THE INFORMANT!
4 out of 5 stars

i can't believe this movie is actually based on a true story! and when you see it, you'll have a hard time believing as well, methinks... ;)


matt damon takes us more of a comedic role this time, taking a break from kicking asses as jason bourne or participating in heists with his co-stars danny ocean and rusty ryan. however, he does team up with ocean's 11 director steven soderbergh to portray a man who decides to become a whistleblower at an agricultural corn processing company ADM, thus becoming the informant! what starts out with a little white lie about an extortion from japan turns into a conspiracy for price-fixing in the agriculture industry, and matt damon's character mark whitacre enjoys every minute of it, thinking he's a spy taking on the "bad guys". mark may think this is a game, but the FBI certainly aren't taking any of his taped meetings and such lightly... what's even more hilarious is how BAD of a "spy" he is esp. when he's greeting his colleagues with their full names and titles, just for the wire. there are many moments like that, and you end up laughing/shaking your head many times...

mark whitacre is a bizarre character, and it's amazing how the FBI just eat up all his lies w/o doing any fact-checking. (another reason why i can't believe this story was real!) but the story (real or not) and its price-fixing conspiracy is quite good. also, steven soderbergh, who's got a penchant for retro-style storylines and concepts, came up with a great concept of using 70s style fonts for his title cards and costume design i.e. 70s style 'taches and hairdos. i think i really liked the story and how it was told-- the acting is just great! example below:

mark is meeting up with his FBI case officers for lunch @ a chinese restaurant, and he's telling them hypothetical situations i.e. if a corporate car was used for personal use, is that legally wrong? if a corporate plane was used for personal use, same question... then, he tells them "what if i cashed in kickbacks from corporations ADM did business with?" OBVIOUSLY, that's illegal because that's technically stealing! but the looks on the FBI agents faces is PRICELESS... ;)