In Defense of Ocean's 12

Ocean's 12 is my favorite entry in the series. Now, it's not in my nature to be mysterious, but I can't talk about it and I can't talk about why.

Ok, that's not true but that's what I love so much about the second Ocean's movie. It's the most funny, the most self aware and reflexive film and the one that is closest to Soderbergh's sensibilities as a filmmaker. While the first film was under the stigma of being a remake and the third movie was for the sake of Warner's summer of 2007, the second movie is truly Soderbergh and the crew having fun, making a movie in Europe. Even though he was working from an original screenplay, Soderbergh's brand of wry humor is all over the movie. Hell, they say Ocean's 11 in the first eight minutes of the movie. From nonsensical ravings with a great Robbie Coltrane, to playing with movie star Bruce Willis as movie star Bruce Willis and a twist you won't believe until they try to pull it off, Ocean's 12 is Soderbergh at his most daring with a huge studio budget. From Connecticut to Rome, Topher Grace to Albert Finney, Ocean's 12 takes the original and turns it on its head.

And it's a better story to boot. Not only does the crew have to pay back Andy Garcia's ever-unflappable Terry Benedict, but they also have a challenging nemesis in billionaire playboy Francois Toulour as the Night Fox. Vincent Cassel plays the villian who wants nothing more than to prove that his skills are superior to Ocean's crew and he has fun with his linguistic, acting and athletic talents even though he ultimately falls short. Furthermore, Catherine Zeta-Jones has a much better role as the female interest than Julia Roberts had in the original as Rusty's femme fatale Interpol agent Isabel Lahiri. Chasing after Rusty for over ten years and fighting her feelings for him, the two of them have great chemistry together and form the emotional core of the story that actually pays off in the end. Not to say that her character overshadows Julia Robert's Tess who plays a large part in the caper that you're either rolling with or it with totally throw you off.

Speaking of playing a larger role in the caper, Matt Damon's really comes out to run with the big boys, taking a hand in planning the job and running the ship when everyone gets pinched. In between a Bourne movie and a Gilliam movie, Damon actually wanted to take a smaller part in the movie, but Soderbergh insisted that the Linus story was integral to the film and refused to write it down. And Damon delivers in spades with a character resolution that not only hits the mark, but pay offs in the third movie as well.

While it may have it's detractors, true films buff should recognize Ocean's 12 for what it really is. The best Soderbergh film in the Ocean's trilogy.

Plus, the movie introduces Eddie Izzard as the tech connect Roman Nagel.

Tarantino, The Glourious Basterd Himself

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is truly Quentin Tarantino's movie. Not as self-indulgent as Death Proof, but utilizing all of his ability like he did in Kill Bill, it's certainly the biggest movie he's ever made and after being ten years in the making and starring the biggest movie star in the world, it will probably be the biggest hit of his career. But, is it his best film?

Like the boys in Swingers, I subscribe to the theory that Tarantino bites everything from Scorsese. And Hawks. And Leone, Bava, Kubrick and so many others. Which isn't to say I don't enjoy Tarantino's movies, I probably enjoy them more because I am aware of all the films that are being stolen, I mean, 'referenced'. When he is on his game, films like Jackie Brown are wonderful. He writes fantastically for his characters and his own world and the film is very darkly funny if you think Nazis were evil and killing them by any means necessary is a good thing. Twisting three story lines together from Jewish refugees to secret Allied operations and the Basterds themselves, the movie follows a typically QT non-linear structure that jumps back and forth between the three but gives equal time to all. You can tell he has spent almost a decade on the script and while it shows a lot of growth and development, he still relies on his older methods to make it through certain parts of the script. Basterds feels almost like he has tired of the criticisms and decides to steal mostly from himself. The film is mostly scenes of people sitting around, talking to each other with an occasional bloody killing to break them up. Divided in chapters a la, Kill Bill, each one involves at least one tension filled scene of terrific dialogue and great acting across drinks and a table. After strudel with the Jew Hunter in a Parisian cafe, you basically know how the rest of these are going to end up and they become redundant. The rest of the Tarantino hallmarks are here from close ups of Diane Kruger's feet, to voice over narration and other B-movies tricks.

Foot fetishes aside, what I enjoyed most about the movie was how much of it centered around cinema. For those moviegoers without a general knowledge of pre-WWII film, and specifically, early German cinema, there won't be anything that will be taken away from the enjoyment of the movie by missing these references, but for cinephiles like Tarantino himself, you can smile and nod at the discussions of Pabst, film nitrate stock and Riefenstahl, as well as Chaplin, King Kong and Dietrich.

The performances all around are terrific, particularly when one considers most of the movie is spoken in languages that Tarantino himself doesn't speak. He shows tremendous faith in his European actors and they do not disappoint. Christoph Waltz and Michael Fassbinder as German and British soldiers, respectively are terrific and shine in their scenes. But, Melanie Laurent, as a Jewish woman living in occupied France, is mesmerizing on screen. Her mere presence gives us a sense of tension and fear at her true identity being discovered, but Tarantino ratchets it up whenever he gets the chance. I would have liked to see more resolution between her character and Waltz' 'Jew Hunter', but that was not to be.

PS - Brad Pitt is awesome in the film. But he's also awesome in real life.