith and Margot Robbie Fans

For those who’re a fan of Will Smith and Margot Robbie, you may wish to circle January 9 in your calendar, and never for an excellent purpose. Their crime caper Focus will officially be leaving Netflix, marking the tip of its streaming run on the platform. Launched in 2015, Focus stars Smith as Nicky Spurgeon, a veteran con artist who takes Jess Barrett (Robbie), a novice hustler, beneath his wing. The pair of them embark on a sequence of high-stakes schemes throughout glamorous worldwide areas.

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Loopy, Silly, Love), Focus tried to mix the allure of a heist movie with the strain of a romantic drama. Sounds nice, proper? Properly, not fairly. The movie was met with blended opinions from each critics and audiences, sitting at 56% optimistic from reviewers and 53% from abnormal moviegoers on Rotten Tomatoes. That being stated, a divisive rating is often an indicator that one thing was good about it.

Is ‘Focus’ Really Any Good?

Collider’s review of the film was damning, claiming that there’s “no romance and no con”, two issues that are very important in a film starring a con artist caught up in a romance.

With no romance and no con, the movie simply coasts on being handsomely set and shot. We take within the sights of New Orleans, after which when the characters transfer to Buenos Aires, the image may double as a vacationer advert for Argentine metropolis. And but the film nonetheless manages to lose power by having no sense of pacing, no urgency, and solely sporadically offering bouts of dramatic stress or strong comedy. At instances it appears like a check of whether or not or not Smith can nonetheless allure an viewers with a bashful smile, a load boast, and a sly look. He is nonetheless obtained “it”, however not as a lot as he used to.

Nevertheless, it isn’t sufficient for a conman film to be charming; it needs to be skillful, and that takes the intelligence and power Focus sorely lacks. The movie is easy to the purpose of being insubstantial, and it is extra slimy than slippery because it openly cheats the viewers. Focus could divert our consideration, however that is solely as a result of we have fallen asleep.

Focus will depart Netflix on January 9, so be fast if you wish to test it out. Keep tuned to Collider for extra updates on all of your favourite movies on streaming.