Like the modern day Ocean’s movies, The Sting mixes reality with con tricks to the point where the viewer is always kept guessing at what is real and what is staged. Characters cross and double-cross each other in an attention-grabbing film that truly stands the test of time.

This movie is set in Chicago during the Depression. The dress and language brilliantly reflect the setting. (You wouldn’t see the main stud of a 21st Century movie wearing a red-and-white striped suit for half the movie!) Some racist, derogatory language is used in reference to African-Americans, but this is an accurate depiction of the 1930s because racism was a raging issue.

In this Oscar-winning film, Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford -- the Brad Pitt of the 1900s) plays a young con man that is seeking to avenge the death of his partner Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones). He teams up with an expert in conning, Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), to pull off a big con. This involves robbing Luther’s murderer, Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw), without him ever knowing it. Johnny Hooker: Can you get a mob together? Henry Gondorff: After what happened to Luther, I don’t think I can get more than two, three hundred guys.”

View the trailer for The Sting

With a team of witty con artists (Ray Walston, Eileen Brennan), Hooker and Gondorff set off to pull the con of the century over on the murderer of their close friend, Luther.

Though The Sting came out when the Beatles were still all the rage and my parents were teenagers, the movie still appeals to me, a 15-year-old. Why? I think crime-comedy movies like this pull out our “inner-con.” I’m one of those kids who owned a spy kit and dreamed of being a private detective, dusting for fingerprints on our kitchen table. The Sting lets me and other “wanna-be spies” revisit those childhood dreams in a more mature, devilish setting.

There is mild violence: A few characters are shot, but blood is minimal. There is also mild action violence which entails punching, shoving and bloody noses. The sexual content is kept to a minimum; a man and woman are shown sleeping in bed together — the man’s bare chest and the woman’s bare shoulders are visible; sex is implied. The bad language is slight; some racial derogatory language is used (including the n word).

The Sting has all the components of a comedic action flick with plot twists and turns, a gorgeous main actor, and a con that will impress even the most aged conmen.