Showing posts with label Sandra Bullock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sandra Bullock. Show all posts

Monday, June 11, 2018

Ocean's 8 (2018)

I suppose there are only so many ways you can do a heist movie.  They tend to be formulaic, almost like Hallmark movies.  The formula usually starts with one person hatching a plan and assembling the right team.  They’ll need someone to crack a safe or someone to infiltrate security.  Maybe they’ll use someone in disguise.  They might have an inside person.  They’ll almost always need someone to fence the merchandise.

The second phase is usually the preparation.  The team has to go over the plan.  They get any supplies they need, like vehicles.  They do any prep work.  There’s usually exactly one major setback when someone discovers something has changed.  It’s usually a critical detail, like the type of vault has changed to the one vault that can’t be cracked.

Once that’s out of the way, the third phase begins, which is the actual heist.  This is where everyone pays attention.  The well-orchestrated plan usually goes off with maybe one or two hitches.  Someone has to improvise, creating tension, but they always pull it off.  (Even when it seems that they don’t, it might mean that it was all part of the plan.)

Part four is the aftermath.  This is where the characters will sell off any items that aren’t cash and split the proceeds.  We’ll also get to see any of those details that we missed.  There may be a few lingering details, like getting rid of the police, but these points are usually minor.

Ocean’s 8 focuses on the sister of Danny Ocean, one Debbie Ocean.  She has been planning a heist during her time in jail.  She’s had five years and eight months to work out the details.  Her plan is to steal diamonds that has been in storage for several decades.  She gets Cartier to put the necklace on the neck of unsuspecting actress Daphne Kluger, who can then be led into a bathroom where the team can steal the goods.

In some respects, this is almost the very definition of a sequel/remake/spin-off that I hate.  There’s a very cookie-cutter feel to it.  The question becomes if the ingredients will be enough of a difference.  There are a few tense moments, but you always get the impression that it’s going to work.  (Well, it worked in the other three movies.  Didn’t it?)

The main characters also seem to work naturally together.  Each one has a reason for wanting to do this.  A few even have to be mildly goaded into doing it.  I never felt like any of the characters were out of place or unnatural.  And yes, it’s an all-female team doing the heist.  I’m glad not to have heard much in that respect.  It really didn’t matter.  I will say it was fun to watch James Corden as the insurance guy.  He played the part perfectly.

My only question is why Danny Ocean couldn’t have been in this movie.  We get a few reprisals of roles from the original trilogy.  (A trilogy based on remake, it’s worth noting.)  The movie has Debbie visiting her brother’s mausoleum early in the film.  He apparently died in 2018, prior to the events of the film but long after the events of the previous one.  Is this to say that there’s no going back?

At least the movie was entertaining.  I never felt bored or as if I was rewatching the other movies.  (This may have to do with the fact that it’s been so long since Ocean‘s 13.)  I think had I not had Moviepass, I may have waited for this to come out on DVD if I saw it at all.  I may not have really taken a chance on it.  As much as I like the actors, there’s always that fear that it’s going to be too much like the previous movies.


Sunday, April 05, 2015

Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.
 

I had been meaning to see this movie ever since it came out. Way, way back in 1992, the movie was being filmed. Part of the movie was being filmed in Biscayne Park, Florida, not more than a few blocks from my house. I had actually wanted to go see it, but I had school on the days that the scenes were being filmed. Had it not been for that, you might have seen me in the stands watching the baseball games. However, I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I get to that, I should tell you a little about the movie.

The movie starts with Frank exercising in his apartment. It’s so hot that he’s exercising in the nude. (Don’t worry; you don’t see anything.) His landlady, who has a delivery for him, interrupts the workout. It’s a birthday present from his son, who’s supposed to take him to see the fireworks on the Fourth of July. (Frank’s birthday is on July third, so it works out pretty well.)

Unfortunately, Frank gets word that his son won’t be able to make it, as he supposedly has to work over the holiday weekend. Frank decides to go to the park rather that wait for his landlady to fix his air conditioner. Once there, he meets Walter, a retired barber from Cuba. Frank starts talking with Walter, despite the fact that Walter doesn’t seem too interested. He tells Walter about how he used to be a sea captain.

It’s a rough start, but the two become friends. They eventually learn to be a little more like each other; Walter loosens up while Frank learns to behave. It ends up being an odd-couple sort of friendship. The two even end up watching fireworks together, but it’s not quite what either of them had originally planned on.

I’m not giving away that much of the plot here. There’s a lot more to the movie, and I do recommend that you watch it. I have to admit that it’s not the kind of movie that you want to watch with your children. Frank curses like you’d expect a sailor to. There is nudity, although you don’t really see anything.

As I mentioned earlier, the movie was filmed in South Florida. Most of the movie was filmed in Broward. (The buses are Broward County buses with the “Broward” removed.) It’s odd to see so many familiar places in the movie. I had assumed (incorrectly) that there was only one little league game, but there were actually several throughout the movie. (It was really odd to see places so close to home.)

I give the movie four stars. Everything about this movie was great from the acting to the story. The only reason that I hadn’t rented it earlier is that it’s never been released on DVD. (I would have rented it from NetFlix by now if it had.) You’re going to have to find it on VHS. 


(Update: As of April 5th, 2015, Amazon has it on DVD, although it's manufactured on demand.  The link above is for streaming.)



Thursday, May 22, 2014

Gravity (2013) Review

I had seen the coming attractions for Gravity.  It was the kind of movie I’d be interested in seeing, but not necessarily in renting.  When my parents got it from Netflix, they kept it over the weekend, giving me a chance to watch it myself.  The story goes that Ryan Stone, played by Sandra Bullock, and Matt Kowalski, played by George Clooney, are making repairs to some orbiting equipment.  When disaster strikes, they have to make it to the International Space Station to get home.  I was mostly curious to see how they made a 91-minute film from this.

Normally, I’m accustomed to going into greater detail about the plot, but there’s not much to describe.  After the Russians destroy one of their own satellites, the debris destroys the shuttle that Stone and Kowalski were planning on taking back home.  Kowalski has thrusters, which he can use to get the two of them to the ISS, which has escape pods.  Unfortunately, one has been used and the other is in no condition to be used safely, making the only remaining option a nearby Chinese escape pod.

Much of the movie comes from suspense.  Unless they can make it to an escape pod, there are three ways the movie could end for the two characters:  They could drift off in to space and die a cold death, they could drift towards Earth and die a fiery death during reentry, or they could continue in orbit and hope the debris doesn’t get them.  Unfortunately, Kowalski wasted a lot of his jet fuel having fun around the equipment they were supposed to be repairing.  (I can’t say I blame him.  I wouldn’t expect Russian space debris, either.)

I could also see this being a vehicle for 3-D effects.  I’ve always hated that DVDs tend not to have a 3-D version.  I imagine that the big problem is not wanting to have to ship special glasses.  Then again, it might be something that they could sell separately.  (Maybe free 3-D glasses with an upgrade?)  I would have like to have seen this movie in 3-D.  I probably would have watched that version if I had been given the option.

There was some notoriety when Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out a few mistakes that the movie made.  )He later pointed out that the movie got a lot right, including how the debris behaved.)  Admittedly, though, a few liberties were taken for the sake of the story.  I don’t think it would have been as suspenseful if they had stuck to all the laws of physics.

I should warn you that people do die.  This isn’t ruining anything, as it happens in the first few minutes.  I bring this up because we get to see them after they’ve been killed and it’s not pretty.  If you’re squeamish about this at all, you may want to consider that.  Overall, I would probably only recommend this to someone if they’re a fan of Bullock of Clooney.  I probably wouldn’t have watched this if my parents hadn’t rented it.