Written by Hombre Divertido

Long before Jerry Seinfeld and Ray Romano were sought after by the networks to build sitcoms around their material, a stand-up comedian by the name of Gabe Kaplan had great success with a little show called Welcome Back, Kotter (ABC 1975-79).

Based on Kaplan’s material and the characters from his time in high school, Welcome Back, Kotter follows the exploits of Gabe Kotter (Kaplan) a teacher who returns to his alma mater to teach a group underachievers known as the “sweathogs,” of which he was once a member.

Kaplan was surrounded by a group of talented young actors including: Ron Palillo as the class oddball Arnold Horshack, Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs as the class smooth talker Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington, Robert Hegyes as the class tough guy Juan Epstein, and of course, John Travolta as the super-cool leader of the group Vinnie Barbarino. This ensemble had great chemistry and created some quality comedy for its time.

As was common in the seventies the shows have a very theatrical feel due to the way they were filmed and the limited sets consisting of the Kotter's one-room apartment shared by Gabe and his wife Julie (Marcia Strassman), and the classroom at the school. One cannot help but get the feel of watching a play as we are introduced into the world of Buchanan High School. The reoccurring bit of Kaplan closing each show with old school jokes only reinforces that theatrical feel, as his bits are reminiscent of vaudeville.

Though the writing is typical seventies sitcom set-up punch, and the far-fetched scripts establish the characters as a comedy team rather than a teacher and students, it works, especially in season one. In these first twenty-two episodes we get to watch our characters develop and grow, and it makes for very enjoyable viewing. Eventually Travolta’s Barbarino will be the breakout star before we even knew who Fonzie was, and the stories will begin to focus far too much on him. That is not the case in season one, as each character gets the spotlight.

This set is packaged in memory-inducing fashion, but only contains two extras. The first being what has become standard when bringing back shows from the seventies: a short documentary of the show hosted by someone from the cast, in this case Strassman, which often appears thrown together. This effort is not completely worthless as it does contain some interesting facts, but certainly could have been longer and gone into more detail. The second is the original screen tests of the four sweathogs and Strassman. It sounds far more intriguing than it turned out to be, and will most likely be boring to the non-thespian viewers. The unadvertised extra of seeing award winning actor James Woods as a geeky teacher in the first episode makes up for the others.

Recommendation: It’s a must-have for the fans of the show as it remains as much fun to watch now as it was then. For those not familiar with the show, it’s got a young John Travolta, and is a quality sitcom that makes for good watching 30 years later.

Ocean’s Thirteen brings back a star-studded cast headed by George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon. They are once more backed by Elliott Gould, Don Cheadle, Shabao Qin, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Bernie Mac, and Carl Reiner in great support roles.

As always, Danny Ocean (Clooney) co-leads with Rusty Ryan (Pitt) in a deadly, dangerous, and twisting con scheme. In the previous two movies, Ocean, Ryan, and the others have always been motivated by personal desires as well as financial ones. This time it’s more personal. Reuben (Gould) has been beaten out of his fortune by Willie Bank (Al Pacino), who is planning to open the most impressive casino in Las Vegas.

Willie Bank (And don’t you just love the subtle name? Will he bank?) has already been a successful casino owner/operator. All of his casinos before have earned the “Five Diamonds Award” of excellence. Bank expects no less this time. And he shut Reuben out of the deal so that the glamour – not to mention the profit – can all be his.

Ocean and Rusty gather with the rest of the crew to pay their respects to Reuben and figure out what they are supposed to do to get their friend’s fortune back. Reuben appears to have lost the will to live. As an act of courtesy, Ocean offers Bank a 'Billy Martin' — a chance to redeem himself on his own and give the money back to Reuben. Of course if Bank had accepted the proposition the movie would have been much shorter.

So Ocean and his team go to work. The con to get Reuben’s money back is complicated and involves a lot of details. Some of it is realistic, but much of it lies in the realm of fantasy. Still, these movies are confection and are to be enjoyed just on their own.

And they are probably also an excuse for the high-powered stars to get together and play. In Ocean’s Eleven the mix was exactly right. The stars matched the story, and each of those stars got the chance to be an absolute scene-stealer. The franchise stumbled badly in Ocean’s Twelve because the movie seemed to lack a central focus. Some viewers even stated that the film had no plot at all.

The plot in the latest film is apparent from the earliest scenes, but it seems like Clooney, Pitt, and the others are merely going through the paces, hitting their marks and delivering lines of dialogue that are often funny, but too often wide of the mark. The story isn’t as tight as the first one.

In order to explain the premise of the con to the audience, Ocean and Ryan have to describe what they’ve got in place to a new con man who specializes in computer technology. He supposedly is the best at figuring out cybernetic systems. Bank’s new casino is protected by an artificial intelligence, which seems weird because the military evidently doesn’t have those yet. And the fact that it’s an artificial intelligence is never exploited in the film. It’s just one of those near-science fiction explanations to make the job supposedly harder.

Part of the plan involves manufacturing dice made of a special polymer. One of the team (Affleck) goes undercover at the Mexican manufacturing plant where they’re made to get the special polymer into the mix. While he’s there, he ends up taking part in a mini-revolution of blue collar workers against white collar administration. This is truly one of the funnier bits in the film, but it feels a little out of place. It’s a diversion that doesn’t fit in with the Las Vegas scene that’s going on. And even the special dice are not showcased that much later in the film.

Moving the franchise back to Las Vegas seems to be a good idea, though. There’s something about this city that just makes magic for this kind of story. However, even at a 1:53 running time, the movie feels a little long and sags some in the middle. Clooney and Pitt break up those sections with glimpses into their personal lives that are fun, but even those become noticeable as props to keep the plot flowing.

I went to see the movie in the theater with my wife because that was where we’d seen the other two. We wanted to see this one there. It was a big improvement over the second movie, but it still didn’t match expectations fostered by the first movie. If you haven’t seen Ocean’s Thirteen yet, I’d suggest waiting for it on DVD and pick it up to complete your collection or to rent just to watch.