On Film: Ocean's Thirteen

Directed By Steven Soderbergh

Starring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Al Pacino

I'll go on record as saying that I absolutely loved Ocean's Eleven, loved it.  The film seemed like the perfect directorial vehicle for Steven Soderbergh whose style of filmmaking is infinitely modern and innovative but it also feels retro at the same time.  I think that's because he's slick, but he takes his time.  There aren't any fast cuts in his films, he's never in a rush, and never more so than in this sequel.

The Movie

What in the world could bring this bevy of professional thieves back together, not another heist?  Actually well yes in a way but this time it's all done for revenge, not for the money or the thrill of the job.  In this film Reuben (Elliot Gould) has entered into a business deal to open a casino on his property with ruthless businessman Willie Band (Al Pacino).  It turns out that this old school hustler gets hustled and he gets pushed out of the deal losing everything.  This devastating event causes Reuben to have a heart attack which brings Danny Ocean (Clooney) and the original eleven thieves together to get revenge for Reuben whose bedridden. 

They put together a plan to rig every game in Bank's new casino simultaneously within a few minutes breaking the casino and closing it down.  As usual every member of the team has a part to play, the most amusing of which has to be Matt Damon's job of wooing and distracting the older assistant to Bank played by Ellen Barken.  This is called "Thirteen" so the other two team members are tech guy Roman (Eddie Izzard) and Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia).  Benedict helps finance the operation only because he'd like to see Bank fail with a casino.

This film like the previous oozes cool and fun.  You can literally feel that the cast and crew are there to have a good time and they all in fact are.  Ocean's Twelve was too self indulgent and the result was a mediocre film where the people in it have more fun than the people watching it.  Unlike Oceans Twelve the audience is allowed into the circle and allowed to partake in the fun along with the filmmakers.  Ocean's Thirteen is again self indulgent but everything that Clooney and Soderbergh want to do is a success leaving the movie funny, suspenseful, and very slick.  The film is shot gorgeously and the editing is as I expected superb.  What's great is that Soderbergh is able to use his style as a character in the movie rather than something that overtakes the film which is what happens so often with Michael Bay films.  There's a ton of characters in this film and they all seem to get some solid screen time and it's all assembled in a great package that never gets exhausting.  As hard as it is to believe the film doesn't seem to have too many characters.  Soderbergh really knows how to work with large casts, probably better than most other modern filmmakers.

Now, don't get me wrong this film isn't perfect.  There are some problems with it.  The biggest issue is the actual heist gets pretty convoluted.  Just the set up alone takes a full 40 minutes of the film.  It's fun to watch these characters interact with each other during this set up but the actual process ends up convoluted.  The film also somehow lacks any emotional punch with Rueben having the heart attack.  The whole sequence feels like an excuse to get the group back together rather than a meaningful story.  In a way that's disappointing because I think it would be interesting to see some more depth in these characters.  Here's the thing though, if it's an excuse I'm glad they had one because I had a great time with these characters together again.

8/10

-Stephen Lackey