MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: OCEANS TWELVE (2004)

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Monday, May 26, 2008

OCEANS TWELVE (2004)

Filled with the stench of stars bullying us to love them almost as much as they love themselves, this useless sequel succumbs to all the pitfalls deftly avoided in Steven Soderbergh ’s initial pic. (see above) The preposterous set-up (return the loot or Andy Garcia will rub you out); the gamesmanship art robbery plot device (newcomer Vincent Cassel wants to prove he’s the world’s greatest thief); the sentimental wrap-up for Catherine Zeta-Jones & Papa-Bear Albert Finney; and the gag-me-with-a-spoon gag of Julia Roberts pretending to be Julia Roberts (she should look so good) make you feel that you’re on a press junket for the sequel to the sequel. Damned if they didn't go ahead and make one.

NOTE: Just for the record, one of the reasons George Clooney gave for making THIRTEEN was that he knew what a dog TWELVE was. Call Diogenes.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Monday, May 26, 2008

OCEANS TWELVE (2004)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE