| Critic |
Review |
Quote |
Analysis |
This Week's Verdict |
Manohla Dargis,
The New York Times |
Ocean's Thirteen |
"But that's how everything rolls in Mr. Soderbergh's Vegas: smoothly and sleekly and low to the ground, without obvious effort and, most important, without ugliness. America's playground has never looked more glamorous and seductive than it does in the first and most recent Ocean's.
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Not entirely sure if "America's playground" is supposed to be Hollywood or Vegas. But seriously people, let's remember what we're dealing with here. Ken Loach this is not. In this country we do not go to the movies to see ugly people.
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Stephen Hunter,
The Washington Post |
Ocean's Thirteen |
"Steven Soderbergh is just having too much fun. The details, the plots, the stratagems, the counter-stratagems mount and mount and mount until the thing reaches a point of such overplotted density it can't be penetrated. And, oh, yeah, you've got both Brad Pitt and Clooney, two of the best actors and greatest stars in the movies today. Why can't you think up something for them to do? They just sort of stand there." |
Enter summer movies, phase two. The weather gets hotter, plots get denser and critics call in predictable reviews that don't require much thinking. (Let's just pretend we didn't read that part about "best actors," shall we.)
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J. Hoberman,
The Village Voice |
Ocean's Thirteen |
"Pirates of the Caribbean effectively glamorizes piracy. Similarly, Ocean's 13, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's latest remake of Frank Sinatra's rat pack Vegas caper, the essence of curdled ring-a-ding-ding, is the surest bet in showbiz. It's a spectacle blatantly predicated on a smug gaggle of mega movie stars in boss threads ostentatiously having fun by pretending to steal the house's money, while actually taking yours." |
This may well be the case, but an old saying (was it P.T. Barnum?) has it that Americans love being conned — as long as it's entertaining — so why is J. Hoberman whining? Can't the man just sit back and enjoy the show and the air-conditioning while having his pockets slickly picked?
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Dana Stevens,
Slate.com |
Ocean's Thirteen |
"But the Ocean movies aren't about plot, logic, or character development. They're spa experiences, two-hour-long immersions in a warm tub of Vegas (and Vegas-movie) nostalgia. [...] Surrendering to Ocean's 13's pleasurable surfaces — the green of the gaming tables, the deft, volleying banter, the admirable cut of Clooney's jib — is sort of like admitting your attraction to a luxury brand: Sure, those alligator loafers are extravagant nonsense, but they feel so nice on your feet." |
Dana Stevens gets it. Ocean's 13 is about the pleasure of the ride. Something about this movie harkens back to the gilded age. The epigraph to Huckleberry Finn seems to fit: "Persons attempting to find a motive will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot will be shot."
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Armond White,
New York Press |
La Vie en Rose |
"It's early for Oscar-baiting, but Marion Cotillard's performance as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose puts itself on the hook. It also makes one assess the notable characterizations that highlight the movie year so far: Eddie Murphy in Norbit, Julie Christie in Away From Her, Rie Rasmussen in Angel-A, Diane Keaton in Because I Said So, Gerard Butler in 300, Derek Magyar in Boy Culture, Jamel Debbouze in Angel-A, Juliette Binoche in Paris, Je t'aime, Albert Finney in Amazing Grace, Lambert Wilson in Private Fears in Public Places. Not just a list, these are signposts of how human nature is creatively perceived by actors and filmmakers in the grip of fresh inspiration." |
Armond White may well be right about La Vie en Rose being precisely the kind of inoffensive foreign film that the Academy digs, but 300, Because I Said So and Norbit will garner little gold men? Really? You've got to love a critic this iconoclastic. |
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