I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I'm not a huge movie buff, so I just saw this movie on cable ten years after it was made. Aside from Body Double (one of the best movies ever made), and perhaps Bonfire of the Vanities and Blow Out, this is De Palma's best work. The star, Rebecca Romijn, is fantastic in a dual role, and viewers will hate her until the very end. Perhaps that is why the box office was not very good?? No one will be able to predict the end of this movie, it is so unexpected. There are scenes in this movie that you will have to work hard to fit in. I need to watch it again for that reason, but it also a reason that the movie is so good. If you get the entire movie the first time, it's not that great a movie. How the producers spent $35mil on this movie, however, is beyond me. Eastwood could have done it for less than a third of that.

Like most trailers when I saw the trailer to this and was expecting a straightforward erotic thriller with some schemes here and there. But that wasn't entirely the case, in fact the movie felt a bit drawn out and dull sometimes. I am not sure if they tried to go in a artistic direction with this movie, but the combination of those elements didn't seem to work that well. In fact the movie felt slightly dated with the direction and all. This movie will also leave some casual viewers slightly confused and not really in a good way either. Like what the heck is going on? And how did it get to that point? And stuff like that. If there was some suspense it would have made the movie better but there is almost no suspense. The plot isn't anything original, it's about a woman who got mixed up with some bad people and is trying to escape her past but her past catches up to her. And there is some twist than and there. The thing is the movie isn't really entertaining or grabs the attention or interest. You just go with it until it's over. Twist and turns isn't that great but when it comes to the twist the title says it all. It's cool when a movie lets the audience participate and use there brains to figure out what is going on, but that just wasn't any fun with this. There is easy to spot flaws in the plot and somethings are just not explained and not in a good way either. Overall I just didn't enjoy this movie, maybe some audience may like this style and direction but I personally didn't all that much. It isn't a terrible movie but I just didn't find it enjoyable.5.6/10

If you enjoy watching Brian De Palma move the camera around, this is the film for you because De Palma does everything here but shove the camera up his butt and give himself a colonoscopy. For the rest of us, actually watching a colonoscopy would be more entertaining and rewarding than sitting through Femme Fatale.Before I get to the plot, I first have to say that Rebecca Romijn probably sets a new standard here in the category of "Models who embarrass themselves by trying to act". Now, I know what you're thinking. "How could she possible be worse than Cindy Crawford in Fair Game?" It does seem both physically and metaphysically impossible for any model to be a more pathetic thespian than Crawford trying to pass herself off as an attorney. Well somehow, possibly with the aid of the Devil or some lesser demonic entity, Romijn manages to suck even more. There's not an ounce of conviction in anything she says, her range of expression goes all the way from heavily medicated to lightly sedated and she moves like a poorly operated animatronic figure. Romijn is trying to portray a con-woman in this movie, but she's not even believable as a human being.In fairness, Romijn might not have been THIS awesomely terrible without her director apparently doing everything he could to magnify and exaggerate her weaknesses. In the first 40 minutes of Femme Fatale, Romijn is on screen almost the entire time but has less than 40 seconds of dialog. That means she's asked to carry off her role solely on the strength of her ability to emote. Unfortunately, Romijn radiates emotion like a frozen corpse in a Siberian blizzard. It is honestly uncomfortable to see her fail so miserably at conveying the simplest and most elemental of feelings. Then when Romijn does get to talk, De Palma saddles her with a French accent, which is a little like asking the world's worst cook to make a soufflé.As for the plot, Romijn plays a beautiful enigma who betrays her partners in a jewel theft and manages to run into a woman who looks exactly like her, so she steals the other woman's identity to hide from her vengeful former comrades. As her doppelganger, Romijn's character meets a U.S. diplomat (Peter Coyote) and marries him. 7 years later, a handsome non-entity (Antonio Banderas) manages to take a photo of Romijn's character, which launches her into a ludicrously convoluted scheme to extort money from her husband and disappear before her betrayed buddies can track her down and kill her. I really can't go any further into the plot without spraining my brain. This isn't one of those stories where things don't make sense. This is one of those stories where it is impossible for things to make sense. There are holes in this plot that even De Palma himself couldn't explain away if I stuck his genitals in a garbage disposal and threatened to flip the switch.Oh, and that whole "running into someone who looks exactly like you at the precise moment you need to hide your true identity" thing? Sounds pretty convenient, doesn't it? Well, there's a twist at the end of this film that's a billion times more absurd than that. I'd tell you what it is, except then I'd feel compelled to go on for at least another 5,000 words about how bizarrely, insultingly ridiculous it is and life is too short for that.Femme Fatale is a f***ing fiasco.

DePalma makes another attempt to channel Hitchcock and comes out the loser.This film starts off with a heist sequence which, despite its huge implausibilities, turns out to be the best part of the movie despite being lumbered with a score which is trying (and failing) to be Ravel's Bolero. It then descends into a "plot" which intertwines the threat of payback for betrayal with various goings on involving a paparazzo, before pulling a whopper of a plot twist out of nowhere (so huge that it it is tantamount to conning the audience) before wrapping up with a showpiece sequence which would have been effective had it not been predicated on the tosh which precedes it.Within this mess DePalma lobs assorted Hitchcockian motifs and themes - the blonde woman, identity games, man in the wrong place at the wrong time, minor events having major effects, man framed for crime he didn't commit etc. - and dresses them up with assorted Hitchcockian directorial flourishes.Sadly, none of this suffices to compensate for a plot which is so massively flawed (and for which the director - who also wrote the movie - must, one fears, take responsibility).Rebecca Romijn battles valiantly with a role in which her character's motivations change seemingly by the minute (her character changes from a rogue to a decent person by the end, a fundamental change for which the rationale appears to be the aforementioned plot twist) and where she is required to deliver dialogue in three different languages, which she does fluently. Peter Coyote turns up, collects his cheque, and departs. Antonion Banderas looks as confused as his character, and well he might.This is a poor effort, trying hard to be a classic in the Master's style, and failing miserably.