Ocean's Thirteen: The Cash In
Written: Feb 05 '08
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: It enabled Clooney to make Michael Clayton
Cons: Bad script and sequelitis sinks this one
The Bottom Line: If you're desperate for more Ocean's Eleven, go watch Ocean's Eleven again instead of this dreck.
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| BigJack's Full Review: Ocean's Thirteen |
Since finally breaking through as a star in ER, and then making the rare leap to movie stardom, George Clooney has carefully crafted a strategy in which he does a “commercial” movie in order to do a labor of love. Sometimes, this works out well for everyone (Ocean’s Eleven, which made lots of money for the studio and was a great movie). Sometimes it works out for the studio and George and his friends (Ocean’s Twelve, which made lots of money and gave George and his friends an excuse to hang out at his pad in Lake Como, Italy). And sometimes, it just makes a lot of money. That’s Ocean’s Thirteen, which made lots of money, but is not a very good film.
Ocean’s Eleven was a classic heist movie, with Hollywood glamour and Vegas glitz. Danny Ocean (Clooney) looks to make a big score by ripping off the Bellagio, owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who just happens to be dating Ocean’s ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts). As if that wasn’t enough star wattage, Ocean’s crew included Matt Damon, Elliot Gould, Carl Reiner, Bernie Mac, and Don Cheadle. Eleven excelled in its dialogue – “You’re a liar and a thief.” “I only lied about being a thief.” It excelled in the little things – each member of Ocean’s crew is perfectly cast and plays his role to the hilt. It excelled in entertaining – I’ve watched it several times in its entirety, and it’s one of the movies that, when my channel surfing lands me on HBO and its showing Ocean's Eleven, my surfing immediately stops and I get sucked in. I loved Ocean’s Eleven. I enjoyed Ocean’s Twelve.. I wouldn't give Ocean’s Thirteen a second viewing.
Rather than glamour and glitz, Ocean's Thirteen is all about schlock and schmaltz. In Thirteen, Ocean's crew is called back into action because their patron, Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould) has been muscled out of his fair share of a casino by his partner, Willie Bank (Al Pacino). Decent enough premise, but the execution is poor here. Ocean’s Thirteen suffers a variety of problems one typically encounters in a bad sequel. #1 – replowing old ground. Ocean’s Eleven dealt with a $120 million dollar heist from the vault for three Las Vegas casinos. How do you top that? Well, let’s try to bankrupt a casino by rigging every game on the casino floor, requiring a level of disbelief that even I, willing to accept Keanu Reeves as a serviceable actor in the right role, had to say “enough.” #2 – adding more stars. Ocean’s Eleven had more star power than anything in recent memory, with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts joining Clooney. Julia was smart enough to sit this one out, so they added Al Pacino, who is strictly here to act like Al Pacino and pick up a fat check. #3 – bad script. Ocean’s Eleven had a tightly woven, whitty and smart script with memorable lines. “Ted Nugent called. He wants his shirt back.” (Rusty Ryan to Danny Ocean) “That’s right. I’m in your casino. In fact, I’m staying in the hotel. I’ve got two words for you: mini bar.” (Rusty Ryan to Terry Benedict) There’s not a single line in Ocean’s Thirteen that measures up to anything in Eleven.
Why is the script bad? Because its writers are the scourge of Hollywood. See, there was a little movie called Rounders, starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton as a couple of poker players. It was made before poker exploded, and anyone knew who the heck “Johnny ______ Chan” was. Rounders was a good little movie, helped tremendously by its actors, who also included the incomparable John Malkovich. It was written by David Levien and Brian Koppelman, who have proceeded to churn out simplistic, cliched dreck ever since. The list grows longer each year: the sat-on-the-shelf-for-years-for-very-good-reasons Knockaround Guys, the TV series Tilt, which killed scripted TV on ESPN, and now Ocean’s Thirteen. I have no idea how these guys remain employed, and let’s hope that one of the few silver linings of the writers’ strike is that these guys aren’t inflicting any damage by putting pen to paper.
There is one (and only one) good thing that came out of Ocean’s Thirteen: it was the “commercial” movie that enabled George Clooney to make Michael Clayton)
Recommended:
No
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BigJack
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Location: Splattered All Over - Manhattan
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Back from vacation - slowly catching up on reading and rating!
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