Saturday, December 8, 2007

An Interesting Discovery



Though I was thoroughly impressed with the previous two installments ala Daniel Ocean (not only because of G. Clooney but because I thought they were quality films), I found this to be my favorite one. I have only talked to one other person about this really, and he said this one was his least favorite one, that it sucked, and that he hated it. This person was my husband, of course, and it is extremely rare that we differ on our opinions of movies so naturally I was confused as to how I ended up loving something he found so lame. What he hated most about it was that they basically spelled out everything they were going to do straight off from the beginning and then they did it. I guess the little union strike at the dice plant was thrown in for a bit of I don't know what, but mostly, I agree with that viewpoint. The difference in the viewing experiences came, I'm pretty sure, from him watching the film with the subtitles on. I did not do this. I watched this for the first time back in September while we were at the Marriot waiting for our house to get finished with the volume down low during the kids' naps. I didn't "get" many of the Vegas/Gambling references but in context, I had a very basic idea of what was going down. I remember thinking that your average filmgoer would probably have been very perplexed at all the inside lingo and how frequently they all spoke it, finishing each others' sentences, etc. But I also think that was the point of the movie this time around, second sequal, blah blah blah. Many people I know hated how the second one turned out and thought the twists were completely out of no where. Yeah, kinda. But I still totally think it was a fine effort nonetheless. Toloure dancing in the blue lazer fields? COME ON. That shit is some kind of genius. The whole explanation scene on the train? Beautiful.

Anywho. I can definitely see where having everything spelled out to you (as is with subtitles) would dampen the effect of the big bang at the end, even if you are sophisticated enough to understand all the heist pretense. Regardless, I still think it was great. Outlandish in parts, yes, but again, very much the point, right? Some of my favorite scenes, in all three films actually, are the exchanges between Scott Caan and Casey Affleck (the utah brothers?) Nice. I'm glad I saw it.

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