Movie Review: Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

It's been a while since I went back into the theater. I missed it. Too much work has made rocketboy a dull boy. I was waiting for a good movie to return to the theater to. Pirates of the Carribean was such a big hit at the ofice that I didn't bother to make a review. I haven't seen it yet, but Im sure it was good. Ocean's Thirteen was perfect. No frills, but completely Hollywood. Plus George Clooney is like the coolest guy in planet earth.

Danny Ocean (George Clooney)is once again doing what he does best. Stealing for the sake of stealing. Together with Rusty (Brad Pitt) his band of experts (I'm sorry, I'm too lazy to write all their names), he arranges a job to get casino mogul Will Banks (Al Pacino) on the opening night of his new casino in Las Vegas. This job is different, though. Will cheated their friend Reuben (Elliot Gould)on a deal on his casino and caused Reuben's heart attack.
The job was to get Banks' money on opening night to teach him a lesson, Ocean style.

One can't help but notice the absence of the ladyloves of our two protagonists. We aren't given much information on the absence of Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones in this sequel. We just learn that they are not in the job because "this isn't their fight". Okay we forgive you.

The pacing and flavor of Ocean's Thirteen is basically the same. In terms of visual styling like split screening and 70's style motifs in editing are abundant in the film as well. The explainations of plots and subplots and heist procedures and what not are just as complicated as in the previous movies. But for some reason, they are more understandable. maybe it's because I was really in it and I really paid attention to the dialogue this time, or maybe Soderbergh toned the dialogue a bit lower. It sure wasn't "dumbed down", because you reaaly had to listen to get it. One particular piece of equipment I found amusing was the "Gilroy", you'll see what I mean.



A lot of websites had criticized Pacino's performance here as mediocre or unnecessary of Pacino's screen presence, but I beg to differ. Sure, it was a toned down Pacino, not an in your face "your out of order, this whole courtroom is out of order, Hooowah!" Pacino. He made a good antagonist in this movie in my book. Seeing him together with Andy Garcia kinda gave me the Godfather fuzzies all over again. Ellen Barkin was mediocre in this pic, I wish they could have gotten a more bankable sexy actress "of a certain age" like Demi Moore or Sharon Stone.

When it comes to the main characters, this time it's like how they were in Ocean's 11. Everyone had a part and there was a plan. It wasn't a scattered mess like Ocean's 12 where they were reacting to a situation. This kind of made the acting more relaxed and prepared. Ocean's 12 looked like a bunch of Hollywood A list friends coming together with cameras and shooting a movie of themselves fooling around and sending it to the producers who put it straight to the can.



All in all, I liked Ocean's Thirteen liked I liked the first one, and way more than the second one. Sometimes, third time really is the charm! Place your bets! My money's on 13.

Rocketboy's Rating: ***** (5 out of 5)