Flutterby™! : Ocean's 11 2002-07-22 16:08:41+00

Ocean's 11

2002-07-22 16:08:41+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

Charlene and I watched the remake of Ocean's 11 last night. While I agree with Columbine that this is a film about snappy timing, I'd like to smack the screenwriter, and I'd like to propose a new holiday: National Slap-An-Art-Director Day. On the screenwriter, what the hell was up with that science fiction deus-ex-machina plot device? If you need that effect, why not just build it with reality? I don't want to drop a spoiler in here, but most casino security systems have a perfectly reasonable flaw that could have been made to fill that plot hole perfectly; I happen to know this 'cause my dad's worked on large power systems, but it's not like it's any big secret. And on National Slap-An-Art-Director Day, if I see visible laser beams on a security system one more freakin' time, someone needs to get hurt. It's not like it's hard to write that in either. Overall, I loved the acting, I loved the snappy timing, the direction was decent, although they could've gotten a more beleivable love interest than Julia Roberts, it was a great mood piece, but it would've actually been a film I could recommend if they'd managed to put a story without plot holes big enough to put the damned casinos in in there somewhere.

What amazes me is that the story could have been almost wholly plausible - well, plausible enough to not drag the viewer out of the experience - without the pinch. (That sentence, and indeed most of this post, is worded so as to be acceptably cryptic if you haven't seen the film.) I don't know why they put in the pinch, since they were well on their way to accomplishing what it needed to do WITHOUT it. That is, they had no reason to write in the hitch that causes them to need the pinch in the first place. Except to hurt the Chinese guy's hand, and that was more or less gratuitously added as well.

But the pinch is indeed mighty cool, and I loved the fact that it expands the amount of time we get to see the Basher, one of my favorite characters in the film. Come to think of it, maybe that's why they did it ....

As for visible lasers, I have just come to accept them as Hollywood shorthand. (Actually, it bothers me more that they are sometimes represented as being lasers when in practice they would almost always be infrared. Still invisible, though.) Aside from one quick reference to "motion detectors" there is no other clue that the beams are there, or any clue as to WHY they'd be there, or anything that would lead the audience to understand in advance why such precautions are needed to finesse them. (I stipulate that some fancy exposition could have probably done the trick.) Anyway, visible beams are the lazy way to remind everybody what's what.

Last time I was in Florida visiting my folks, my Grandmother and I were flipping channels and came across Sammy Davis, Jr. singing something about 'Ocean's Eleven'. Turned out to be the original Ocean's Eleven. I liked it alot better. Not as slick, but definitely more of an art form. But I don't think the brat-pack from the new version could hold a candle to the original Rat Pack.

I didn't know Ocean's 11 was a remake until after I'd seen the new one. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

As for laser tripwires and the like; I've decided that I get more entertainment value out of look-and-feel than technological accuracy. This kind of stuff doesn't bother me any more. But then I may be more easy-going when it comes to suspending my disbelief.

Meuon's theorum: The more complex a security system is, the better the chances it's non-functional because someone got tired of all the false alarms.

And.. I enjoyed Minority Report. But Tom Cruises eyeball still let him back into sacrosanct area's after he was a wanted criminal? If they had mentioned he had installed a 'back door' it'd make sense, but they did not.