Too much of everything

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's a basic thriller with an OK plot, OK (at best) acting, and sometimes silly dialog.Stereotypical characters: business people that want the deal done at all costs government official that don't care about the cost of getting oil Russian mobsters with bad accents and stupid actionsPoor acting: bad Russian accents stilted dialog and conversations no emotional attachment to any of the characters Christian Slater and Selma Blair have a few moments of decent acting, but even much of theirs is poor. Two scenes in particular standout - the scene where he pushes her away (breaks up with her) and the closing scene of the movie. Both bad.Plot and Dialog: see the above mentioned scenes read the "quotes" section here on IMDb - you get a good sense of the silliness of some of the dialog plot is thin and the ending is anti-climactichmmm, maybe a 4 rating is being generous.

-edit- davemed says "Stay away from this one." As mentioned below for all those interested in the truth of how the world works this is a great movie. For those who prefer to deny it and stick their heads in the sand like a south park character "stay away from this one...".*It is interesting to see how IMDb has many members exist now who bring down a film with important information for the growth of ourselves and our planet. They do it with interesting techniques too. If you study their grammar you often find an arrogant tone and adjectives such as "muddled" or "slow" which can leave the reader feeling negative in a very effective way. The telling symptom displayed by these people which proves their ill-minded intentions in my opinion, is the opposite of what they are saying is true. This is pure shilling and these people are writing this stuff for a particular reason - they don't want people to watch movies that provide information about the truth.After reading the negative comments on this movie I was apprehensive to see it. While there are some valid points per say with regards to the direction of the movie, the script and actors do very well. The result is a movie that does a very good job at raising the awareness of the ins and outs of big business, wall street, corruption and the energy industry.Christian Slater and Salma Hayek and the other actors all do a good job to portray their characters. The environment-caring industry is also revealed in an effective way; showing how it has to compete with ignorance and greed. Also showing how this ignorance and greed is paid off with extremely lucrative sums of money; quoting from the movie, "...so this is how the other 0.5% live".An entertaining movie that is worth watching for anyone who enjoys learning about the truths of big business and how it attempts to control the energy industry.

This movie's subject matter is timely and the movie even makes an attempt, in the end, to understand how various competing interests come together in a deal. To get there though, you'll have to wade through fake Russian accents, a fake Arab country and fake due diligence conversations. The deal of the movie concerns an oil bootlegger circumventing a US government embargo. There is drama in the oil-for-food scandal and maybe even a plot for a movie, but this movie is not it.That is to say, the movie's primary flaw is that the script is only a draft and while the idea has potential, the script needed several more revisions. There are other problems too: actors didn't get sufficient direction and the editing is sporadic at times. I had no problem with the casting. Colm Feore and Robert Loggia turn in good performances.Hollywood has a lot of difficulty making movies about business and the few that get made usually become morality plays about greed. This movie is not really an exception - but at least here, not all the corporate suits are bad guys. I watched The Deal to the end and can say I enjoyed it, if only because it tries to deal intelligently with issues most movies ignore.

THE DEAL was made when the idea of paying $6 per gallon of gas would spark international intrigue: now that we're well over $3.35 per gallon that price seems less than shocking! The concept of showing how big business and the government cover up the absurd under the table Deals such as the one that is the focus of this meager script is now so de rigueur that there is no melodrama or intrigue to this story. One must credit writer Ruth Epstein, director Harvey Kahn, and executive producer/star Christian Slater for caring enough about the chaos oil supplies and their impact on the world at large are causing, but the sad truth is that this tale is so ho-hum in that we all read this very story in the newspaper everyday that it hardly seems to merit a movie.The cast is sterling - Christian Slater as a Wall Street type, Robert Loggia as the dirty hands dealer type, Selma Blair as the idealist, and Colm Feore, John Heard, Kevin Tighe, etc all try their best to make this flabby script meaningful. The star of the movie is the musical scoring by Christopher Lennertz...and that says a lot. Without an arc of plot line and without a bit of new information about the corruption at the highest levels of this country, this film just doesn't get off the ground. Grady Harp