All at Sea.....

Rating: 4/10 (7 September 2007)

Yikes....This was an exercise in endurance! This film reminded me again of how angry I am that evolution didn't provide me with a built-in sleep timer in my head. This is two hours of tedious consciousness I could have avoided otherwise! But here's the important parts broken down, and why they didn't work at all.
Exposition. Endless chatter between the characters about what they are going to do. This important screen-time far outweighs the actual doing of the plan. I reckon by a factor of at least three times. It wouldn't be so bad, but with that much laying out of the story, you'd expect by the time they get on with the job that you'd have a really firm grasp of what was going on.....but in reality, there are still many "huh?" moments that leave you playing catch-up with the events.
Fun. There wasn't a whole lot of it in this film. Few witty one-liners, few visual gags, few comic situations at all. I think I chuckled a couple of times....no laughs, no guffaws, just a couple of snorts of pseudo-laughter.
Action. Well, the CGI was minimal, thankfully, but so was the action. A bit of pretend elevator shaft acrobatics was all we got and that was as ridiculous as it was unconvincing. Other than that, the heady excitement of watching grown men discuss their cunning plans with one another. Ooooh, the thrill!
Plausibility. Not very good. The stupidest part was the effort they went to in order to get loaded dice. Who would have believed the top casinos in the world got their dice from a tiny plastics firm from Craphole, Mexico? And as for using the Channel Tunnel excavators to cause earth tremors.....don't even get me started. This is mustachio-twirling villain territory!
Actors. Well some of them at least tried to have fun. Matt Damon with his ludicrous fake nose, for instance. But for the most part, the feeling they all gave off was...."We have to do this, so let's just get on with it and get it over with as quickly as possible". No real passion, not even much in the way of over-acting. Just formulaic stuff as dull as the movie.
SUMMARY: 90 minutes of men chattering at one another and 20 minutes of pretend excitement. Do yourself a favor.....fast forward the first hour at least and some enjoyment might be derived from this dull film.