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REVIEWSPREVIEWS
Ocean’s Twelve
After pulling off an impressive $160 million heist, Danny Ocean’s (George Clooney’s) crew is trying to lie low, but this is not to be as their victim Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), wants his money back … with interest. And the team only has 15 days to deliver.
To produce the necessary amount, Ocean leads his team to Europe, since they are too notorious in the United States. On the other hand, the crooks have another rival, Francois Toulour (Vincent Cassel), also known as ‘Night Fox,’ who is jealous of the boys because he thinks they got extra unnecessary attention for their original Las Vegas robbery. Keeping a sharp eye on every move of theirs and spoiling their criminal attempts, Toulour turns out to be a real pain in the behind for them. And so does Rusty’s (Brad Pitt) ex-girlfriend and international cop Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones). The guys really have it awkward this time around.
The 12th member of the gang is Ocean’s wife Tess (Julia Roberts), who becomes a friend in need for the thieves when they are all nabbed in an attempt to steal a golden egg displayed in a Paris museum.
No doubt Ocean’s Twelve follows its predecessor quite faithfully throwing in some laughs for the viewers. And the best among them is when Julia pretends to be the famous Julia Roberts in her effort to steal the golden egg and encounters Bruce Willis. —Aftab Borka
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Mr 3000
It’s not really a comedy flick. Nor is it an underdog rags-to-riches drama. Mr 3000 is a potpourri of sports and comedy drama which lies somewhere in between the conventional categories.
Bernie Mac in his first leading role plays Stan Ross, a legendary baseball player with all the whims of a snobby celebrity who hits the elusive 3000 base hits to be eligible for the exclusive Hall of Fame. He retires midway through the season leaving his team high and dry. Now nine years down the line when his turn finally comes to be inducted into the Hall for his record, the record keepers find a flaw in his scores and he falls short of three hits. Desperate for that elusive title, he decides to make a comeback. The only problem is that he’s old and way out of shape. Even when he finally gets himself physically fit, he gets struck out straight in his first five games, becomes the butt of Jay Leno and Tom Arnold jokes and discovers his egotistical past, especially his profane tantrums directed at the press.
He mends his ways, making peace with all those he deserted in the past including his love interest; an ESPN reporter Mo Simmons (Angela Bassett). Ross becomes a team man, his record-seeking hunt goes to the last game, in fact right down to the wire, and the movie climaxes a bit different from the usual.
All in all this flick has all the makings of a typical corny baseball flick, but Mac’s immaculate rendering of the character coupled with the Americans’ love of the game has catapulted the film to a decent hit. —Saqib Khan
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The Ring 2
Hollywood decided to churn out remakes of Japanese horror movies probably because it was running out of themes itself. The Ring, released in 2001, was a remake of Ringu (based on a novel by Koji Suzuki); the highest grossing horror film in Japanese history. As The Ring scored incredible mainstream success, it was imminent that a sequel would follow.
The sequel fast forwards six months: single mother Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) are living in Astoria, Oregon where a puzzling teenage homicide occurs and a videotape is found at the scene of the crime. Rachel snoops around for clues and eventually establishes a link between the homicide and a mysterious videotape that kills anyone who watches it after a week.
Rachel instinctively destroys the videotape but the horror is far from over. The evil ghost Samara Morgan possesses Aidan and begins entrenching herself in his existence. Rachel must dig the secrets from Samara’s past and use the information to oust the ghost from Aidan’s body.
With an opening sequence that emulates that of its predecessor, director Hideo Nakata’s The Ring 2 joins a long list of second-rate sequels. The appearances from the ghost are too erratic and derail the movie. The film makes the mistake of wrapping itself in too many layers and the audience is irritatingly abandoned at dead ends. With its prosaic musical score, the movie is only recommended for die hard fans of The Ring franchise. —Taimur Saleem
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