Ocean’s Thirteen
After watching the previous two films with Kate just recently, the next logical step was going to see Thirteen at the cinema. Luckily, we just caught it before it fell into that movie ‘limbo’ between theatrical release and DVD release.
Gone is the element of ’steal to get rich’ from this one. There’s a real underlying revenge tale to this story. When one of the original eleven - Reuben Tishkoff - builds a hotel with casino owner Willy Banks (Al Pacino), he rudely and forcefully gets cut out of the deal by Banks. As a result, Reuben suffers a near fatal heart attack - and the gang get back together to pull off a major plan against Banks.
It’s the usual outrageous schemes, the undeniably far-fetched solutions, the completely complicated scenarios all around though, that element certainly hasn’t changed from its predecessors. And like the first two, it works superbly well.
The characters are great. Matt Damon revising his role as Linus Caldwell and the hilariously big-nosed Lenny Pepperidge.
The costumes from George Clooney looking like a 70’s pornstar and Don Cheadle as “Fender Roads”, the Evil Knievel-esque showman are good for a chuckle.
A return of Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the Bellagio’s ruthless owner, with Vincent Cassel as François Toulour, the burned thief from Ocean’s Twelve, makes for an interesting turn of events too.
All over, the acting is great, slick, professional. Steven Soderbergh directs brilliantly. The film flows - so much so you don’t notice you’ve been sitting about for a tad over two hours at the conclusion. It is laced with witty jokes and some great scenes - Brad Pitt walking in on Clooney while he’s watching Oprah is a classic. Turk working on the Mexican dice factory’s management with a Molotov cocktail was a laugh too.
The sets are fantastic, the Bank Casino is amazing, really has to be seen - you’d swear it was a real tower in Vegas, not a vision created in CGI.. awesome stuff.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one - $8 well spent.
Link: Ocean’s Thirteen (2007)
