Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8406 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-02-23
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 111 minutes

Special Features
Making Matchstick Men -- Pre-Production, Production & Post-Production features (approx 25 mins each)
Commentary by Director Ridley Scott, Writer Nicholas Griffin and Writer/Produce Ted Griffin
Languages: English, French, Italian
Subtitles: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Arabic, Dutch, English SDH & Italian SDH
Aspect ratio: 16:9

Synopsis
Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) is a conman and trickster who has had to overcome enormous problems with obsessive-compulsive disorder in order to stay on top of his game. His partner in crime, Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell), helps him run a daily business conning housewives out of their money with telephone scams. Frank is frustrated with their small-fry clientele however, and urges Roy to look for bigger business ventures. Roy resists Frank's urges, and instead leads a bizarre existence in which he is completely dominated by his compulsions to clean, eat canned tuna every night, and open his front door three times before he can walk through it. His world is turned upside down, however, when he starts seeing a shrink who helps Roy to get in touch with his missing 14-year-old daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman). Angela soon becomes embroiled in Roy and Frank's scams, pushing Roy to take on a grandiose scheme that could give them financial security for the rest of their lives.
Directed by Ridley Scott, this fast-paced crime drama takes several twists and turns as it works its way towards a surprising conclusion. Cage is perfectly cast as the con artist beset by neuroses and family problems, and has an excellent foil in the younger, more abrasive Rockwell. Weaving a tale of trust, family, friendship and deceit, director Scott utilises the talents of his actors to delve into complicated themes, resulting in a breathtaking film in which nothing can be taken for granted.

Customer Reviews

A winner.
This is film making at it's peak, absolutely fantastic. Nicolas Cage is at his best and on home ground playing the conman Roy who suffers from compulsive obsessive disorder in this crime story with a twist. The acting all round is superb, Sam Rockwell as Roy's business partner Frank, and Alison Lohman as Cage's 14 year old daughter. I won't go into the story as that would ruin it, but if you like your films slick and clever with a original story then you can't get much better than this. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Fantastic...Definately one to treasure
Meet Roy and Frank, a couple of professional small-time con artists. What Roy, a veteran of the grift, and Frank, his ambitious protégé, are swindling these days are "water filtration systems," bargain-basement water filters bought by unsuspecting people who pay ten times their value in order to win bogus prizes like cars, jewelry and overseas vacations--which they never collect. These scams net the flim-flam men a few hundred here, another thousand there, which eventually adds up to a lucrative partnership. Roy's private life, however, is not so successful. An obsessive-compulsive agoraphobe with no personal relationships to call his own, Roy is barely hanging on to his wits, and when his idiosyncrasies begin to threaten his criminal productivity he's forced to seek the help of a psychoanalyst just to keep him in working order. While Roy is looking for a quick fix, his therapy begets more than he bargained for: the revelation that he has a teenage daughter--a child whose existence he suspected but never dared confirm. What's more troubling, 14-year-old Angela wants to meet the father she never knew. At first, Angela's appearance disrupts her neurotic father's carefully ordered routine. Soon, however, with his own unique spin on parenthood, Roy begins to enjoy a relationship he never dreamed of having with his daughter. But while he develops paternal feelings for the 14-year-old, she's developing a fascination with Daddy's questionable career.

'Matchstick Men' is hilarious film with an unpredictable twist. Definately one to treasure

Con's have never been more clean.
Matchstick Men is a great movie. And prooves who ever doubted Nicholas Cage's acting skill wrong by giving an insparational performance, as the mentally disturbed con man. With an inventive story line, and strong supporting cast, I think that this is one of most underated films in recent years.