spanglish or ocean's twelve

[Karl Connor]

movies are a complete waste of time

[neopryn]

i know you don't mean that

[3Marlon3Brando]

lol

[Eve]

i *loved* closer but most of the people i know who saw it didn't. they were disappointed by lack of a "plot" if you know what i mean.
i want to see spanglish so bad. not b/c of adam sandler, he tends to irritate me. but i *love* paz vega. she was in 'lucia y el sexo' which is one of my favorite movies. she's awesome.

[Best Looking Boy]

Originally posted by Randall Sandell
movies are a complete waste of time

Not a whole lot from this country, but there are plenty from elsewhere.

[alexthestampede]

i wonder how long this thread will get. on the one hand, it was a poll to go see a movie, and thats all over with now. on the other hand, stefanie started it

[Voice Implodes]

Originally posted by Randall Sandell
Earnest Goes to Camp

nicely done. but if somebody hasn'y already seen this masterwork, there is no hope for them.

[Ugly]

Oceans 12: Tastes Great But Less Filling


Ever eaten a Big Mac? They’re very tasty, and that first bite is near heavenly. Alternately, sometimes you can get a Big Mac that’s undercooked and the meat is all dried out. There’s still some joy to be had, what with the special sauce and all, but only a bit. Afterwards, you regret all the empty calories you just took in, and you’re left thinking to yourself, “Dang, that Big Mac could have been a lot better.” Oceans 12, the sequel to the remake of the original, is like a Big Mac. It does its job, and is even enjoyable at times, but it just isn’t satisfying enough.

Danny Ocean (George Clooney, aging gracefully) and Company are back thieving it up again. For the uniformed, the cast of Oceans 12 is full of superstars: Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy Garcia and more celebrity cameos than you can count. They all account themselves fairly well, Pitt is mugging his way through scenes with relish and Damon plays his character as a nebbish dweeb trying to stand up with the big boys (and often failing). The combined cast charisma was enough to overlook any flaws in the original remake; this time around the same trick doesn’t work as well.

Steven Soderbergh’s direction is as hip as ever, filming with a loosey-goosey handheld style and using lots of neat camera zooms, whip pans, freeze frames that scream, “We’re so post-modern, it hurts!”. That isn’t bad, the flashy style makes the cast look even cooler. The shaky cam can be a bit too much at times, viewers with weaker constitutions might want to bring some Gravol just in case.

Things gets off to a cracking start with Terry Benedict (Garcia) tracking down the crew that ripped him off in the first movie, demanding his money back with a couple million in interest. Garcia owns these scenes, waving around a pimp cane like it’s a saber, and dripping menace in every line. Too bad he’s sidelined early on and the main villain we get is some generic euro-trash whinny punk (Vincent Cassel). It’s a pity that Garcia isn’t used more, the bad guy we get instead isn’t evil; he’s annoying. You want to reach through the screen and throttle the guy.

So Danny gathers up the Oceans 11 (“Oceans 11?!” one character snaps. “Who decided to call it ‘The Oceans 11’? I thought it was The Benedict Job! Why does Danny get all the credit?”) to go a-robbing in Europe. Hot on their trail is Isabel (Zeta-Jones), cop and former flame to Brad Pitt’s character. This is one of the movie’s missteps; Zeta-Jones on her own takes up almost as much screen time as the Oceans gang. Sure, she’s very beautiful to look at, but she’s significantly less entertaining than Danny’s gaggle of thieving thieves.

When the gang is on screen, there’s a lot of fun to be had. The heist plots are as intricate as ever, all the actors all bounce off each other and the kinetic energy is enough to keep you watching. But, ever so slowly, some of the magic fades. Bernie Mac is criminally underused, which is a shame because he was a source of many of the laughs in the first film. Same thing can be said about Don Cheadle, who probably has about a dozen lines in the entire sequel. Also, the characters don’t fit as well together into the plot as they did in the first movie. Last time, they all got their chance to shine, this time they’re just hanging around.

A lot of the problems with Oceans 12 can’t really be talked about in detail unless you go into the 3rd act, spoiler territory. Suffice it to say, there’s a few too many twists, cutesy moments, revelations and gadgets out of Bond movies that stretches credibility to the breaking point. Another big problem is significant plot developments happening off-camera and the audience is only clued into it at the end. Playing a trick on the bad guys is good if we’re in on the joke, when it’s dropped on us at the last moment, the audience feels cheated (well, at least I did).

The original Rat-Pack Oceans 11 was really just a chance for Sinatra and his buddies to look cool, and the robbery happened eventually. The Soderbergh remake had everyone acting chic, but there was a strong heist plotline propelling the movie. Oceans 12 is actually closer in spirit to the original Oceans 11 than the remake was, a somewhat unfocused film but managing to scrape by on pure moxy alone.

Still, with all its flaws, Oceans 12 can be an enjoyable romp. So Hollywood churned out another lackluster sequel, big deal. At least the filmmakers had a good time; you can see it at the end of the movie when they’re all lounging around, partying and getting drunk. After all, there are worse things in life than watching movie star millionaires on screen having a lot more fun than you will ever have . . .

Hey! Wait a minute!

[Ugly]

fuck beans, I used the word "theiving" twice. The 2nd ussage was better. Crap, crap, crap. I suck. Boo. Fuck. Kill me. goddamnit.

[murgle]

Originally posted by Ugly
Oceans 12: Tastes Great But Less Filling

....but....but... Eddie Izzard!

[Ugly]

Originally posted by murgle



....but....but... Eddie Izzard!

Almost threw in a reference (kinda half assed one mentioning cameos) he's awesome when he's in it but a good cameo (kinda like Bruce Willis' in that one as well) does not a film make. Basically this one had alot of style & coolness but nothing was holding it together. the first one at least had that the heist plot driving it and everyone had something to do.

[3Marlon3Brando]

i saw oceans twelve and i thought it was pretty good

[alexthestampede]

oceans 11 was a star studded remake of a classic star studded movie.

there was no oceans 12. just going by that theres no way the sequel could be as good. but it might still be watchable

[Geek USA]

Originally posted by real politik

I don't think Amy likes me anymore.

[Jinkas]

doug

[DieDiemydarling]

a masterpiece!