OCEAN'S THIRTEEN, 2007
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OCEAN'S THIRTEEN, 2007
Movie Reviews
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon
Review by The Popcorn Boys
Danny Ocean rounds up the boys for a third heist, after casino owner Willy Bank double-crosses one of the original eleven, Reuben Tishkoff.
Robert's Review
When Willy Bank, a ruthless business man and casino juggernaut who owns most of Las Vegas, financially ruins and nearly kills Ocean's friend and mentor Reuben Tishkoff, the old gang gets back together to plan a revenge heist that will be their most challenging and risky heist yet. First, they intend to ruin Willy Bank financially by rigging all the games in his newest casino; appropriately named The Bank, on its opening night. Second, they intend to not only ruin Bank's chances at winning the Royal Review Board's prestigious Five Diamond Award, an award he has won four times before with his other four casinos, but they also intend to steal those four previous awards… which are Bank's most prized possessions. With the help of some newcomers and old acquaintances, they just might do the impossible and pull this off.
I loved the first movie "Ocean's Eleven," didn't like the second movie "Ocean's Twelve" and liked this movie "Ocean's Thirteen." It's not great, but it's not half bad… some parts are hilarious, while others are dull and slow; some parts are witty, clever and cool, while others are just strange and out of place; and so on. The movie kept a good balance and it was fun and entertaining, but at just over 2 hours, it was bloated in some places and was lacking in others. With this many characters and interweaving duties, quite a bit of what happens is glossed right over, only showing tiny bits of what certain characters had to do for this heist to work. The downside of course is that because of this, it made their "most challenging and risky heist yet" seem like it was easy. Sure we got to see problems pop-up here and there, but they were almost instantly fixed (or at least that's how it seemed). Also, some of the dialogue was confusing. The characters kept talking in code to people and many of those codes were never explained. For example, they'd say something like "let's offer him a Billy Martin" and you can kind of guess what that means, but even so, it'd have been nice to get some better explanation. Overall, "Ocean's Thirteen" is a cool, fun Summer movie and it's sure to entertain, but it's not nearly as awesome as "Ocean's Eleven" was.
Brett's Review
What are the odds of getting even? Danny Ocean and the gang would have only one reason to pull off their most ambitious and riskiest casino heist--to defend one of their own. But they're going to need more than luck on their side to break The Bank. Ruthless casino owner Willy Bank never imagined that the odds were against him when he double-crossed Danny Ocean's friend and mentor Reuben Tishkoff, putting the distraught Reuben in a hospital bed in critical condition. But Bank miscalculated--badly. He may have taken down one of the original Ocean's eleven, but he left the others standing and, worse for him, gave them a shared purpose: to take Bank down on the night of what should be his greatest triumph--the grand opening of his new casino, appropriately named The Bank. Their strategy is twofold. First they will ruin him financially by turning the tables on the precept that the house always wins. But that's just money. The knockout punch will be to Bank's personal pride and joy: his reputation as the only hotelier who has earned the Royal Review Board's Five Diamond Award on every single one of his hotels. The plan is elaborate, dangerous and damn near impossible--but there are no limits when it comes to one of their own.
I thought this movie was better than Ocean's 12, probably because it was more about getting even, than about a competition. I am sure of the fact that Al Pacino is in the movie was probably one of the reason I like the movie so much. The humor was excellent, and the double crossing that goes with all the ocean movies was fun to watch. One of the things I was glad not to see was one of the actors playing their role and then trying to impersonate themselves (Ocean's 12 with Julia Roberts). Overall the movie followed the story, and flowed nicely. I was truly entertained for the 2 hours and thought it was defiantly worth seeing.
Overall Rating: 3 Stars (out of 5). Re-Watch Value: High (I will purchase on DVD).
Trivia: (1) Al Pacino was director Steven Soderbergh's first choice for the role of Willy Bank. The film's producer, Jerry Weintraub, a friend of Pacino's, persuaded him to join the cast. (2) Al Pacino and Andy Garcia have both acted in The Godfather (1972) trilogy. (3) Two members of Ocean's crew, The Malloy Brothers, are named Virgil (Casey Affleck) and Turk (Scott Caan). This is a reference to The Godfather (1972) in which Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) guns down a character named Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo. (4) Scott Caan co-stars with Al Pacino in this film. His father, James Caan, played Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (1972), which was Pacino's breakthrough role in Hollywood.
