filmland / By Charlie Myers

Charlie surivives Ocean’s Thirteen

(June 14, 2007) PREVIEWS

Based on my experience with Fantastic Four, I found nothing particularly fantastic about the four. Nonetheless, opening Friday, June 15, is Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer , which brings back director Tim Story and the same quartet of actors as Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), Sue Storm (Jessica Alba — so beautiful, such a bad actor), Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) and The Thing (Michael Chiklis, who just survived the penultimate season of The Shield). Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon, taking a break from nipping and tucking) is also back, but added to the mix is a doom-saying, intergalactic surfer known as The Silver Surfer. I can feel the spray (or is that ions?) already. Rated PG for scenes of action violence, some mild language and innuendo. 102 m. At the Broadway and Mill Creek.

GALLERY >

Sixteen-year-old Emma Roberts (daughter of Eric, which makes her Julia’s niece) updates (I hope) Nancy Drew , a character from the popular books that were first published beginning in 1930 when roadsters and rumble seats reigned. In this film, written and directed by Andrew Fleming, Nancy goes on a business trip to L.A. with her father (Tate Donovan, Jimmy Cooper on the lamentably dead series The O.C.), where Nancy investigates the murder of a movie star. I bet she figures everything out. Rated PG for mild violence, thematic elements and brief language. 109 m. At The Movies, Mill Creek and The Fortuna.

Finally, The Valet (La Doublure) is a French farce about a philandering billionaire businessman who tries to convince his wife that the beautiful super-model Elena (Alice Taglioni) is not his lover, which she is. His strategy? He convinces a passing valet to move in with Elena and pretend to be a couple. Why don’t I ever walk by a rich guy at the right moment? Written and directed by Francis Veber, the film stars the excellent Daniel Auteuil (Caché) as the straying businessman. Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language. 95 m. At the Minor.

REVIEWS

OCEAN’S THIRTEEN : Ocean’s Thirteen is complete fluff that, however, has a lot more enjoyable moments than Twelve. I should begin by saying that the viewer will probably have a lot more fun with this film if she/he doesn’t try to figure out all the plot minutiae. In fact, I’m convinced that director Steven Soderbergh has, to a small degree, used the Twin Peaks strategy in this film without stretching it out interminably, as David Lynch did in that series. That is to say, many of the short scenes in the film have more to do with the interchanges between the actors than they do with plot advancement. It is only in the longer scenes, many of them accompanied by nice tracking shots, that the plot takes center stage. It’s not that the film doesn’t have a plot. Danny Ocean (George Clooney) has come to Las Vegas to avenge his former mentor Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould), who has been betrayed in a casino business deal by Willie Bank (Al Pacino). In fact, Reuben is so upset that someone who once shook Frank Sinatra’s hand could betray him that he has what we professionals call a myocardial infarction. So Danny O and the gang set out to get Reuben’s money back and wreak havoc upon Willie’s spanking new casino as well. Along the way, a factory in Mexico, sets of diamonds that Willie has won with past casinos, an “impregnable” computer system and the seduction of Willie’s executive director Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin) are thrown into the mix. But who cares? The primary fun in this film is the interchanges between smooth-as-silk actors, who clearly enjoy working with each other, particularly those between Brad Pitt (as Rusty Ryan) and Clooney, who only need to speak in fragments as they already know each other’s thoughts. And, as in Ocean’s Eleven, the payoff is skillfully handled and a lot of fun to watch unfolding, particularly when Soderbergh is able to put one over on the viewer. Sadly, though, I thought Barkin was totally wasted in the film. The seduction scene between her and Matt Damon (as Linus Caldwell, complete with a fake nose) was vaguely reminiscent of the fumbling, and much funnier, one in The Big Easy (where Barkin’s character tells Dennis Quaid’s, “I’ve never been very good at this.”), but overall her character is virtually extraneous. Al Pacino seems to have settled into an uninventive sameness, but that works all right here. Soderbergh makes good use of editing to move along the narrative, the in-jokes are funny and the film works well on its own terms. I’m sorry about Barkin, but my heart’s been broken before; I’ll just have to rent Siesta or Sea of Love. Rated PG-13 for brief sensuality. 132 m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek, the Minor and the Fortuna.

1 2 3 NEXT PAGE >SHARE