Ocean's Trilogy Retrospective

There is a lot of hype surrounding one of this weekend’s new releases, Logan Lucky. And one of the reasons why is because of who it’s directed by; none other than director Steven Soderbergh. This film serves as a much-heralded return to the big-screen for the director, who ‘retired’ from directing feature films in 2013. Prior to that, Soderbergh had made quite a name for himself in the film industry through his work on various projects. These have ranged from indie flicks like 1989’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape to A-list releases like his pair of efforts from 2000, Erin Brockovich and Traffic, the latter of which won him the Oscar for Best Director at that year’s ceremony. However, just like with Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit earlier this month, today I won’t be doing a full directorial retrospective on Soderbergh’s work because, once again, I don’t have enough time to watch all his films to get this out in time for Logan Lucky. Instead, today we’ll be looking at one of his most famous directorial efforts, the Ocean’s trilogy. The first of these three films, 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven, was a remake of a 1960 film of the same name. The original film featured an all-star ensemble cast highlighted by several members of the era’s iconic ‘group’ of entertainers known as the ‘Rat Pack’, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., etc. The remake features an equally stacked ensemble cast that includes the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and Julia Roberts… and that’s just to name a few. And while the critical reception of this series has varied with each release, all three films have been solid commercial hits with a combined total of over $1.1 billion earned at the box-office. There’s even a spin-off in the works directed by Gary Ross, Ocean’s Eight, which will be headlined by an all-female cast. Today, though, it’s time to hit the casinos and tag along with the charismatic Danny Ocean and his crew as we look back at Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s trilogy.

OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001)

In Ocean’s Eleven, George Clooney stars as Danny Ocean, a charming thief who’s just been released from prison. As soon as he gets out, he enlists 10 of his old associates for a heist on three of Vegas’ biggest casinos; the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand. All three are owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who just so happens to be dating Danny’s ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts), which proves to be one of the main reasons why Danny is undertaking this operation. And really, that’s all that this film has in terms of its plot; at the end of the day, it’s just a simple heist story with minimal character development. Aside from Danny, Tess, his best friend Rusty (Brad Pitt), and ‘rookie’ Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), everyone else is mostly just ‘there’, meaning that there’s not much emotional weight to these proceedings. With that said, though, when the film delivers on exactly what the audience came for (i.e. the heist), that’s where it really shines. Soderbergh does succeed at crafting a slick, stylish, and all-around fun heist thriller that benefits from some excellent cinematography by Peter Andrews… who is really Soderbergh. Yeah, Soderbergh’s one of those directors known for doing the cinematography and editing on their own films under a pseudonym. Anyway, as for the film’s cast, while it’s often been said that they’re mostly just mugging for the camera in these films which, to be fair, is kind of true, they’re still a lot of fun to watch and work off each other incredibly well. Thus, Ocean’s Eleven ultimately succeeds at being exactly what it is; an admittedly simple but overall fun thriller, nothing more, nothing less.

Rating: 4/5

OCEAN’S TWELVE (2004)

Steven Soderbergh has gone on record stating that Ocean’s Twelve is his personal favorite of the three Ocean’s films that he’s directed. However, he’s sort of in the minority on that one, as Ocean’s Twelve received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and is generally considered to be the weakest of the trilogy. And overall… unfortunately, Mr. Soderbergh, I find that I agree with the critics on this one. Ocean’s Twelve is an oddly assembled sequel, as it doesn’t do much of what it’s meant to be about, heists. In fact, most of the main protagonists end up in jail at one point or another, meaning that they’re often separated from each other for most of the runtime which, therefore, goes against the series’ team dynamic. And despite starting out with what appears to be another simple heist plot, this film then goes all over the place in terms of its narrative, including the infamous scene where Danny’s wife Tess pretends to be Julia Roberts for a heist (just as a reminder, Tess is played by Julia Roberts). This scene, complete with a random Bruce Willis cameo, soon descends into complete absurdity, to the point where I genuinely got disoriented at one point as to just what the heck was going on in it. Now, in Soderbergh’s defense, I can at least understand as to why this is his favorite entry in the trilogy. Stylistically speaking, this entry in the series feels the most Soderbergh-esque, with experimental camera work (i.e. a TON of panning shots) and a meta vibe to the proceedings. In fact, it could be argued that, with this film, Soderbergh was going against the norms of a traditional Hollywood sequel. Still, I think that he was being a bit too experimental with this one, resulting in a frustrating film that doesn’t really have a lot of what made the first film so entertaining. Whereas that film left me entertained, this film just left me feeling empty.

Rating: 1.5/5

OCEAN’S THIRTEEN (2007)

After experimenting with Ocean’s Twelve to mixed results, Soderbergh returned to basics with the third and final installment of the trilogy, Ocean’s Thirteen… which makes it more of a superior sequel than its immediate predecessor. Now, sure, it could be argued that, by doing so, this makes the film more of a ‘safe’ sequel. However, this also means that, unlike the previous film, this film’s focus is exactly where it needs to be, and that is on Danny Ocean and co. and their heist. In fact, this film benefits from much stronger pacing compared to both the previous two films. Whereas those films started off slow to set things up, this film gets right into the action. Plus, while there wasn’t really anything to get emotionally attached to in either of the first two films’ plots, this one does, in fact, have more to it in terms of its emotional stakes. The main plot revolves around Danny and the gang attempting a heist on a new Vegas casino owned by hotel owner Willy Bank, a highly entertaining villain played by Al Pacino. This also happens to be more of a personal job for the group, as Bank had screwed over their ally Reuben (Elliott Gould) when building it. The film also does a nice job of showcasing how things have changed in the gaming industry since the original film. This ends up making things harder for the group during the heist, like when they must deal with the casino’s advanced computer system which can track the legitimacy of a player’s winnings. Granted, I’m not saying that all this makes the plot and character development that much better compared to what we saw before. But, thanks to what is easily Soderbergh’s best directing job on this entire trilogy, Ocean’s Thirteen ends up being the rare case in which a threequel is ultimately the best installment of its trilogy. Yeah, it’s mainly just popcorn entertainment, but when it’s this well-made, who am I to judge?

Rating: 4.5/5

Money Monster (2016) review

In describing the film Money Monster, I’m going to use a connection that I bet a few other critics have made as well in regards to the film. And that is the fact that this film shares quite a few similarities with the film Dog Day Afternoon, which I just so happened to have watched recently for a film class. Both films depict a stand-off situation that ends up becoming a nationally publicized event. And during this time, it is shown that the assailant actually isn’t really that much of a bad guy but instead just an average joe who’s down on his luck that’s committing said crime in order to take on those who wronged him. But whereas the main characters of Dog Day Afternoon were trying to rob a bank and basically kept messing it up, hence why the robbery in that film ended up turning into a standoff, the ‘criminal’ in Money Monster takes the host of a popular finance show hostage after a ‘tip’ that he got from a previous episode ended up majorly backfiring on him. What follows is a tense hostage situation revolving around a big bank conspiracy and a pretty darn well-directed and acted one at that. Director Jodie Foster, in her fourth foray behind the camera, gives us a film that not only succeeds in being a suspenseful thriller but also one that challenges the corruption of the U.S. economy, something that has clearly been on everyone’s minds in recent years (The Big Short, anyone?).

Lee Gates (George Clooney) is the host of the financial show ‘Money Monster’, which for years has been supervised by director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts). About a month prior to the events of the film, Gates had suggested to viewers that they invest in IBIS Global Capital but the company’s stock ends up going kaput presumably due to a glitch in the trading algorithm that it runs on. And that ends up becoming a problem not only for the investors, who collectively lose around $800 million, but for Lee and the crew of ‘Money Monster’ as well. In the middle of a broadcast one day after the IBIS stock crash, a mysterious ‘deliveryman’ walks onto set with a gun. The ‘deliveryman’, Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), takes Lee hostage and forces him to put on an explosive-laden vest. During this time, Kyle reveals that he was one of the many investors who got screwed over by the drop in IBIS’ stock, having invested his entire life savings, $60,000 to be precise, into it after following Lee’s advice. As both Lee and Patty try to keep things under control in the studio, as well as dealing with the police, led by Captain Marcus Powell (Giancarlo Esposito), once they arrive on the scene, they also begin to work with Kyle in order to figure out just what went wrong with IBIS’ stock. And as it turns out, there’s a lot more to this situation than just a supposed ‘algorithm glitch’.

Money Monster definitely delivers in terms of being a tense ‘claustrophobic’ thriller, at least in regards to the scenes where Kyle is holding Lee hostage in the studio. These scenes are well directed and edited and very much do their job in establishing both urgency and a palpable sense of tension throughout. While Patty tries to keep everything under control by communicating with both Lee and Kyle from the control room, Lee attempts to reason with Kyle in order to calm him down so that he won’t take his finger off of the bomb’s detonator. These are easily the best scenes in the film and they also do a very nice job at keeping things as ‘realistic’ as possible. The film also does a good job of maintaining a fittingly serious tone throughout, though there are a few moments of humor that lighten the mood from time to time, especially one particular scene at the end that, without giving too much away, sees the internet poke fun at one specific moment from the climax. Admittedly, the sequences set outside the studio are where the film starts to falter just a bit. I can’t really explain why but the overall ‘conspiracy’ that the film is working towards in regards to what happened with IBIS’ stock isn’t really as strong as the conflict that takes place within the studio. With that said, though, the film should still be commended for its efforts in challenging the corruption of the economy. And in some ways that corruption even comes from shows like ‘Money Monster’, which influenced people like Kyle enough for them to make stupid mistakes with their money by making disastrous investments. 

One of the best things about both this film and Dog Day Afternoon is that both allow the audience to sympathize with their ‘main criminals’ even when taking their not-so-honorable actions into account. Because as noted earlier, despite the fact that Kyle is the ‘gunman’ in this situation, we can sympathize with him in regards to how his financial losses seriously affected him, partially exemplified by a particularly emotionally devastating scene in which his pregnant girlfriend publicly berates him on live TV. Moments like that are very effective and Jack O’Connell handles them all excellently. As expected, he’s backed by a pair of excellent performances from George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Clooney’s trademark charisma is definitely on display here even though his character in this film can be rather smug at times, as shown in the early scenes when he is hosting his show. But once the main plot kicks in and the character becomes Kyle’s hostage, Clooney also does a nice job in conveying Gates’ fear, like when he first puts on the explosive-laden jacket and claims that he’s about to have a heart attack. As for Roberts, she’s also great in a role that serves as the mediator in this hostage situation while also having a solid camaraderie with Clooney. Everyone else in the cast is good as well but because the scenes outside of the studio aren’t really as strong as the ones inside the studio, the real stars of the show are Clooney, Roberts, and O’Connell.

Overall, Money Monster is a very solid real-time thriller that, for the most part, does its job in regards to establishing tension. This of course comes from the primary conflict that emerges between Lee Gates, Patty Fenn, and Kyle Budwell during a live broadcast of Gates’ show ‘Money Monster’. And during this hostage situation, the film does a very honorable job at critiquing the corruption of Wall Street. It isn’t even afraid to point the finger at shows like ‘Money Monster’ for, in their way, having a hand in said corruption. However, the film does suffer a bit when it comes to scenes set outside the studio, with most of these scenes serving as the third act of the film. The conspiracy plot that the film ends up focusing on isn’t really as strong as the suspenseful in-studio conflict. It may have something to do with the fact that this film has a fairly brisk runtime of only 98 minutes. It could be argued that certain moments in the plot are rather rushed over, particularly during the final third of the film. But despite the film’s shortcomings, the lead trio of George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jack O’Connell all do excellent jobs in their respective roles and the scenes involving their characters in-studio do make up for it for the most part. The end result is a film that may not be one of the best of its genre but is still a well-directed effort from Jodie Foster that at least does its job at being a solid and entertaining popcorn flick.

Rating: 3.5/5