watched this last night. mike, tell me again why i’m supposed to love it. i thought it was okay but if i’d fallen asleep or if the dvd had jammed i don’t know if i would have cared. in fact, sunhee did fall asleep and doesn’t want to finish it today.
what i liked a lot: matt damon so happily playing third fiddle, and a putz at that; elliott gould–did ocean’s eleven get him any more work? that’s about it–the heist stuff was uninvolving, the script not particularly witty, and it featured catherine zeta-jones (whose appeal continues to elude me). and i would like to point out that the theatrical trailer is NOT a “special” feature. unless that was a joke–if so, it might explain why i didn’t think the movie was a hoot.
The music. The heist scene we see in planning, but then flash-forward to Zeta-Jones investigating, then flashback to a fast-motion fast-cut rehash of the event. The Frankie Muniz joke. The opening–glorious: especially the freezeframe on Pitt jumping out the window. The music. The editing and cinematography and just the look of the thing. The final ‘fight’ on the train between a Yankees and a Red Sox fan. Cassel’s weird dance. The music. The scene at the train station, everybody waiting for a train. The music.
I’m not going to go too far with this; it is not very defensible. But something about it–or the time I saw the film–worked perfectly for me. And the music had much, much, much to do with my appreciation.
i didn’t notice the music, but i watched this last night with zero expectations and liked it a lot. don cheadle with a british accent. catherine zeta-jones, whose appeal does not elude me at all. the look of things: slick, well filmed, well pace. the directing so assured it’s cocky and in your face but you don’t mind cuz everyone is so glorious (this morning i heard on kcrw christine vachon of killer films say that there are some directors that make you relax in your chair with the first scene: you feel taken in hand. i felt that). well paced. cassel’s weird dance. matt damon looking like an idiot but being after all cool. the twist of his mom’s rescuing them all.
what was the music all about? i don’t think i even heard any music.
The music:
in that opening scene, as the camera freezes on Pitt absconding out the window and then lingers for a long, long time on Zeta Jones’ moonlit face, a gorgeous sugary swirl of strings from an Italian (’60s?) pop song play. The soundtrack is endlessly recycling europop from the ’60s or vamping in between a retro-’70s-action-film funk and multiply-sampled beats by a guy named David Holmes. (He also did the music for Out of Sight and the first Ocean’s.)
I’m with you, Gio–everything you describe I remember enjoying. I’ll add one scene: Pitt and Clooney drinking wine and watching tv, the camera trained on them as their eyes go dim and their jaws slacken.
riiiight. man, that song. of course! ornella vanoni. what a great song. i’ve been humming it to myself for days. look, she’s been doing music for 50 years!
i’ll say it again regarding Ocean’s Twelve , please spare me celebrity home movies….
yeah, okay, but isn’t it even a little bit of fun to watch them play with each other? think of a celebrity home movie with, who? alain delon, steve mcqueen (i’m trying to remember actors you like…). and isn’t any big films with a lot of stars a little bit of a celebrity home movie? the departed? or does auteur-ishness and overcrowding of celebrities cancel each other out?
it’s late, man, and i’ve got to write something. i don’t really care about this. just ate some excellent fried saganaki and the world’s all right with me.
I guess I’d go for real home movies but Ocean’s Twelve just dawdles along too much and seems far too pleased with itself…plus I thought it looked weird, or that may just be the DVD I saw.
fried saganaki? gesundheit!