Ocean's Thirteen

Maybe Europe was the problem? Wait a second; of course Europe was the problem. But that goes beyond movie making. Bringing the Ocean gang back to Las Vegas recharged the series. Ocean’s Thirteen felt more like Ocean’s Eleven and less like Ocean’s Twelve. The series has a great premise with an all-star cast so if they keep finding good reasons to bring everyone back together then I will am willing to buy a ticket.

Let’s start somewhere else this time around. Instead of talking about the names receiving top billing, I want to highlight the guys who got lost in the shuffle in Ocean’s Twelve. Carl Reiner, Bernie Mac, Eddie Jemison, and Shaobo Qin all get decent amount of screen time and the movie benefits because of it. I know I mentioned it while reviewing Ocean’s Eleven, but Carl Reiner deserves as much praises as I can dole out. His scenes are always perfectly timed. As for Bernie Mac, he was written out of the majority of Ocean’s Twelve but this time around he gets a bunch scenes to shine in. They may not equal his scene with Matt Damon in the first film but watching him pitch dominoes to Al Pacino was a nice replacement. The Livingston character gets his own subplot that had a bunch of good points, the lie detector, teaching Danny, Rusty, and Linus blackjack, and his great phone call to Roman asking him for help. And who wouldn’t want more Yen? So if the supporting players do great work and the headliners are smooth in their roles, there is not much fault to be found. After taking up space praising George Clooney and Brad Pitt for the first 2 films, I’ll just say that they have lost none of their timing. They added a little twist this time around, a handful of their scenes began with them in the middle of a conversation and without any context it is even funnier. The 2 of them slip into these roles so easily that I assume at some point they will be back. Matt Damon plays the role of third banana very well in these movies. The joke with the fake nose was actually funny probably because of his need for his father to admit “the nose plays”. But it is made even better because of the way that Danny and Rusty are constantly amused by how hard he is trying. There were only 2 and a half new additions. The half point goes to expanding Eddie Izzard’s role from a cameo to something more substantial. I like the man so I was happy to see it, plus they used him as a way to get all the boring exposition about the heist out of the way and the least boring manner. Ellen Barkin gets to be the token female role, and also gets to wear a lot of double-stick tape to keep everything PG-13. Finally, are you ever angry about an Al Pacino appearance? It may not be The Godfather, but it is still Pacino and his autopilot is better than every human being on the planet except for about 6 people. And he wasn’t even on autopilot here; you have to love the fake blonde hair and orange perma-tan. It is all about the cast, I don’t really have anything to say about the plot. It is another elaborate heist that works out just as they planned. Hooray.

It was nice to get another Ocean’s movie. These may not be the best films of the year but they are a fun diversion. The cast is great, the stories are all in good fun, and the damn thing is just amusing. Ocean’s Thirteen is definitely a worthwhile entry into the franchise.

8 out of 10