Danny Ocean and crew are back…again.

Ocean’s 13 is not the best of the Ocean’s movies - Nor is it the worst. It fits comfortably between Ocean’s 11 and Ocean’s 12. The original is still the best of the franchise, but 13 is far better than Ocean’s 12. Got that? Good.

Oceans 13 focuses on the crew and their bid for revenge. Al Pacino stars as Willie Bank who has just opened a new super-luxurious hotel/casino on the Vegas strip which he ventured into with Reubin (Eliot Gould). Bank double-crosses Reubin just before the project gets off the ground and the anxiety of the situation causes Reubin to suffer a myocardial infarction. Once Daniel and Rusty get wind of the situation they conclude that revenge is definitely in order.

Andy Garcia enters the movie a third of the way in as Terry Benedict, who is propositioned by the Ocean clan because they run into some serious financial woes. Benedict is willing to back them, pending some specific demands, because Bank is his bitter enemy in the hotel/casino industry and his new hotel casts a (literal) shadow on his resort’s swimming pool.

The details of the heist in the movie are oftentimes hard to follow and very elaborate. But the plotline in general is kind of weak and there are some twists that are easily exposed well before they should be. Just as in the other Ocean’s movies, the 70’s cinematic style and scene changes are pretty cool and make it a pretty fun movie to watch al-in-all.

As in all the other Ocean’s movies, this movie is loaded with stars. Don Cheadle is my favorite, as Basher. I can’t help it, I just like him. Matt Damon is witty as Linus, Elliot Gould is always fun to watch, Al Pacino is…well, Al Pacino and Garcia is good also in a very abbreviated role.

Like them or not, Brad Pitt and George Clooney have great chemistry. The real life friends share their scenes really well and their dialogue is very realistic and almost makes me think they are just re-enacting actual conversations from their real lives.

Ocean’s 13 also stars: Carl Reiner, Eddie Izzard, Ellen Barkin, Bernie Mac, Casey Afflack, Scott Caan, Shaobo Qin, and Eddie Jemison.

All in all, my advice to you would be: If you liked the other Ocean’s movies, you’ll like this one, if not, you won’t. If you are on the fence, go watch it, but keep your expectations realistic. Hopefully you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2007 at 11:58 am and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.