Better than expected

Rating: 8/10 (7 August 2007)

This is not a bad movie. It's not as fresh and charming as the original, but I laughed quite a bit and enjoyed it for the most part. Most of the original players are here and put to good use, and additions, including Al Pacino, were fun.
However, I have a major objection to the way that Ellen Barkin was portrayed. Her character is smart and hard-working and of course beautiful, as is she. But towards the end of the movie she's seduced by Matt Damon's character, though he's inexplicably disguised with slicked back hair and a large, hooked nose. The entire scene is played for laughs - Damon's character is using a love potion called The Gilroy (an inside joke, one of many, about screenwriter Tony Gilroy) to overwhelm Barkin's character with lust. What I don't understand is why they decided to go this way. Both Barkin and Damon are gorgeous and sexy, and a genuine seduction scene between them would have been smokin' hot. Instead Barkin acts drunk and Damon acts inept, and it's all rather insulting and painful to watch. And to take this amazing woman, who's been a force in cinema for 3 decades, and make her the butt of a really juvenile joke, well, it diminishes the whole enterprise. Shame on them.