Gambit (2012)
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 89m
Director: Michael Hoffman
Cast: Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz, Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci, Tom Courtenay
Synopsis:
An art curator employs the services of a Texan rodeo star to revenge himself on his arrogant millionaire boss. The caper involves purveying a fake Monet, worked up by an art forger acquaintance.
Review:
There is so much wrong with this than one cannot help wondering why. Why producer Mike Lobell thought it a good idea in the first place to remake the excellent original; why the Coens transferred the setup to London, replaced the statuette with Monet's haystacks, and then removed all suspense by only introducing the paintings at the last minute; why so much acting talent failed to catch fire on the screen. The answer is the script, which has none of the brothers' trademark wordplay and sparkle, and instead introduces tired situational elements and racial caricatures (English, German, Japanese...) that only distract from the central diegesis, missing that a good caper comedy must be constructed like a good thriller. Thus we have absurd business involving a vase and a window ledge, the stars' being required to take their clothes off for no particular reason, and a sequence involving a lion in an art gallery. The cinematography is okay.
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 89m
Director: Michael Hoffman
Cast: Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz, Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci, Tom Courtenay
Synopsis:
An art curator employs the services of a Texan rodeo star to revenge himself on his arrogant millionaire boss. The caper involves purveying a fake Monet, worked up by an art forger acquaintance.
Review:
There is so much wrong with this than one cannot help wondering why. Why producer Mike Lobell thought it a good idea in the first place to remake the excellent original; why the Coens transferred the setup to London, replaced the statuette with Monet's haystacks, and then removed all suspense by only introducing the paintings at the last minute; why so much acting talent failed to catch fire on the screen. The answer is the script, which has none of the brothers' trademark wordplay and sparkle, and instead introduces tired situational elements and racial caricatures (English, German, Japanese...) that only distract from the central diegesis, missing that a good caper comedy must be constructed like a good thriller. Thus we have absurd business involving a vase and a window ledge, the stars' being required to take their clothes off for no particular reason, and a sequence involving a lion in an art gallery. The cinematography is okay.
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 89m
Director: Michael Hoffman
Cast: Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz, Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci, Tom Courtenay
Synopsis:
An art curator employs the services of a Texan rodeo star to revenge himself on his arrogant millionaire boss. The caper involves purveying a fake Monet, worked up by an art forger acquaintance.
Review:
There is so much wrong with this than one cannot help wondering why. Why producer Mike Lobell thought it a good idea in the first place to remake the excellent original; why the Coens transferred the setup to London, replaced the statuette with Monet's haystacks, and then removed all suspense by only introducing the paintings at the last minute; why so much acting talent failed to catch fire on the screen. The answer is the script, which has none of the brothers' trademark wordplay and sparkle, and instead introduces tired situational elements and racial caricatures (English, German, Japanese...) that only distract from the central diegesis, missing that a good caper comedy must be constructed like a good thriller. Thus we have absurd business involving a vase and a window ledge, the stars' being required to take their clothes off for no particular reason, and a sequence involving a lion in an art gallery. The cinematography is okay.