“Ocean’s Thirteen has arrived adding yet another big name to this summer’s line-up of ‘threequels,’ which includes “Shrek, “Spiderman and “Pirates of the Caribbean. Steve Soderbergh’s third, and you suspect final, instalment shot straight to number one at the US box office, ringing in over $37 million on its opening weekend. Given the success of the preceding two that was no surprise.
And that success was not unwarranted. “Ocean’s Eleven and “Ocean’s Twelve both combined clever plotlines, a glittering cast and, in parts, a razor sharp script. Soderbergh weaved them into entertaining and intelligent movies – strong doses of action and entertainment, but not at the expense of your brain.
After their foray in Europe in “Ocean’s Twelve, the crew return to the scene of their original heist, Las Vegas. Veteran conman and mentor to the crew, Reuben (Elliot Gould), has been swindled by juggernaut hotelier Willie Bank (Al Pacino). Bank is renowned for his ultra-luxurious hotels and his obsession with winning the most prestigious honor in the business, the five-diamond award.
So the heist that Clooney, Pitt, Damon et Al Pacino plan to pull off involves not only hitting Bank’s new hotel and casino hard, but also depriving him of his coveted award – producing a delightful sub-plot in the process.
However, where the first two movies triumphed “Ocean’s Thirteen stumbles. In the usually enjoyable “this is what we’re gonna do scene emblematic of the Ocean’s franchise – and indeed any decent heist movie – their English heist-expert buddy gives them a detailed (incomprehensible) explanation as to why the job is impossible, before explaining (incomprehensibly) how they will do it.
“Without a job or women, he says, “this would take at least 18 months of full-time planning to have any chance of success. Moments later they are planning to pull it off within weeks. A category of logistical impossibilities are casually brushed over, making it feel like “Ocean’s Thirteen is merely going through the motions of the first two movies, without respect for the complexity that made them good.
Yet as the movie unfolds the entertainment value appreciates.
Al Pacino’s obsessive attention to the hotel’s every detail is perversely pleasurable, and Damon’s seduction of his assistant provides many laughs (though perhaps not for feminists). Like “Eleven and “Twelve there are lots of clever facts about the gaming industry and the film even touches on workers’ rights, portraying the lives of the Mexican laborers manufacturing the casino’s appliances. It is worth seeing the film for one scene alone in which Clooney and Pitt come close to tears watching Oprah in their hotel room.
What becomes obvious though is that the success these boys have enjoyed over the years – not least with the “Ocean’s franchise – has gone to their heads. Their way of relating to one another onscreen is so sleek as to be beyond the realm of human relations. That is, they are too cool to be real and too arrogant to care if you notice.
Like a Swiss cheese “Ocean’s Thirteen is enjoyable but full of holes. As the action proceeds so does the confusion, and the pace of the film deprives you of the chance to figure out how this or that make sense.
But if you don’t care about it making sense, a lot of the action is quite enjoyable indeed; though neither as substantial nor as intelligent as that of its predecesso
