‘Ocean’s Twelve’ Download and Reviews

December 11, 2009 by Paul Wall  
Filed under Comedy, Crime, Thriller

“Ocean’s Twelve” Movie Details

Ocean’s Twelve tagline: You cross one ocean, you face them all
Ocean's 12 - DVD Cover

Ocean's Twelve DVD Cover

Actors:
  • Mini Anden
  • Matt Damon
    Bernie Mac
    Vincent Cassel
    Brad Pitt Rusty Ryan
    Catherine Zeta-Jones Isabel Lahiri
    George Clooney Danny Ocean
    Ed Kross Bank Officer
    Julia Roberts Tess Ocean
    Don Tiffany House Painter
    Anne Jacques Shop Owner
    David Sontag Plainclothes Goon #1
    Larry Sontag Plainclothes Goon #2
    Andy Garcia Terry Benedict
    Casey Affleck Virgil Malloy
    Dina Connolly Virgil’s FiancГ©e
    Scott Caan Turk Malloy
    Nelson Peltz Partygoer
    Supermodel
    Directors: Steven Soderbergh IMDB Rating: 6.0/10 out of 83,677 votes

    “Ocean’s Twelve” Movie Review

    “Ocean’s 12″ Plot Summary

    Daniel Ocean recruits one more team member so he can pull off three major European heists in this sequel to Ocean’s 11.

    A brilliant satire of the heist movie… I think.

    I sat for a couple hours after seeing Ocean’s Twelve trying to figure out why Soderbergh and gang had made such an outrageous film. Too much of it didn’t add up: the ridiculous laser system guarding the egg in the museum and the equally ridiculous way in which it was defeated; the flashbacks containing information that completely undermined the apparent narrative thrust; Julia Roberts’ plot twist and the avalanche of seemingly nonsensical and irrelevant self-reference that immediately followed; O12 had me completely stumped. Until I re-interpreted these scenes as clues towards something else: that O12 is not, in fact, a heist movie, but a *satire* of the heist movie

    Why else would someone of Sod’s stature overstuff the film with cliches, like the enigmatic and debonair master thief, and the colorful and completely trustworthy team of people who would never exist in real life? One character (the woefully underused Eddie Izzard) even overtly mentions that one particular element of the film is a cliche — but he doesn’t say what it is a cliche *of*. Notice all the decoys, impostors, holograms, secret languages… O12 is littered with breadcrumbs, and I’m willing to believe that there was never actually a spec script called ‘Honor Among Thieves.’ As a heist movie, it falls flat on its face, arguably worse than Hudson Hawk (which suffered more from sheer goofiness overload, rather than bewildering nonsense). It simply does not make sense. How did the Night Fox get into that house in Amsterdam? Conveniently not explained. How did Benedict find all of the Twelve at once? Conveniently not explained. How did Julia Roberts’ plot twist work, while Matt Damon is with her but does not experience the same story change? Conveniently brushed off. How in the name of Zeus did a certain someone show up out of the blue while the gang was locked up and help them with a certain problem? How was this individual aware of certain aspects of Isabel Lahiri’s paperwork? An outlandish narrative convenience… or a satire of the genre? Why was so little narrative dedicated to convincing the audience of Benedict’s extremely vindictive motivation? How else do you explain the obvious expenses the thieves racked up in their very quest to make money? I mean, come on, when Damon and the other two remaining thieves start spouting off all the heist jargon as they try to figure out a contingency plan… it’s preposterous. No one talks like that

    Maybe I’m reaching. But either way you slice it, O12 is much, much more enjoyable as a *satire* of the heist film. That’s the only way I can understand the film. I know why a sequel was made, certainly: The original made over $450 million dollars worldwide, far and away Sod’s most financially successful film. Its closest competitor is Erin Brockovich, which made a little over $250M worldwide, and Traffic clocks in at a little over $200M. Successful, certainly, but not blockbusters like O11 was. A sequel was as inevitable as death and taxes. So it occurs to me that Sod decided he might as well have fun with it — screw with the audience a little, poke fun at the actors themselves (good naturedly), and they still walked away with about $360M.There also might be a meta-commentary going on about American audiences and how little they catch on to stylistic subversion (I am an American myself, for the record) but it’s pure speculation. All I can tell you is that O12 simply does not work as a straightforward film and can really only be enjoyable as a satire. There’s simply too many outrageous scenes and too many cliches. There are simply too many lines of dialog that only make sense if the whole movie is a genre skewer. It’s also much easier on my brain. And I’d like to think that Sod hadn’t morphed into a cynical robber baron who no longer cared about making a good movie.

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    ‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch’ Download and Reviews

    September 15, 2009 by Paul Wall  
    Filed under Comedy, Fantasy, Horror

    “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” Movie Details

    Gremlins 2: The New Batch tagline: Take Your Batch to See the New Batch.
    Gremlins 2 - DVD Cover

    Gremlins 2: The New Batch DVD Cover

    Actors:
  • Jason Presson
  • Zach Galligan Billy Peltzer
    John Glover Daniel Clamp
    Robert Prosky Grandpa Fred
    Robert Picardo Forster
    Christopher Lee Doctor Catheter
    Dick Miller Murray Futterman
    Gedde Watanabe Mr. Katsuji
    Keye Luke Mr. Wing
    Don Stanton Martin
    Dan Stanton Lewis
    Shawn Nelson Wally
    Archie Hahn Forster’s Technician
    Ron Fassler Forster’s Technician
    Time Winters Forster’s Technician
    Alex the Yogurt Jerk
    Directors: Joe Dante IMDB Rating: 6.0/10 out of 21,374 votes

    “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” Movie Review

    “Gremlins 2″ Plot Summary

    The Gremlins are back, and this time, they’ve taken total control over the building of a media mogul. add synopsis

    One of my favorite films. ***** out of 5

    This here is Joe Dante’s best film. It’s a delightful and absolutely charming dark comedy. I begged my mom to take me to see this back in 1990 and thankfully I can say I saw this on the big screen

    Years later when I watch it, I can catch all of the little references and nods to other great films of the past. The Warner Brothers Looney Tune cartoons have obviously made an impact on the directorial style of Joe Dante. What’s great is the combination of this type of humor blended with these devious little monsters wrecking havoc in the Clamp Building. Speaking of Clamp, John Glover was excellent as Daniel Clamp (a parody of Donald Trump). He’s absolutely hilarious!There are many terrific special effects and sequences in the film. It’s hard to tell you which scene is my favorite because I adore every moment of the film. I will say one of the scenes that sticks out for me is when the Bat Gremlin flies out into New York City by day. I just love those excellent shots of him flying through the sky. Of course, the Brain Gremlin and the ‘New York, New York’ number is fantastic as well. ‘Is eeeverybody heere?’ And who could forget when the Gremlins got their revenge for Leonard Maltin’s lambasting of the first Gremlins movie?All this is accompanied by a fantastic Jerry Goldsmith score (which happens to be one of my favorites of his as well). The collaboration between Goldsmith and Dante isn’t unlike that of Hitchcock and Herrmann or Spielberg and Williams

    The film abounds with dark jollity and watching it you can tell that the filmmakers had a fun time making the picture. To include the audience as part of the goings on, is a real treat

    Out of all the thousands of films I have seen, none have been or ever will be more entertaining than Gremlins 2.

    I LOVE it.

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