Change Your Image
afuller
Reviews
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Ocean's 11 have forgotten more about being cool...
...than I or 99% of the population will ever know. Steven Soderbergh's remake of the Ratpack's prior outing is a weightless exercise in cool for the new millennium. The entire cast are nearly flawless contributors to this effort, but Clooney, Pitt, Damon, and Reiner really outdo themselves. Wardrobes, locations, and the soundtrack all complement the actors and plot superbly. In the future I can only hope to dress half as well as Pitt and Clooney do in this film. The soundtrack is an outstandingly modern and refreshing blend of jazz and electronica that is used to great effect throughout the film's varied scenes.
I also admired the dialog and its delivery throughout the film. November's 'Heist' delivered excellent dialog, but at many points the delivery was forced and it became hard to believe so many people delivering so many one-liners one after the other. In 'Ocean's 11' the humor in the dialog is superbly employed to break the tension developed in certain scenes. I would imagine a great deal of this difference is the product of Mamet and Soderbergh's differing styles of writing and directing.
Those reading this may believe I am excessively exuberant about this film and they would be correct in that belief. I cannot recall a single film that put such a huge smile on my face for nearly two hours.
I do have one nitpick with the film, but it is extremely minor and probably due to my slight fatigue as I viewed the film. As others have mentioned the film can be a bit slow in spots. Modern audiences may have this feeling after being exposed to years of crowd-pleasing explosions and effects wizardry. When seeing this film it is important to remember Ocean's is a HEIST film rather than an ACTION film. In the end, I found it very satisfying to watch the well-planned and executed heist develop with a minimum of violence and no deaths!
Others may gripe regarding the 'Pinch' device, but militaries around the world have been researching these units since the '80s and are working to bring them into active service as I write. However, the packaging of the device in the movie was certainly more fanciful than the olive drab that would be used by a defense arm.
In summary, Clooney and Co. explode the mystique of the Ratpack, redefine 'cool' for the third millennium, and manage to put a huge smile on my face while doing so. Easily 11/10
Longitude (2000)
Utterly magnificent!
*Possible spoilers follow*
I had the pleasure of viewing Longitude on A & E last night after finding my self intrigued by the ads they had run during the day. Prior to seeing it, I must confess that I had been ignorant of the struggles of John Harrison or Dava Sobel's chronicle of them. Even though I was initially dismayed that the film appeared to be a British costume drama I decided to give it a chance. I am thankful I did, because I was absolutely engrossed after no more than thirty minutes. The overall premise is man's quest to determine an accurate method of determining his longitude to navigate the seas more safely. This hook is presented right at the beginning of the film and the title of the film is explained. As we will see later in the film, this problem is not easily solved. In this day and age of satellite GPS we find it amazing that such a great effort was undertaken to obtain information we take for granted on a daily basis. What makes the film work is that we experience this epic quest from two extremely intense personal struggles. Michael Gambon does not become John Harrison...Gambon IS Harrison! In this life, I will be privileged to view another performance as convincing as Gambon's. The net effect of this is to communicate Harrison's passion for solving the longitude problem and create great empathy within the viewer. However, what truly elevates "Longitude" as a film is the segues to and from the struggles of Rupert Gould, a brilliant man who became obsessed with the restoration and preservation of the Harrison chronometers in the first half of this century. Jeremy Irons' portrayal of Gould is nearly a match of Gambon's. Gould is presented as a kindred spirit to Harrison, and the interweave of both men's tales is deftly handled. Their triumphs and failures are layered upon one another, and this only serves to heighten the emotion evoked by the film. Believe me, emotion is evoked in spades as we see Harrison and Gould question their capabilities as engineers and scientists, whether or not the pursuit of their dreams is worth the opposition of the establishment, and if those same dreams are worth the sacrifice of their interpersonal relationships. There are several moving moments between Harrison and his faithful son William who is also magnificently played by Ian Hart. These personal struggles and triumphs are what drive the film and make the story of the solution to the longitude problem so compelling. "Longitude" is an utterly magnificent achievement of filmed entertainment that enlightens and moves the viewer with its epic yet intimate portrayal of a man attempting to solve a problem we find simple today but was considered the greatest scientific quandary of its time.
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
So terrible it's hilarious....
SPOILERS FOLLOW! I like escapism as much as the next guy, but not when it's this mindless and melodramatic. I really don't know where to begin with this film other than mentioning that I should've believed the early reviews I'd seen and waited for word of mouth from my friends rather than rushing right out to see this film opening night. I should also note that I was in a packed 300 seat theater, and the majority of the filmgoers there were in stitches for one reason or another. All of the laughter that was generated was probably unintentional on the part of the filmmakers. I suppose I will start with the plot which we found to be utterly linear and predictable. Anyone looking for a convoluted yarn in the vein of the first movie will be sorely disappointed. It is also full of huge holes, like the fact that Luther claimed to hack into NATO GHOSTCOM in the first film. In this one, he can't even disable a simple alarm in a commercial corporation's security system. Maybe his skills got rusty because he partied too much between films. Since the good guys locate the bad guys in the first half hour, it becomes glaringly obvious that they could be wiped out by SAS, SEALs, Delta Force, etc. about halfway through the film. The crowd at my theater repeatedly burst into laughter at dialogue which was entirely inappropriate for the situation depicted onscreen. None of the characters were very memorable or engaging, except Ving Rhames' part. Dougray Scott was more an annoying wuss than anything else. Maybe he'll be better as Logan in X-Men. Thandie Newton looked cute, but that's about all she contributed. Woo's direction of this film is really tedious. There is an utter lack of tension except for the closing minutes, and even during that part some goofy cuts are made. Most annoying are the repeated slow pans and zooms that are supposed to show us the characters are so cool and dangerous it hurts. This is tough to buy when they're ambling along the street or a dock. Woo's dove fetish also got a lot of laughs during the closing minutes of the film. Tom Cruise also landed many chuckles with his martial arts talents. Yes he looked fairly credible, but an agent in such situations would be more concerned with killing efficiently rather than gracefully. Also note that the chase scenes in the movies are real snoozers, nowhere in the league of say, "Bullitt". I still can't get over the tedium of the final chase scene. In real life, the Triumph bikes used in the film would walk away from the SUVs and sedans in pursuit. My final beef is with the score. Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard also scored "Gladiator", and he was prevented from attending the premiere of that film because he had to work on this film's score. I can tell you right now, one of them was absolutely smashing and functioned brilliantly and it certainly wasn't this one. Zimmer is all over the place here seems to reference all the boring parts of his past works. Lisa Gerrard's stylings added a nice sense of humanity and gravitas to Gladiator but here they combine with the overly melodramatic visuals to descend into the realm of pure cheese. Unless you're really eager to waste $8 and 123 minutes of your life, I'd advise waiting to see this hits your local Blockbuster...