The Sting, 1973, is the sort of film that gave rise to the grifter /crime type that has since proliferated and taken such forms in the modern day as your Oceans Eleven Twelve series where the whole plot relies on a giant scam which as it progresses reveals smaller sub-plots or sub-scams, like mini twists that keep the movie alive all this time. It turns out this one here is a bit silly in concept, but as a film why not - the only problem is as much as the movie demands a great deal of indulgence from the viewer, it doesn't in turn offer, well, all that much fun. You can do with a couple of inaccuracies and play the role wearing a thick lens for a film's time, but this here is two hours and ten minutes, it just goes on and on and there isn't enough to cover that length.
Now some parts are funny, maybe a couple (the painter trick in the Western Union office with the guy randomly giving the secretary a phone message was good), Redford and Newman do well, Shaw is very good as the trustless perpetually wary villain... but it's just too long, oddly paced and neither great fun nor terribly serious, but it's probably one of the first films that started this trend which gave rise to a great comedy like "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels". 4.5/10.
Now some parts are funny, maybe a couple (the painter trick in the Western Union office with the guy randomly giving the secretary a phone message was good), Redford and Newman do well, Shaw is very good as the trustless perpetually wary villain... but it's just too long, oddly paced and neither great fun nor terribly serious, but it's probably one of the first films that started this trend which gave rise to a great comedy like "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels". 4.5/10.