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09/26/2003 Archived Entry: "Movie Night"

MOVIE NIGHT AT FORT SINATRA: I have two books to review and another to finish before reviewing it but I just couldn't get the brain working today so I decided to treat myself to two movies my brother-in-law kindly loaned me on Sunday.

The first was The Others (2001) starring the ever gorgeous Nicole Kidman. A lot of people were down on this movie because they said it moved too slowly and was too long but I have to say in honesty I didn't notice the time. Not as creepy as I thought it would be but I was spooked in a couple of parts.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

I can see why people compared this to The Sixth Sense except I don't think The Others was executed as well. Both had their requisite surprise endings but after you watched TSS you could slap yourself on the forehead and say, "Darn it, all those clues that Bruce Willis was a ghost!". With TO, the best you could say was, "Hey, that bit with her husband seemed a little odd." Still, the surprise ending was a surprise to me. Could be that I'm a damned idiot.

SPOILER ALERT OVER

That said, that scene with the old woman that says, "Are you mad? I am your daughter" was creepy as all heck.

The second movie was Ocean's 11 (2001). People fall into one of three camps with this movie:

1) How dare they remake a classic Rat Pack movie.
2) The original sucked and needed to be remade.
3) It's a movie, lighten up.

I was a member of the first camp until I watched it and am now in the third camp. I thought it was a fun movie and Brad Pitt's clothes were absolutely stunning (how metrosexual of me). Good script, great cast (though Don Cheadle was criminally under used), great acting (Pitt and Elliot Gould were quite good) and it all looked good. (Editor - that's a lot of goods and greats, what were you watching? Lawrence of Arabia?) As the DVD commentary put it, the movie made Las Vegas looked like what we dream it to be, not what it really is.

Saul: I have a question, say we get into the cage, and through the security doors there and down the elevator we can't move, and passed the guards with the guns, and into the vault we can't open...
Rusty: Without being seen by the cameras
Danny: Oh Yeah, sorry, I forgot to mention that
Saul: ...Yeah well say we do all that.. uh.. we're just supposed to walk out of there with $150,000,000 in cash on us, without getting stopped?
Danny: Yeah
Saul: Oh, ok.

I still love the original but I have to give the new one its due. It was light fun and I liked it. Huge fans of the movie will be happy to note that Ocean's 12 will begin filming in February 2004. Oddly enough Andy Garcia is in the sequel....

Replies: 2 comments

Did you see Abres los Ojos, by the same director? It's quite good--much better than the American version from what I understand, Vanilla Sky.

Posted by oj @ 09/26/2003 01:43 PM EST

I haven't seen either the original or the American remake. I have an aversion to Penelope Cruz. No really, she annoys me.

Posted by Steven Martinovich @ 09/26/2003 04:10 PM EST