Ocean's Thirteen

I loved Ocean’s Eleven. I thought it was slick, funny and exciting. George Clooney’s suaveness, Brad Pitt’s eating, Matt Damon’s deer-in-headlights look, Scott Caan and Casey Affleck’s bickering, Bernie Mac’s racial taunting, Don Cheadle’s gleeful pyrotechnics; this film was so much fun to watch. The lines were sharp, the cinematography was smooth, and the story sailed. It was one of my favourite movies of 2001.

I didn’t like Ocean’s Twelve. I thought it was tired, pompous and slow. George Clooney and Brad Pitt are left in jail with most of the gang. Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Scott Caan and Julia Roberts are left to do all the dirty work. Catherine Zeta-Jones was boring, the locations weren’t hip and the dialogue was too tongue-in-cheek. It’s like the cast was having fun but didn’t let the audience participate in it. It was poor use of resources.

I really like Ocean’s Thirteen. The slick, funny and exciting elements are back. It’s like this group of well-connected stars are apologizing to their audience. Director Steven Soderbergh actually wanted to call the movie Ocean’s Thirteen: The One We Should Have Made Last Time. (I’m guessing the studio wouldn’t let him.) It’s still not as good as the first one, but that’s a pretty hard thing to do. I was just happy to be having fun again.

The story of revenge is a great device to bring the group back together again, sans Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones (Thank God). The task of rigging an entire casino to loose millions in 3.5 minutes is both challenging and fun to watch. I’m a big fan of heist movies, especially ones where they let you in on how it can be accomplished. Of course there will be some ‘unforseen’ snags but that just adds to the excitement. This was one of the elements missing from Twelve; they didn’t show you what happened until the very end, leaving the audience out of the loop and scratching their head. Trying to trick a casino is next to impossible, which makes this story so fascinating and enjoyable. From rigging shufflers to weighting dice, the task has each member of the thirteen doing what they do best.

As much as I like the work of George Clooney and Brad Pitt, I loved the supporting players in this one. Caan and Affleck’s Malloy brothers are hilarious as they take part in a protest. Matt Damon, with the large fake nose, is great as the nervous seducer. And conversations with the Amazing Yen are hysterical. I love how there are no subtitles and the rest of the characters simply know the language. Al Pacino did his smarmy best as Willie Bank, but that should be expected. I think my only surprise was the lack of Bernie Mac in this installment. Even though his name is on top of the bill, he wasn’t given much to do this time around.

My only disappointment with this movie was that Topher Grace didn’t have a cameo. His scenes as a terrible card player and destructive actor in the first two films were hysterical. I would have loved to see a small moment with Grace and Pitt. But that’s all I have for complaints. I had fun watching this movie. Granted my expectations were low. Not only was this a threequel, but I was suckered by the Ocean Twelve ads before and didn’t want to be fooled again. So maybe that’s the trick: expect to see Twelve's caliber and you’ll be overjoyed with lucky Thirteen.

Reviews coming soon: Evan Almighty, 1408, Live Free or Die Hard