Not to say that this isn't any good, but I found it to start with a little hard to get into due to its subject matter of corporate espionage and price fixing, which I don't really know anything about and this film didn't do much in the way of educating me.
Based on a true story, in the early '90s Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) plays stooge to the F.B.I., blowing the whistle on several companies price fixing scandal, then meanwhile accidentally revealing his own embezzlement of millions of dollars of kick backs from his own company.
Matt Damon physically looks the part, carrying a bit of weight and sporting a '90s mustache. He is pretty much solo here as none of the other characters have much to do, which is a shame as there is a quite superb supporting cast there. Damons character is essentially a buffoon telling the authorities of his bosses illegal activities in the hope they would all go to jail and he would be made C.E.O. His idiocy does provide some laughs though, from his excellent line "call me code name 0014", and when asked why he replies with "because I'm twice as smart as 007", to playing with a 'secret' tape recorder concealed in his briefcase during an meeting he is supposed to be spying on.
Unfortunately I can not decide whether the film makers were going for a comedy or simply a quirky amusing film, if it was the later they done their job, but I have a feeling it was the former. There was flashes of the coolness that made for me Oceans Eleven such an brilliant film from the same director, Steven Soderbergh, but it wasn't engaging enough for me as some of the others in the genre.
I give this film 3 pop corns out of 5
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