REVIEW - "Ocean's 13" (2007)

Danny Ocean’s team looked pretty fly when director Steven Soderbergh first brought them to the screen six years ago. It was also fun seeing the characters do something different and be in a new environment in 2004’s “Ocean’s 12”. But in “Ocean’s 13” the gang is finally showing their age. George Clooney looks tired during his performance, Brad Pitt doesn’t have the same energy he use to give his character, and the charm of the entire concept is gone.

In this movie Danny Ocean rounds up his gang to get revenge on Al Pacino’s character, Willie Banks. Banks double-crossed one of the original 11, Reuben, who was going to co-own a casino with him—The result nearly killed Reuben. So Ocean finds himself back in the casino devising an obscene plan to rob Banks of his money.

The point of this movie is really simple: Get the Ocean gang back in to the casinos. With that in mind, the concept of putting them back in casinos felt more like a motivation than an actual storyline. In theory, the story of “Ocean’s 13” should make a pretty good movie, but the execution is rather lackluster. The cool factor of the first one isn’t there because all the characters just seem really tired. The pacing of the second film isn’t anywhere to be found either and ultimately it’s just not as fun as its predecessors.

The ideas were pretty good though. The storyline on its own must have looked great on paper. The new security ideas for the casino were genius. It really felt like “Mission: Impossible” for a while. Furthermore, Al Pacino was the only actor that seemed awake during the course of this movie. Banks is a villain that is arguably on the same level as Terry Benedict. Maybe worse seeing as Ocean ends up asking for Benedict’s help.

Despite the nice work Al Pacino provides and the complexity of the security system, there’s still a strong been-there-done-that vibe from the movie. Many people slam “Ocean’s 12” for taking the characters out of the casino and going overboard with the comedy, but at least it dared to do something different and was still a good movie for it. “Ocean’s 13” felt like it was so afraid of fan backlash that it restrains itself to things we’ve seen before. Add that to the most straightforward "twist" of these films and it’s just kind of boring.

Comedy has always been a must in these movies. While it’s not as funny as the second film, it provides some of the genuine, awkward moments that are always expected. The Oprah joke is played to the very end (which is nothing short of hysterica), and Matt Damon provides some of the film's best humor with his prosthetic nose. Even Don Cheadle offers a very out of character moment that is, arguably, the funniest scene in the movie.

The end result of the movie is hardly fulfilling and a bit contrived. I don’t think, realistically, Banks would have lost that much money in such a short amount of time-- Especially if he were that rich. At least the end result was more satisfying than the movie’s dull “twist”. Don’t look too hard, because you can see it about an hour before it happens.

“Ocean’s 13” escapes from being terrible, but it could have been so much more. The writing is really good and the story had so much potential. I enjoyed Al Pacino and it had some fun moments. But Soderbergh must be getting tired of making these movies. The execution is far from the creative edge of the first movie and there was nothing new to be found. The actors look like they don’t want to be there and the entire concept is starting to grow dull. These guys use to be cool to watch a few years ago, but this latest heist feels like it will be best remembered in the bargain bin.

** out of ****