Reviews & Previews - Ocean's 13

Posted on Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 06:00 PM

Ocean's 13

By: S. Tran

Starring: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon
Directed By: Steven Soderbergh
Running Time: 122 minutes
Rated: PG-13

Seasick

The third movie of any sequel is usually the worst of the bunch. Godfather Part III, Spiderman 3, Stars Wars III (which was kind of like Star Wars 6 but not really). Steven Soderbergh tried to con us with this one by calling it Ocean's 13, but you will note the 3 at the end gives away the fact that this franchise has definitely run out of steam. I was going to make some kind of Ocean pun but the movie wore me out.

From start to finish this movie seems really tired. It's as if all the players involved from the director to the actors were just here to pick up another paycheck. Even the writers seemed too tired to think up clever ways for the gang to pull off their scam and instead asks the audience to do the work for them by suspending belief again and again no matter how dumb the plan gets.

The movie opens with the gang rallying around one of their members who has been conned out of a big deal for a new casino in Vegas. This riles up the Ocean's crew so much they are willing to risk all their money to try and pay back the bad, con man Banks, played by Pacino, who is starting to become more of a caricature than an actor.

If you can get over the irony of a bunch of career criminals getting all high and mighty because someone finally took their money then you are treated to an explanation of one of the goofiest plans ever devised to strike back at Banks. Basically the plan involves getting pretty much everyone in the free world involved and buying not one but BOTH of the drilling machines used to dig the Chunnel. I guess they were the high bidder on Ebay.

In addition to this they are able to obtain any job they want inside the casino, despite the fact that they all have criminal records and the casino supposedly has the best facial recognition software in the world. This would be the same security system that is supposedly preventing them from just going after the cash in the first place.

I kept wondering what in the world was stopping them from simply getting a job in the vault itself and just walking out with the cash. But hey I guess that would have been too crazy.

In all honesty I stopped caring about the plan about a quarter way into the movie because it didn't seem like any of the actors really cared. Except for a couple of the bit players everyone seemed kind of bored with the characters. Maybe they knew how dumb the plot was, maybe they just had more worthwhile projects to finance with the big paychecks from this movie. I'm sure Clooney is off to find his next really dull black and white period piece to complete as we speak.

All in all this was a sloppy, tired bit of film making. Maybe if it had been a low budget production from a first time director we could forgive them, but this is an experienced crew that just didn't seem like they were trying very hard at all. Grab the DVD when it comes out so you can at least finish the trilogy. But if you don't get a chance to, don't worry, you won't have missed very much.

2.5 out of 5 stars.