Movie Review - "Ocean's Thirteen"

The Plot Thickens....

"Oceans Eleven" was an enjoyable, breezy updating of a not-very-good "Rat Pack" movie with a nicely eclectic cast from many walks of the entertainment industry. It was a lark, with no real sense of any danger or risk. It just seemed like director Steve Soderbergh and star George Clooney (partners in the production company, Section 8)were getting free rein of Vegas and dragging along a bunch of pals along with them.

"Oceans Twelve" showed signs of fatigue. Instead of Vegas, it was filmed in Europe. The large majority of the cast was arranged to "rot in jail" for most of its running time, while Matt Damon and Julia Roberts carried the weight of the plot, storyline and ad-libbed dialogue to sometimes excruciating effect (Okay, so Roberts played Tess Ocean, the wife of George Clooney's character, and when he gets way-laid, she flies to Europe where she's recruited to pass herself off as...Julia Roberts, and hilarity ensues when *gasp* Bruce Willis "cameos in" to complicate matters!!) Not much worthwhile there, but Clooney got to write off his Lake Como estate, so I guess that's something.

So, now it's the third go-'round, the unlucky "13" and to "play it safe" and "cover all bets," the crew goes back to Vegas to avenge another hoodwinking of deep-pockets gang member Reuben (Elliott Gould) by another puffed-ego Vegas properties owner, one Willie Bank, played by Al Pacino on cruise control. Once again, it's a con of "Mission: Impossible" proportions involving false identities and acoutrements, loaded dice, coins and roulette balls and the use of not one, but two large tunnelers (that were used to dig the Chunnel we're told) to carry out the various schemes. While it's true you have to spend money to make money this movie takes it to new extremes. Along the way there are pleasant cameos by Julian Sands and Eddie Izzard (Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones' absences are explained away quickly--"it's not their fight"), Vincent Cassel (from "12") and even Exec. Producer Jerry Weintraub. Everything's in place--everybody's a wise-acre, Clooney makers a tuxedo look like casual wear, Pitt's wardrobe is still horrendous, and they even manage to work in Andy Garcia's rival casino owner in on the plot--though fortunately, they don't turn him into a suddenly reformed "good guy." Because Pacino's on board, there's a couple sneaky "Godfather" references in the dialog--one to Pacino's face, but like most of the in-jokes (right down to the last lines) they're so "inside" that they'll probably go over a large portion of heads. But despite these minute differences, it's the first movie all over again--like "Return of the Jedi," the third in the "Star Wars" series and "Last Crusade," in the "Indiana Jones" cycle--but as with those films, the ingredients making up "Ocean's 13" have been left out to curdle a bit. It's fun and all, with a couple of laugh-out-loud moments involving Oprah Winfrey, and Soderbergh directed, shot and edited the thing himself, but is it too much to ask for something a bit more original? One gets the impression that if not for the perks to cast and crew, they would have done well to have left the table and cashed out a little earlier.

"Oceans" 13 is a cable watcher for a rainy Sunday afternoon

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Emmitude

It’s voting season on the Emmy’s, and this year I thought I’d try an experiment—I went to a particularly bitchy message board where opinions were mostly negative and filled with caveats, and offered a chance to vote for what they considered the best comedy series and drama series. I figured this was a chance to “democratize the process,” and to at least have one ballot representing the “masses.”

The result? One reply. One.

Maybe it was because I asked that they say something positive about something, rather than kvetch, but I found the lack of response interesting. In its own unscientific way it says a lot about the non-participatory nature of our electorate. As a result, I’ll take any criticism of the Emmy voting with a grain of salt this year, because in the end it’s done by the people who care enough to participate. Vested interest or no, it’s the folks who show up that matter.

The opportunity gave me a chance to catch with some excellent shows like Discovery’s “Planet Earth,” and NBC’s “Friday Night Lights,” and the goofy “Heroes.”

I was disappointed not to get a chance to catch “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” but for some reason the producing studio and network chose not to send a sample…or campaign for it. Was it because the show didn’t have “legs,” ratings-wise or that it was so critical of television?

Or are folks just sick of Aaron Sorkin writing self-referential (and reverential) material? Anyway, it was disappointing not to catch a glimpse of it.

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Didja hear the latest Bush boner? He went out to the Brown’s Ferry, Alabama nuclear reservation to promote “nukular” power as a safe energy alternative. “I wish people would keep an open mind about it.” Well, there’s keeping an open mind and then there’s having a hole in your head; Brown’s Ferry's Number 1 reactor was just brought back on-line after being shut down for technical problems and safety violations FOR 22 YEARS!!! Don’t you think Karl Rove would have vetted that location a bit better? I mean, shouldn't he have done the tiniest bit of research (Research—that would be nice for this administration)? What’s he doing? Sitting in his office pulling on a fifth? And where are those cute little stage backgrounds he used to paint for Bush speeches that would summarize the speech for those who couldn’t follow his ramblings and stumblings (CLEAN, SAFE NUKULAR POWER)

Sadly, its only the latest of the lazy, incompetent actions coming out of this White House.

Carter had his hand slapped for saying Bush was going to go down in history as one of the worst Presidents. I think people were mad that he said it, not that it wasn’t true.

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Also, Bush's approval rating has taken another dip. He's down to 26% approval, creeping up on Nixon's all-time low of 23%. We may actually get to that statistic we talked about here.