directors-- steven sorberberg

a great comeback for soderdberg after spending 90s in wilderness, and a partnership with clooney formed, and jenifer lopez never better, although thats not saying much, but i really predicted great things for her after seeing this, what went wrong, a great crime story from a elmore leornard novel, told in great style, casually paced, with great flashbacks helping story along, clooney, really is a great actor when he sets his mind to it,

great authentic look at the various lives afected by drugs in the u,s, a teenager, her father who works for drugs inforcement, and mexican drug runners, great looking, and very stylish

matt damon is exellent as the informant of the piece, letting the f.b.i know of a price fixing scam in his company,and from there getting inway over his head, damon is this film, but some superb direction from soderdberg, using his loose style seen in his films like traffic, the limey and oceans films, the film flys by as we watch damon bumble his way, through plot,and also we learn not all is what it seems, a exellent score, which adds a lot, and nicely set early 90s setting, even scott bacula coming back from the dead, as the f.b.i agent in charge, is exellent to watch, soderdberg has shown with this type of material, a great film can be made

great remake, off ratpck film, there version really was bad, the close bond is oviously amounst the cast, but a slick plot, always on the go, with great score and performances all round, makes vegas look so cool, and a great example of juggling a big cast

steven soderbergs follow up after exellent out of sight, takes him more back into his indie rots but staying firmly in crime territory, terrence stamp is exellent as wilson a proper cockney geezer from london, a ex con now made his way to los asngeles to figure out why his daughter was murdered, she was killed seeminly acidently, but he suspects murder, as he arrives in l,a he automatically is a fish out of water, getting to grips with american ways and also americans getting to grips with his english ways, as he discovers more clues to his daughters life in l.a, the closer he gets to the actul killer, and her suspicious music prooducer boyfriend, soderberg is directing great here, a great flashback structure in place, and in terrence samp a great charactor, check out flashback scenes, there scenes from a actual british film of stamps from the 60s, so adding some great depth to charactor, also great is luis guzman, always a supporting player, here too, but a great performance, also great to se peter fonda as crime boss/ boyfriend. a great revenge thriller in vain of dead mans shoes and the exelent classic get carter, which this has a lot of similarities, and again proveing soderdberg can try his hand at anything

exellent, and a superb performance from benicio, as the title charactor, and a film that certainly benefits ffom having two parts, ive yet to see if part 2 will be a worthy film, but this part dealing with che castro and there troops making there way through cuba towards havanna, certainly benefits the extra time devoted to it, making there way across country, spreading there message to the people of cuba, and building there army for the uprising to overthrow the goverment, great detail in there campaign is seen, and inbetween a look at 64s u.n speech, snipets of speeches and comfrontations in this time, put in at good points throughout the film, theres also great set pieces throughout, not just making this a walking and talking pic, and the seige on the nearest point to havanna towards end is a highlight, great directing from soderdgerg, clearly showing he can switch from his ocean 11s to this with ease, benicio is superb, and im sure a oscar could be on the cards, his che is superb, heres looking forward to part 2

che goes to bolivia to fightanother revolution guerilla war, this time not he sucess cuba was, the 2nd part from soderdberg and del toro, a great look to this, and the film plays well, it is more of the same, but diferent war, and its very watchable throughout,

steven soderdberg, between his debut with sex lies and videotape and his studio movie out of sight 1989--1998, he seemed forgotton but was bring ing out interesting stuff, this being one of them, peter gallagher is a security guard,driver, living his day working a crummy job delivering other peoples money, so hatches a plan to just steal it,, soderdberg handles things well, a jumped up time frame keeps things interesting, its welldirected and a film of little budget, but this is where he is most at home, looking at his other films like traffic and the full frontal, youll know wat i mean, a great little crime caper, gallagher and it seems underused in hollywood, elizebeth shue, its no suprise after out of sight, soderdberg went down a level with the limey, although out of sight is a masterpiece, this and limey shows his true calling, little edgy indies, and if he wants to do a oceans eleven twelve or thirteen thats fine by me

the ghosts of 12 are put to bed and we go back to what was great about 11, las vegas and one major heist, very well directed by soderberg, and as alwaysc clooney smoooth as danny ocean, casey afleck is superb in this by the way