Review: Ocean’s Thirteen

Danny and the gang are back in the Vegas strip as they now face a new ‘rival’… (‘Enemy’ would be impractical). Okay, story goes like this one of the original ‘11’ (Elliot Gould) gets a heart attack after being deceived by fellow casino owner Al Pacino. With this, Danny plans to pull another all out heist to revenge their friend. But it is not easy, let’s say it involves a lot of tunneling and a prosthetic nose (I won’t go much into plot details as to not spoil others). I think for me, the main cast was only the 3 of Danny’s team, namely Danny himself (Clooney), Rusty (Pitt) and Linus (Damon). The acting was subtle, it seems they are now this decade’s ‘Rat Pack’. Their performances were alright, but completely forgettable. I think in this installment they play their characters much too comfortably, that it seems that there is nothing new. Same goes with the remaining of Ocean’s gang. Pacino was great… every bit of his scenes reminded of how well this actor can act. And Andy Garcia was a bit on the boring side. He barely is seen in the film (though that one bit with Oprah was unforgettable), so it’s such a surprise he agreed to do this film at all. Ellen Barkin was gorgeous. She reminded me of middle aged women in Hollywood (Demi Moore comes to mind) that still has the ability to act while astounding audiences with her charm. Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones were absent from this installment, though I have no idea if they were written out from the script or they didn’t feel like doing another Ocean’s film. One plot point I had complains about was Vincent Cassell’s character from Ocean’s Twelve. Though he is a villain, he never seemed to be a threat to Danny, so his addition (I think) was unnecessary. Steven Soderbergh returns to the director’s chair for the third time, who always envisioned the Ocean series to be a ‘trilogy’. His shots were spot on perfect. This director surely knows how to use a camera. I love the scenes while Pitt and Clooney were walking along the strip. He showcases the city’s sceneries beautifully into each of his shots. Better than Ocean’s Twelve? Yes. Better than Ocean’s Eleven? I think not. As they say, the original is always the best. But hey, the Ocean’s Trilogy is one of the finest heist films to come around this decade and I definitely say I had fun watching it. Ocean’s Thirteen: 8/10