Ocean’s Thirteen: Lucky Number Thirteen
Bet director Steven Soderbergh was counting on this play of fate to make his third in the Ocean series - Ocean’s 13, a runaway hit. Can’t really blame the guy - third movies almost always run out of steam unless its like Star Wars or The Trilogy of The Lord of the Rings; but then again, that’s a totally different league all together. Anyway, coming back to Ocean’s 13, it has two great predecessors. Ocean’s 11 was mind blowing, we all know that. The sequel was a little off the bull’s eye, but nevertheless, it made enough money for there to be a third part.
Rating: 3/5
George Clooney in Ocean’s Thirteen
In Ocean’s 13, Billy Ocean re-bands his team of highly skilled con men to carry off another improbable and seemingly impossible feat. But this time, it’s not for money since they are all doing rather well. You see, it gets a little more personal. Reuben (Elliott Gould) has gotten himself in a soup because Willie Bank (Al Pacino), a big Vegas hotshot has run him into the mud. Unable to deal with this, Reuben withdraws into himself and becomes a physical and emotional wreck. For the sake of honor, Billy Ocean (George Cloony) and his team is set for another big heist. So the whole camp shifts to Vegas sans the female talent. Rusty (Brad Pitt) is a seismologist this time and has a scraggy beard to authenticate this. Linus (Matt Damon) has the cool job of seducing a casino employee. Basher (Don Cheadle), I still don’t know what he does, but mostly it is masquerading as a dare devil biker. The brothers Malloy (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan) leave for Mexico to get everything together. Whew! That kind of completes the main picture about what everyone is doing in this film. Going forward, we see the expected tricks, the unexpected turns and the close escapes that this team of a different kind of Robin Hood has. Entertaining as expected, it is not an eye sore.
Ellen Barkin in Ocean’s Thirteen
Talking about the rest of the film, well, it is fast paced. In fact everything goes so fast at times that you are not given a chance to understand what exactly is happening. The colors of Vegas are bright and loud; they are almost screaming! The reds and oranges with the blues and neon green are quite distracting at times, but even this garish, over painted Vegas seems to fit the bill.
Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino in Ocean’s Thirteen
The cast-well, when you have so many great actors on screen in the same film, what is there to complain about? Exactly that-there are too many actors in the film. They are all so good that you feel disappointed when they are not given enough screen space because you know hat the can do so much more. Al Pacino is truly understated in the film. Judging that everything in Vegas is supposed to be over the top, how can the main villain of all the people be understated? That did not sit well.
Ellen Barkin, Noureen DeWulf and Al Pacino in Ocean’s Thirteen
Nonetheless, this film is a reassembly of a cast that stole our hearts. So all Ocean fans will want to catch it. And those who have not experienced the Ocean magic till now, well, guess now’s a good time to start.
Rating: 3/5
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