Just When You Were Afraid To Go Back to the Ocean
Written: Jun 20 '07
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: funny, better than Ocean's 12
Cons: lacks the swagger of Ocean's 11, feels like a sequel
The Bottom Line: Even if it's not as good as the first film, this sequel to the sequel is a fun ride.
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| bilavideo's Full Review: Ocean's Thirteen |
There was a running joke, after the release of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Star Trek VI, they said, would be titled, The Apology.
That, I suspect, should be the secondary title for Ocean's Thirteen. Movie hype, like any drug, wears off and when it does, reality is always that much grimmer. Ocean's Eleven was a coup nobody saw coming. Ocean's Twelve was the typical sequel, an opportunity for the studio to make as much money as possible. But while the hype machine was producing lots and lots of happy talk, Ocean's Twelve turned out to be too derivative of The Italian Job - and not nearly enough fun.
Well, the swagger is back, not quite as much as the first time, but enough to make this ride worth it. Ocean's Thirteen is a lot of fun, both helped and hurt by a revenge plot that both motivates it but also weighs down the fun and games.
Danny Ocean and his pal, Rusty Ryan (George Clooney and Brad Pitt) are back in the game, but this time to get revenge for what happened to their friend and benefactor, Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould). Interpreting Reuben's mellow attitude as weakness, a shark named Willie Bank (Al Pacino) cuts him out of a sweetheart deal and even extorts him into signing over his hotel, whose name he's decided to change - thereby erasing Reuben's legacy from Las Vegas.
Reuben is in such shock, he's practically comatose. Devastated by the blow, he's practically a gonner, or would be if he didn't have friends like Danny and Rusty.
The gang is back and they're ready to sink real money - their money - into a score that would send a message to Bank that his kind don't belong in Vegas. That gang includes con-man Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), demolitions expert Basher Farr (Don Cheadle), super-nerd Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison), the acrobatic Yen (Shaobo Qin), the Mormons - Virgil and Turk Malloy (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan) - their man on the floor, Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), their imposter, and Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner). It doesn't include Ocean's wife, Tess (Julia Roberts) but this time around, Ocean will need the help of the con man's con man, Roman Nagel (Eddie Izzard) and even an old rival: Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia).
Ocean's team will go after Bank's new casino, hitting it wherever they can. Their plan will involve controlling the dice, so they can rig big wins. It will also involve similar acts of sabotage to the one-armed bandits, to kill the casino's profitability. As Banks takes unequaled pride in winning the "five diamond award" every year - for the service and accommodations of his casino, they'll want to do all they can to leave a band-aid in the soup. This is a film with a list of games and gags, some of them better than others. The point here is that director Steven Soderbergh, with the help of writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien, has put the fun back into the caper film, even if some of it - particularly the subplot about beating a new security system based on artificial intelligence - feels a little corny.
My favorite in the series is still the first film, which was classic in every possible way, but this film is an improvement on Ocean's Twelve, which is why I went in a skeptic and came out pleasantly surprised.
P.S. Ellen Barkin puts in a nice performance as Bank's second-in-command, someone to be conned in true con-man fashion by Matt Damon. Also look for a special cameo by Oprah Winfrey whose show has become such a cultural icon, you can wrap jokes around it.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Funny Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Plot
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Member: Bill Kilpatrick
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