Saturday, June 9, 2007

Ocean's Thirteen...murky at best

Ocean's Thirteen - Steven Soderbergh - 2007 - 6/10

Summary:

Ocean's (George Clooney) pal Reuben (Elliot Gould) enters into a shaky deal with big man Willie Bank (Al Pacino) who promptly double crosses Reuben, causing Reuben to have a severe heart attack. Gathered by Linus (Matt Damon), the gang start to esemble after Ocean gets Rusty (Brad Pitt). And they're all back, the computer wiz Livingston (Eddie Jemison), the British bomb expert Basher (Don Cheadle), the agile Yen (Shaobo Qin), the fast talking Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), the smooth talking actor Saul (Carl Reiner), and the cahos brothers the Malloys (Casey Afleck and Scott Caan). Determined to pressure the board of directors to ditch Willie for the recovering Reuben, they have to make the casion lose a bunch of money so it can't make the 500 million dollar profit threshold they have supposedly imposed. So the gang has to whip together as many ways as they can to rig the casino games to dump the most amount of cash. With Willie Banks' right hand woman Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin) chomping at their heals as well as the imposing obstacle of beating the world's most intelligent security system the world has ever known. Do you have any doubt they can pull it off so Reuben's heart can recover with joy?



Critique:

There just is no tension in the movie. You're never really left wondering if they're going to be able to pull it all off or if they'll get caught - because you know they won't and whenever someone gets close, they just buy them off. In order to enjoy this movie, you pretty much have to throw everything to the wind and just let yourself be swept away by Soderbergh's over-smooth cinematography and fast shots. Yes, the movie is more like Ocean's Eleven then Twelve, but that is not saying a lot, considering twelve was one of the worst movies I ever saw with a cast that ridiculously good. So if you want, you can pick the movie apart, or just enjoy the fast talking Bernie Mac, the antics of the Malloy brothers and their amusing Juarez revolution, the new addition of the enjoyable Eddie Izzard as Roman, another fast talking idea man who helps Rusty and Ocean out (except not really because they just use him to walk you through their preparations).

Verdict:

It can wait for DVD.

If you liked this movie, watch...
...Ocean's Eleven
...The Italian Job
...The Heist

Read more about what I think of Ocean's Thirteen at SaltyStix.

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