I really enjoyed Ocean’s Eleven, with its blend of caper and comedy and terrific cast, so while it wasn’t exactly crying out for a sequel, I had been pretty keen on seeing Ocean’s Twelve even though the reviews were fairly lukewarm. Whereas the first one was a heist film foremost and a comedy second, the sequel flips that around playing more for laughs and trading on the charisma and chemistry of the players rather than concentrate on the heists. The end result is considerably sillier and more lightweight, though still pretty enjoyable.

After getting away with robbing the Bellagio in the original, someone feeds the whereabouts of all the thieves to thieve-ee Terry Benedict who proceeds to… persuade them all to return the money they took from him. This, of course, requires more heists, this time in Europe. The new member of the cast, thus necessitating the increment in movie title, is Catherine Zeta-Jones (whose haircut really works for her…) as an police detective and Brad Pitt’s ex-girlfriend looking to take the gang down. As I mentioned before, this film really looks to play up the humour, particularly in the third act where things become ridiculous beyond the point of incredulity, but at least entertainingly so.

However I was disappointed in how incidental the heists became – they weren’t so much integral to the plot as just devices to give Clooney and the boys to banter and josh. Almost every interesting plot twist is recounted in flashback form, stripping away much of the suspense that might have otherwise come from it and forcing the viewer to suspend disbelief that much further. There does come a point that it becomes pretty damn hard to suspend disbelief that someone could plan that many moves in advance, even a criminal mastermind like George Clooney.

Feist has a new website with some nice new content. I particularly liked seeing the video for Broken Social Scene’s “Almost Crimes”. From For The Records.

…And now it’s a triple-header. Arcade Fire, Danforth Music Hall, April 26. You know the drill.

It’s 1994 all over again! Nine Inch Nails – yes, those Nine Inch Nails – are at the Kool Haus for two shows May 9 and 10 and Garbage is at the Kool Haus on April 25. Remember Garbage? Sure you do. They were that band. With that song. And Nine Inch Nails were that other band. With that other song. Both acts have new albums to flog, but you know the crowd will only want to hear those old songs. Congratulations Trent, Shirley, you’re officially classic rock. More Cowbell has NIN presale info.

I’ve begun playing Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. I’d held off for a little while, but have given in. Remember me fondly.

But in an attempt to counter the hours that will be devoured by trying to save the galaxy from Dark Jedi (or maybe I’ll go Dark and try and destroy the galaxy), I am becoming proactive on my long-rumoured redesign. Seriously – there are photoshop files, massive FTP transfers, code being written… it’s all very impressive. I hope to have it down before Guns’N’Roses release Chinese Democracy.

np – Shoegazeradio.com

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