Ridley Scott (“Gladiator”, “Alien”) directs “Matchstick Men”, which is a very overlooked film from the great director. This is a smart and slick movie with some great performances and a clever twist that would make M. Night Shyamalan (“Unbreakable”) jealous.

In “Matchstick Men”, Roy (Nicolas Cage “Snake Eyes”, “The Rock”) and his buddy Frank (Sam Rockwell “The Green Mile”, “Moon”) are con artists that are about to pull a seriously lucrative swindle. However, things take an unexpected turn when Roy’s teenage daughter (Alison Lohman “Drag Me To Hell”) walks into his life. He begins to bond with her but is unsure what it will mean for his work.

Nicolas Cage gives a really wonderful performance as Roy. The character suffers from various phobias as he hates being outdoors and is constantly cleaning his home but it is his relationship with his daughter that is fascinating to watch. We see him struggle to be a parent and struggle to keep her out of a life of fraud. Sam Rockwell is pretty good as Frank. Alison Lohman is great as Angela. The chemistry between Cage and Lohman is fantastic as the two very funny together and the emotional scenes are great too.

“Matchstick Men” really entertained me with its ability to create a truly believable relationship between a teenage girl and her estranged father. The film has a delightful sense of humour and it combines that with some genuinely creative twists and turns that help make this a brilliant movie to sit through. Ridley Scott has certainly directed more ambitious films than this but here he shows us that he does not a big budget and a ton of special effects to make a movie worth watching. For fans of Cage and Scott, “Matchstick Men” is a movie you desperately need to check out and everybody else should keep a good eye out for it as well.