Focus | |
---|---|
Directed by | |
Produced by | Denise Di Novi |
Written by | |
Starring | |
Music by | Nick Urata |
Cinematography | Xavier Pérez Grobet |
Edited by | Jan Kovac[1] |
| |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| |
104 minutes[2] | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $50.1 million[3] |
Box office | $158.8 million[4] |
Focus is a 2015 American crimecomedy-drama film written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie. The plot follows a career con artist who takes an aspiring femme fatale under his wing.
Nicky (Will Smith), a veteran con artist, takes a novice named Jess (Margot Robbie) under his wing. While Nicky teaches Jess the tricks of the trade, the pair become romantically involved; but, when Jess gets uncomfortably close, Nicky ends their relationship. Three years later, Nicky is in Buenos Aires working a very dangerous scheme when Jess - now an accomplished femme fatale. 2015 Focus Accessories. View as Grid List. Items 1-12 of 69. Page Previous; You're currently reading page 1 / Page 6; Page Next; Show. Set Descending Direction. Rear Seat Entertainment - Portable DVD Player, Duo Cinema. Add to Wish List. Interior Light Kit. Will Smith stars as Nicky, a seasoned master of misdirection who becomes romantically involved with novice con artist Jess (Margot Robbie). As he's teaching her the tricks of the trade, she gets too close for comfort and he abruptly breaks it off.
Watch Focus 2015
The film was released on February 27, 2015. It received mixed reviews from critics but was a success at the box office, grossing $158 million against its $50 million budget.
Plot[edit]
Seasoned con-man Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith) meets an inexperienced grifter, Jess Barrett (Margot Robbie), who tries to seduce and con him, pretending they've been caught by her jealous husband. When they fail, Nicky advises them never to lose focus when faced with unexpected situations. Nicky follows Jess and convinces her to have drinks, he tells her how his father killed his grandfather in a stand-off, explaining the 'Toledo Panic Button' tactic, in which you shoot your partner to show your loyalty.
Jess follows him to New Orleans, successfully persuading Nicky to take her under his wing, where she is also introduced to Nicky's crew as well, including the obese and profane Farhad (Adrian Martinez) and fellow con-man Horst (Brennan Brown). Picking a few pockets as a test, Nicky and Jess develop a romantic relationship, upsetting Nicky, who was taught by his father to never become emotionally involved with any colleagues. At the 17th Superbowl, Nicky gets into a round of increasingly extravagant bets with gambler Liyuan Tse (B.D. Wong), eventually losing all of the money the crew has earned.
To win it back, Nicky asks Tse to pick any player on or off the field and says that Jess will guess the number picked. A distraught Jess scans the field and sees Farhad wearing jersey number 55, realizing it is another con. They take Tse for millions of dollars. Nicky explains to Jess how Tse had been programmed to pick 55 since he arrived, with subtle, subconscious prompts throughout his day. After explaining it, Nicky leaves Jess with her cut, instructing the driver to take her to the airport. Jess cries as her limo drives off, as Nicky climbs into another waiting car.
Three years later, Nicky goes to Buenos Aires, working for billionaire motorsport team owner Rafael Garriga (Rodrigo Santoro). Garriga wants to beat a team headed by Australian businessman McEwen (Robert Taylor) to win the championship. Nicky will pretend to be a disgruntled technician on Garriga's team willing to sell Garriga's custom fuel use algorithm EXR. Instead, he will sell McEwen a bogus version which will slow their car down during the race. At a pre-race party, Nicky runs into Jess, who is now Garriga's girlfriend. After faking heavy drinking upon seeing Jess, Nicky has a convincing fight with Garriga in public and after being thrown out, is recruited by McEwen to provide the component.
Nicky begins pursuing Jess again, and they eventually rekindle their relationship. The head of Garriga's security entourage, Owens (Gerald McRaney), is suspicious and narrowly misses catching the two together. Nicky not only delivers the real component to McEwen for three million euros but also sells it to the other teams for similar amounts.
Nicky and Jess attempt to return to the US together. However, they are caught by Garriga's men and taken to his garage. Jess is tied up and her mouth is taped shut whilst Nicky is given a beating. Garriga is convinced that Jess had something to do with Nicky gaining access to EXR and begins to suffocate the gagged Jess. To save her, Nicky explains that he gained access to EXR by tricking her into believing he still had feelings for her. That the necklace he had given to Jess was equipped to secretly record Garriga's password and login information. He explains that Jess was conned and knew nothing about this. However, Jess then reveals that she was only trying to seduce Garriga in order to steal his valuable watch and to make Nicky jealous.
Nicky promises to come clean in order to spare Jess's life but Owens shoots him in the chest, causing a horrified Garriga to leave. Owens then reveals himself to be Nicky's father, Bucky and assures Jess that he avoided any major arteries. He simply employed the 'Toledo Panic Button.' Bucky then tapes up Nicky's wounds and draws excess blood out of his son's chest with a plunger so that he can breathe. They flee the garage in Garriga's vehicle.
Bucky drives Nicky and Jess to the hospital to treat Nicky's punctured lung and departs with the money as a reminder of the consequences of losing focus. After he leaves, Nicky notices that Jess snatched Garriga's watch before he left the warehouse, and a smiling Nicky and Jess then go into the hospital together.
Cast[edit]
- Will Smith as Nicky Spurgeon
- Margot Robbie as Jess Barrett
- Rodrigo Santoro as Rafael Garriga
- Gerald McRaney as Bucky Spurgeon / Owens
- B. D. Wong as Liyuan Tse
- Robert Taylor as McEwen
- Dominic Fumusa as Jared Mukulski
- Brennan Brown as Horst
- Griff Furst as Gareth
- Adrian Martinez as Farhad
- Alfred Tumbley as Dogs
- Billy Slaughter as Passing Thief
- Juan Minujin as Barman
- Stephanie Honoré as Janice
- Omid Khodadad as Focus Developer
- Mehdi Rafiee as CTO
Production[edit]
Apollo Robbins served as a consultant, conceiving and choreographing original sleight-of-hand maneuvers. Directors Ficarra and Requa stated, 'Apollo is the foremost expert in his field and is an inspiration to us.'
The directing duo and production designer Beth Mickle made a scouting trip to Buenos Aires in June and a second trip with producers Denise Di Novi and Mark Scoon, in which they finally settled to shoot in the neighborhoods of San Telmo, Puerto Madero, Barracas, Retiro, Recoleta and Palermo, as well as Ezeiza Airport and a few hotels.[5]
Focus Full Movie
Neil Smith spoke at the Digital Cinema Society forum dropping several hints as to the identity of a film being edited in Final Cut Pro X in a December 2013 presentation. This would make Focus the largest production yet completed in Apple's editing program.
Filming[edit]
Principal photography began on September 14, 2013 in New Orleans,[citation needed] and moved over to Buenos Aires on November 19, 2013 for three weeks. The last day of shooting in Argentina was on December 10.[6] Filming wrapped in New York City on December 17, 2013.[7]
Release[edit]
The film was released in 2015 in the US and Germany.[8] On January 29, 2015, Warner Bros. and IMAX Corporation announced that they would digitally re-master the film into the immersive IMAX DMR format, also for release on the same date.[9]
Box office[edit]
Focus grossed $53.9 million in North America and $104.9 million in other territories for a total gross of $158.8 million, against a production budget of $50.1 million.[4]
The film grossed $6.4 million in its opening day, $7.6 million on its second day and $4.6 million on its third day, totaling $18.7 million in its opening weekend, while playing in 3,323 theaters (a $5,623 per-theatre average), finishing first place at the box office.[10] The film was also released in the theatres of 39 markets of other territories in same weekend of its North America release, and grossed an estimated $12.2 million. Its biggest territories were the United Kingdom ($13 million), Russia ($3.1 million) and Netherlands ($1,765,832).[11][12]
Critical response[edit]
Focus 2015 Movie
Focus received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 56%, based on 223 reviews, with a rating average of 5.82/10. The site's consensus reads, 'Focus may have a few too many twists and turns, but it nearly skates by on its glamorous setting and the charm of its stars.'[13] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 56 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating 'mixed or average reviews'.[14] According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a grade of 'B' on an A+ to F scale.[15]
The Free Press Journal called the film 'smart, slick, but shallow'.[16]
Home media[edit]
Focus was released on DVD and Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on June 2, 2015.[17][18]
Soundtrack[edit]
The soundtrack album was released on February 24, 2015 by WaterTower Music.[19]
- 'I'm a Manchild' – Uptown Funk Empire
- 'Sofa Rockers (Richard Dorfmeister Remix)' – Sofa Surfers
- 'Please!' – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
- 'Wind It Up' – Stooges Brass Band
- 'You Don't Have to Worry' – Doris & Kelley
- 'Meet Me in the City' – Junior Kimbrough
- 'Sympathy for the Devil' - The Rolling Stones
- 'Gimme Danger' – The Stooges
- 'Chorra' – Los Mareados
- 'La Espada de Cadorna' – Mauro Alberelli, Fernando Diego, Barreyro, Maria Carla Flores, Fermin Echeveste, Manuel Gonzalez Aguilar, Mateo Gonzalez Aguilar and Carlos Maximiliano Russo
- 'Gerli Hood' – Ivan Diaz Mathe, Jorge Estenbenet, Sebastian Martinez, Francisco Olivero, Daniel Michel, Juan Manuel Meyer and Gala Iglesias Brickles featuring Camilo Costaldi Lira and Alberto Manuel Rodriguez
- 'Corazon de Piedra (Te Amo)' – Alenjandro Medina
- 'White Bird' – It's a Beautiful Day
- 'Love Makes the World Go Round' – Barbara Lewis
- 'Focus (Love Theme)' – Nick Urata
- 'The Windmills of Your Mind' – Ray Conniff and The Singers
References[edit]
- ^'Jan Kovac'. IMDb. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^'FOCUS (15)'. British Board of Film Classification. bbfc.co.uk. December 22, 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
- ^'Focus cost 50.1M to produce'. Variety.
- ^ ab'Focus (2015)'. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
- ^'Will Smith/Rodrigo Santoro Comedy 'Focus' Will be Wrapping Up Filming in Argentina'. Filming in Argentina: The blog of San Telmo Productions.
- ^'Will Smith & Margot Robbie Keep Their Distance On Their Last Day Of Shooting In Argentina'. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
- ^'Will Smith and Margot Robbie Wrap 'Focus''. whosay.com. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
- ^'Warner Bros Dates 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.' For 2015 MLK Weekend; Will Smith's 'Focus' Set For February 2015'. deadline.com. February 20, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
- ^Evry, Max (January 29, 2015). 'IMAX to Release Focus, Starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie'. comingsoon.net. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
- ^'Focus daily Gross'. boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
- ^'Around-the-World: 'Fifty Shades' Approaches $500 Million Worldwide'. boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
- ^'Focus International Box office Week#1'. boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
- ^'Focus (2015)'. Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^'Focus Reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
- ^'CinemaScore'. CinemaScore. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
- ^Torcato, Ronita (March 13, 2015). 'Movie Review: Focus – Smart, slick, but shallow'. The Free Press Journal. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^'Focus'. Dvdreleasedates.com. 2015.
- ^'Focus'. June 2, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2016 – via Amazon.com.
- ^'Focus Soundtrack List'. songonlyrics.net. Archived from the original on March 1, 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
External links[edit]
- Focus on IMDb
- Focus at Rotten Tomatoes
Comments are closed.