Ocean’s Thirteen

November 29, 2007

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 116 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Like Eleven and Twelve, Ocean’s Thirteen is really just an excuse to put together a huge cast so they can have some fun, and hopefully entertain us along the way. It’s all gotten too predicable though, so it only partially succeeds in its goal.

We know from the previous movies that these fellows aren’t just business partners, they’re all good friends, so when Reuben gets shafted in a deal with Willy Bank (Al Pacino)and has a heart attack as a result, they all drop what they are doing and rush to his aid. OK, that sounds good and all… but stopping in the middle of a bank robbery? That was just a bit silly.

Anyway, Reuben has pretty much lost his will to live so Danny (George Clooney) decides that if they can fix the business problem then that will in turn fix Reuben. Unfortunately Willy doesn’t see Danny as a serious threat and blows him off. If Willy won’t play nice, then Danny figures that getting even with him should make Reuben happy so they put together an elaborate plan to jinx his hotel and cost him a ton of money on opening night.

All well and good, but the lengths they go to just make this utterly unbelievable. How to disrupt the “perfect” anti-cheat computer system? With an earthquake of course! How to create one of those? How about digging a tunnels under the hotel with a tunnel making machine.. the same one that made thechunnel in fact! OK, sorry, but you lost me there. That’s not just silly, that’s plain stupid.

The point of the movie is to entertain though, and it does a fairly good job of that. Unlike the previous movies the cast doesn’t seem to be having quite as much fun, and sometimes it seems like they are just showing up to work for the paycheck. It’s not always like that though, there are some moments where you see the qualities of the first movie shine though, but they are few and far between. I think the problem might have been that they read the plot.. and just shook their heads at the whole thing.

If you’re in the mood for a caper, you could do worse. I didn’t dislike the movie, but I didn’t really like it either. So, by process of elimination, it’s 3 stars.

Posted by John | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, DVD, Drama, Ellen Barkin, George Clooney, Matt Damon, PG-13