Hell House (2001, George Ratliff)

The person who recommended me this movie told me it was "the best film that Christopher Guest didn't direct" and he was spot on.

Hell House is an odd film to write about. I imagine that some will look at it in disgust and will be shocked by what it presents, sort of like how people approached Jesus Camp. While others, I feel, will look at it as a dark comedy with lots of dry humor. I chose to look at it as a comedy since it seems that the director is aiming for that most of time, and as a comedy it is fucking hilarious.

Hell House, for those that do not know, is a documentary which chronicles the auditions, planning, and execution of a haunted house that a couple of Christians put on every year. The twist is that they use planed scenes performed by actors involving issues of school shootings, abortion, the dangers of raves, and being a homosexual to "scare people" who are not accepting God and are not living the way that God wants them too.

The thing which I loved about the film is that it takes what could have been a touchy subject and makes it a subject that is still touchy but given that the people within it are so ridiculous and such character straight out of fiction that you cant help but not take it too seriously. I will also say that another aspect that I loved about the film is that instead of just presenting these characters and making fun of them from a distance the director, George Ratliff, gives enough background to these characters that we can sort of "get them" and we cant hate them. We actually see why some characters are the way they are towards religion. We can only laugh but not point a finger.

That is really all I have to say about the film. I will give it ***1/2 stars for now even though I want to give it 4. This is only because I still want to rewatch the film one more time to see if I was just looking for laughs too much or if the director was really aiming for laughs during some scenes. I guess the grey area that exists is too grey for me for now.

- ***1/2

Ocean's Eleven (2001, Steven Soderbergh)

"Danny Ocean and his ten accomplices plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously"

Once again the plot is Danny Ocean wants some revenge from the guy who is dating his ex wife, so he decides to recruit his team of thieves and rob him. The plot line is the only thing that is similar to the original film along with the name of "Danny Ocean" Even with that, the plot isn't really executed the same at all. Hell, the only real similarity is just the name of the lead character.

This all brings the question of "why remake a movie and then not even remake the movie at all?" I seriously have no idea and even Steven Soderbergh states that he wanted to distance himself from the original. Well, he did a good job at doing that. I think the real reason why Soderbergh decided to "remake" the film is not because he wanted to bring the story to a new audience but instead wanted to try to recapture the slick coolness that is clearly visible in the original film. Here comes the rant....

Soderbergh gives us a film that is a bunch of A-List actors playing their own charming selves while executing a simple and entertaining plot. This same formula is what made the original film so cool, seeing all these actors and musicians just playing themselves and interacting with eachother. Soderbergh nails it right here. The dialogue between the actors seems natural and the actors always seem confident and at ease during the whole film thus making the film entertaining for the audience. If only the "hey lets be cool" factor could end right here. Soderbergh however decides that his direction should be super cool, as should everything else, and this is where I have always had a problem with the film. Soderberghs constant use of using tons of editing tricks, vibrant color tints, non stop jazzy score, and witty storytelling techniques is just too much. it all screams of "THIS IS SO COOL AND SLICK!!" and it never really reaches the level of wittiness or coolness that the film is trying so hard to portray. Sure, the finished product is slick and cool but it would be a lot more cooler and slick if the director wasn't shoving his bag of tricks down your throat every single second.

Now this doesnt mean that I hate the film or even dislike the film. I enjoy the film a lot and think its a great studio film and a very entertaining ride. I just think that it's not the excellent and witty film that it so desperately wants to be.

Soderbergh even with all his hits and misses has always been a very interesting director to me and this is a good proof of what happens when you give a talented and sometimes artistic director the freedom to make a studio film with a big cast. He could have made a straight forward caper film but his constant editing tricks and what nots are always interesting even if they don't work all the time. I applaud him for doing this film and now after seeing the other two installments I really do appreciate what he did with this film. I really do appreciate that he was able to execute this film while never letting things get sloppy and never minimizing any actors screentime or presence. It seems that this is close to impossible to pull off especially after seeing the disaster of Ocean's 12.

- ***