No. 41 Criminal (2004) 19 of 100
If you crossed ‘Training Day’ and ‘The Grifters’ you’d get something similar to this film. John C Reilly plays Richard, a small time con man who makes a few bucks by carrying out confidence tricks and other scams. We meet him in a casino as he observes a young Mexican man, Rodrigo, attempt to scam some waitresses using the familiar ‘I gave you $100, and you give me $30 and I’ll give you $50’ type con. He’s quickly rumbled and only escapes arrest when Richard steps in pretending to be a cop to get Rodrigo off the premises. Richard lets Rodrigo know he’s a trickster and offers to show him some scams by way of an audition. Richard has recently parted ways with his partner ‘The Jew’ and is looking for a new henchman. The two work some low level scams which involve conning old ladies and restaurants out of a few bucks. Rodrigo, who Richard renames ‘Brian’ as Anglo names are more trusted, needs some money for his father’s medical bills. Richard meanwhile has some expensive legal b...