John Hawks picking the bitter, chain-smoking woman at the crow's nest is inexplicable, especially her appearance at the funeral after one bar conversation.
Clooney's plan to drive through the storm is likened to Mike D'Antoony in a playoff series and later to a late-period Philly coach; the hosts say that in the movie, the captains on both boats are basically dooming them.
The Coast Guard plot with Cherry Jones, Bob Gutten and Karen Allen has no setup and pulls away from the boat; it is called the biggest flaw, as if from a version about the whole storm.
The first 45 minutes invest in the Andrea Gale crew, so the shift to the rescue story is surprising; the movie is about the six guys on the boat, not the Coast Guard.
The film is thought to be set in 1991, but no Red Sox, Clemens or a Patriots preseason game appears on the bar televisions, which bothers a Massachusetts viewer.
Look, sound and feel; David Holmes score; Lake Como and Vincent Cassel's lifestyle; Pitt's performance; Damon's thirst; ensemble chemistry; movie-star vacations
The look, sound and feel hold up; it works as a background movie that does not demand much.
David Holmes's scores are undervalued in Soderbergh's work, nodding to 70s Italian crime soundtracks, Goblin and Morricone; the zither music at Isabel's mother's funeral is singled out.
Lake Como and Vincent Cassel's lifestyle, down to the platter of fresh fruit, have aged well.
A tangent about fruit bowls follows, with one participant eating an apple every day and another trying to grow citrus trees.
Pitt's performance holds up: charming while going through a lot, with freeze-frame expressions; a Rusty Ryan hotel-owner movie would be welcome.
Damon's thirst is an incredible vibe, and jumping from caving in terrorists' skulls in Bucharest straight to this film shows he knew what he was doing; his 2001-04 credits are read out.
Damon and Affleck appear in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
The ensemble chemistry still checks out, and so does the idea of movies as vacations for rich people.
A second voice picks the look and style, which differ from the American, casino-bound first film and resemble European heist films like The Italian Job, with an expat melancholy.
The Amsterdam bridge shot at sunset is rewound three times; the repeated zooms when Cherry Jones removes them from prison read as a self-referential joke.
Movies they don't make anymore rarely look this good; Soderbergh cited Seconds, French New Wave and Italian crime films, and the sideways shot of Tess's plane is praised.
The reunion of the crew is nominated; Scott Khan (as transcribed) is called really good, and the 'it was one job that we did together' proprietary-stance exchange is quoted, with a take where a cast member cracks up kept in.
The breakdown of the Vanderwood heist is nominated for Damon objecting to calling someone a freak and invoking Emily Dickinson; it plays like an Altman scene of overlapping dialogue, and subtitles reveal Pitt muttering 'don't touch my food.'
The Matsui meeting with Robbie Coltrane is a five-minute scene in which no one knows what anyone is saying, capped by Damon reciting the lyrics to Kashmir.
The train-station banter about how old Rusty is ('How old do you think I am?') is nominated.
An 'Amanda Dobbins Memorial pick' goes to Vincent Cassel's introductory montage, with a plea to always film on location.
Rusty and Danny getting drunk on red wine and watching Happy Days dubbed in Italian is nominated, with praise for the Potsie dubbing.
Bruce Willis in the hotel, the whole Tess-comes-to-Rome stretch, the Faberge theft and the Night Fox's capoeira dance all feed the last 25 minutes before the final reveals.
The reintroduction of the crew is singled out, especially Danny in the bank at the start, which has Thomas Crown Affair energy; his choosing not to rob the bank pivots the film from a grittier American tale to an international extravaganza. — Sean Fennessey
The bank opening is also a nod to the start of Out of Sight; Rusty visiting Tover Grace (as transcribed) and the matador-suit stand-up routine are further nominees.
The film's title cards and timelines do not add up, but it is a movie of flashing moments, such as the Night Fox's story about Lamarca and the American businessman played by producer Jerry Weintraub.
Cherry Jones's moment with Damon in the truck ('You told Dad') is one of the funniest in the film, as is her chewing gum when she enters the jail cell.
Runners-up: the Matsui meeting as a distillation of these movies, with Clooney's deadpan stillness and Damon's Kashmir timing, and Pitt and Clooney watching Happy Days, which this participant's husband called a beautiful movie about male intimacy. — Amanda Dobbins
The Happy Days scene is inverted minutes later when Rusty bares his soul and a tired Danny pays him no attention. — Amanda Dobbins
The pick is the whole Tess-goes-to-Rome sequence; another voice says it would be their pick too, and the bit is described as a whiteboard idea the movie was built around.
The bit is a genuine risk, compared to Curb Your Enthusiasm casting real people as bad versions of themselves; the meta aspect is suggested as why Bill wanted this as a flawed rewatchable.
Viewers either find it delightful or ask whether Danny looks just like George Clooney if Tess looks like Julia Roberts; the message-board reading is mocked.
The scene needs outside knowledge: Damon recounting The Sixth Sense to Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts's husband's real name being Danny, and the real name of Willis's daughter Tallulah.
Damon's and Roberts's reactions when Willis walks in make the scene; Roberts's face is called possibly some of the greatest American acting, and they reportedly tried 23 versions of the scene.
The Marcy publicist exchange is praised for its specificity about studio versus personal publicists on a European press tour.
Tess's accent coaching and the Cockney accent draw a Dick Van Dyke comparison.
The Julia Roberts hotel scene is declared the most rewatchable scene, with the whole Tess experience close behind.
Roberts is underused in the first film, but here she joins the crew as the 12th, as in the paint-mixing 'too much ox blood' moment.
