Ocean’s Twelve is considered to be much like its predecessor Ocean’s Eleven: nonsense of a lark, with an extravagant plot given life by the blending of the director’s (Steven Soderbergh) exuberance in filmmaking, and the appeal of a star-studded cast. The team of eleven professional thieves (including Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, and Bernie Mac) find themselves in a cat and mouse of all sorts. Ocean’s Twelve shows them being pursued by a few people (which do not bode well for thieves): a guy they once robbed (Andy Garcia), is hot on their heels; a plush but seasoned detective (Catherine Zeta-Jones); and a master thief (Vincent Cassel) who rivals the team’s leader Danny Ocean (George Clooney) as the best thief in the field. As if the stars brightness weren’t nearly enough, Julia Roberts comes back at Ocean’s wife. Ocean’s Twelve definitely packs excellent movie star cameo. All these are equally matched by the skill and guidance of Soderbergh’s screenplay, smart editing, and excellent use of location including Paris, Rome, and Amsterdam as his sites. One might think the movie should collapse under the weight of its own absurdity, but it does no such thing. The film’s boorish spirit flows along, giving lightweight but absolutely believable entertainment.
The divorce comedy Intolerable Cruelty stars a smooth George Clooney squaring off with an alluring Catherine Zeta-Jones. The plot is transparent: a rich and prestigious lawyer (Clooney) adeptly outsmarts a gold digger Marylin Rexroth (Zeta-Jones) when she divorces him. She then plots to get revenge. Born from the ingenious thoughts of the Coen Brothers (Raising Arizona, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou?), who are known for picking bizarre but excellent characters-setting combination, Intolerable Cruelty features a Scottish wedding chapel in Las Vegas, an asthmatic assassin, European nobility (known for constantly stroking fluffy dogs), and an eternally indestructible pre-nuptial agreement. Although slightly held-back considering Coen standards, the move comes across with smooth consistency. It never tumbled into a disappointing finish as most of their movies can, while it never quite reached the height of their best work either. Somewhere in the middle of Coen humor and wit, it is still pretty funny with flawless performance not only from the main leads but also Cedric the Entertainer, Billy Bob Thornton, and Geoffrey Rush as the support cast.
A unique combination of metaphysical romance and science fiction, Solaris stars George Clooney as Chris Kelvin, a psychologist ordered to inspect a space station in orbit around an alien planet and find out why it has stopped communicating. Unknowingly, Kelvin is drawn by the planet’s mysterious power to sort through the human psyche and re-create lost loved ones, in his case, his dead wife (Natascha McElhone). Kelvin then dedicates his energies on bringing his wife back to earth. Directed by Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Traffic), every inch of the film was shot with bodies and faces that it emphasizes the human soul as the movie’s real subject instead of outer space. However, since Solaris is set in ambiguous environment and drove by a script that was written just to implicate things and not really show it, it serves to displace our capacity to really connect with the characters, leaving the film defective of emotional depth. At least Jeremy Davies brings a bit of humor to otherwise serious scenes as a lingering crew of the space station.
After a boring fishing season, Captain Billy Tyne played by George Clooney set out for the one final catch that can make up for it. Tyne forces his boat through the waves of the Flemish Cap off Nova Scotia, knowing nothing about the horrific weather conditions that he and his crew will face by doing so. Three storm fronts are drawn to each other and created a “perfect storm”, so powerful that Billy’s return path to Gloucester, Massachusetts just throws them into the face of the storm. Based on a true story about a monstrous storm that hit New England in 1991 and published as a book by Sebastian Junger, director Wolfgang Petersen had a lot to work with directing The Perfect Storm. Junger’s story made a believable if restrained of what looks like different events, but the film’s adaptation more likely flatten out the tale into a absorbing if conventional story of man versus nature, as the Andrea Gail’s crew pushes itself to survive the humongous waves that storm causes. The climax of the film, which cuts between the efforts of the Coast Guard to rescue a ship in danger, and The Andrea Gail’s fight to remain afloat, brings thrilling action of the highest degree, added with gorgeous waves generated by a computer.
The Perfect Storm however, is a convincing story shoehorned into a regular summer movie fare, lacking the extended main act of calm men, crying women, and a relative amount of “don’t go out to sea” dialogues; which is truly a waste of talent in some point as Petersen succeeded in putting together an excellent cast including John C. Reilly, William Fichtner, Mark Wahlberg, and Diane Lane. It was only Clooney that seemed to have a touch of Captain Ahab in him. If you desire to have the full picture of the plot, refer to the book by Junger, but this film may still win you over.
Three Kings is a bold combination of MASH, Treasure of Sierra Madre, and Dr. Strangelove and is probably the most seriously hilarious war movie ever created. It delves into the strange connection between consumerism and war in the age of cellular phones and Humvees by doing a much better job than the assertion of 1970’s Kelly’s Heroes. One of the most talented filmmakers of the 1990s namely David O. Russell, Three Kings features an unrestrained presentation of personal conscience in the delicate arena of politics.
George Clooney, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) and Mark Wahlberg play a team of U.S. soldiers saddened by their experience Desert Storm who try to burglarize $23 million in gold from Saddam Hussein’s army who hijacked the gold from Kuwait. Taking the assets from an Iraqi stronghold is easy; but keeping it is a very lethal matter. However, by the end of their mission, the four can no longer pay a blind eye on wartime brutality and they decide to help Iraqi insurgents abandoned by the indiscriminate wartime policy implemented by Presided George Bush as dictated by their conscience. Although a very serious film, Russell adds a keen sense of the senseless to it, yielding on the film being an exercise of stunning visual cleverness. Despite an ending considered to be conventional for a pertly unique film, Three Kings presents the mad brutality of war while the insanity makes you laugh out loud.
Out of Sight gained critical reviews, but as the title implies, it adds up the theatrical destiny of Steven Soderbergh’s calmly comic crime stunt and oddity romance based on the novel by Elmore Leonard. However, this is the type of buried treasure home cinema was made to save.
Jack Foley (George Clooney) is an established bank robber. While in prison, he took the chance to escape when another inmate tried to break out of prison. As planned, his partner Buddy (Ving Rhames) was waiting for him. But (not according to their plan) the presence of Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), a federal agent, surprises the two. She finds herself disarmed in more ways than one when she is thrown into the trunk of Buddy’s getaway car with Jack. However, her resolve in aiding the task force made to capture Jack is still strong as Jack plans “one last caper.”
Out of Sight is a very appealing film, stylish without being extravagant, true to the candor of Leonard’s effective dialogue and eccentric characters, and smoothly acted by a dream cast. Performances worth mentioning include Albert Brooks who plays the role of Richard Ripley, who is an insider trader that makes the mistake boasting to the wrong people that in his house, he has $5 million worth of uncut diamonds while he was in prison, Maurice (Don Cheadle) who made an agreement with Jack on stealing the diamonds, Karen’s overprotective father (Dennis Farina), Samuel L. Jackson, and Michael Keaton as FBI agent Ray Nicolet (similar to his role in Jackie Brown). If you appreciated movies like Get Shorty, and Jackie Brown, you’ll find Out of Sight out of sight.
The Peacemaker is DreamWorks’ first feature film and it was made to set the record straight on modern day thrillers. Instead of just a cute script, you will find that this movie is actually expertly planned and paced, and concentrates on the action rather than on special effects. Although not original, it’s really solid. Penned by Michael Schiffer, who has already proven himself once with the energetic thriller Crimson Tide, The Peacemaker is second only to its predecessor. The plot is all about the White House Nuclear Smuggling Group tracking down 10 coveted nuclear bombs following a curious train wreck in Russia. Nicole Kidman plays the acting head of the department and she and her military field officer (played by George Clooney) travel to Europe in search for the bombs. Playing a Bosnian insurgent who works with passion and secrecy is newcomer Marcul Iures, a Romanian actor. Although being called as a “popcorn movie” by critics, The Peacemaker utilizes the ripe emotional depth of the Bosnian War to create tension; which is probably the film’s greatest booster for the dominant charm of George Clooney as a smart advisor who will continue his vengeance without a second thought. Surprisingly enough, Nicole Kidman’s performance matches that of Clooney’s by showing flexibility in separating her serious from her fun fare roles.
One Fine Day is a comedy that will make you believe like it came out of Hollywood’s Golden Age directed by a skilled contract director. But in fact, it is a modern-day version of movies from that time in Hollywood’s history. It all starts with George Clooney meeting Michelle Pfeiffer when their children accidentally bump into each other while playing. Clooney plays an investigative journalist writing for one of New York’s newspaper columns while Pfeiffer is an architect. Coincidentally, both are single parents and soon after the bickering, started to build an affair over the course of the day. Director Michael Hoffman knows exactly what people find funny about wearied caretakers and children who do whatever they want to. Although stretching out a bit at some points in the movie, what really matters is the winning love story the film offers.
A movie that is outrageously full of crime and horror, From Dusk Till Dawn is the result of an unusual collaboration between director Robert Rodriguez and the all too famous fiction genius Quentin Tarantino who wrote the script and starred in the movie as well. Richard Gecko (Tarantino) is a psychopath on the edge of insanity who breaks his brother Seth (George Clooney) from prison. The insane siblings then proceeded to rob a bank, leaving a bloody trail of wounded (if not dead) bodies in their wake. They then take a family hostage with Harvey Keitel playing a former Baptist minister who quit the service after his wife’s passing and hit the road on his mobile home with his two children (Ernest Liu and Juliette Lewis). The Gecko brothers then headed for Mexico to makes a stop at the Titty Twister bar for a money drop without realizing that they just took a step into the nocturnal lair of bloodthirsty vampires. Tarantino and Rodriguez then combined their specialties in an explosion of gunfire, gore, and fanged chaos which includes Salma Hayek as a ravishing dancer whose bite is more dangerous than her bark. Fans who love a film with exploding heads and eyeballs and a lot of blood while still having a really good script will definitely love this one.
In Red Surf, George Clooney plays a surfer who turns to the drug running business to make amends ever since experiencing an injury that destroyed his surfing career. When his girlfriend leaves him, he gets into the business head first and falls deep until he gets into trouble with a treacherous drug dealer. It has a very predictable plot but is still worth watching. Since Red Surf was filmed before Clooney’s days in ER and his rise to movie stardom, audiences will surely note the tremendous potential he has before, and how he came to be the magnificent actor that he is now.
