Ocean's Thirteen

George Clooney, Brad Pitt and the rest of the modern day rat-pack return. (Again)

Here's an idea - we'll describe what we're going to do in the first 15 minutes, and then spend the next hour and 45 minutes doing exactly that, with no major twists or turns on the way. Oh and our motivation for doing all this? = Ego Trip.

Seriously, this has to be one of the oddest structures for a film ever.

What sort of film tells you the entire story (including the ending) at the start and then proceeds to act it out to a tee.

The greatest problem with this, is that it leaves no room for suspense, and to be honest no real reason to get into or follow the story because it's already been explained to you. Unlike in the first film, where you'd have the great "how we did it" reveal at the end and then all the pieces fall into place, and the audience has a sense of satisfaction of "oh, I get it now." This is more of a "how we'll do it" at the start, and then at the end "see I told you that's how we'd do it."

As it stands, the film is by no means bad, it's well acted, well directed, has high production values, the characters all have great chemistry, and the story flows at a brisk pace.

However, I just wasn't feeling it. I couldn't get behind Danny Ocean's motivation for this whole 'revenge heist' in the first place. Yeah, so a business deal went sour, and is friend suffered the equivalent of a stroke because of it. Business deals go wrong all the time! It's just the way the world is. Why not go after the cigar or whisky company, which probably contributed just as much to this stroke as well?

I do, however genuinely love the conversation between Danny Ocean (Clooney) and Rusty (Pitt). They are most definately the highlight of the film for me. That and every wide shot of Al Pacino's hotel, considering it's not really there on the Las Vegas skyline it does look mighty impressive.

The fact that it is very much an ensemble piece, all the characters get there fair share of the limelight and director Steven Soderbergh handles all of their individual story strands with care.

It’s just a shame that I couldn’t get into it, due to the aforementioned intro and when the film does try to give you a little twist, you can see it coming a mile away. Maybe it’s because there’s already been two of these films, and I’ve become accustomed to the type of double-crosses that are almost definitely going to happen. It just doesn’t seem fresh anymore and there is never any doubt in your mind that they won’t pull it off.

So overall, the film was okay but I won’t be rushing to see it again, and can’t say I’m eagerly awaiting Ocean Fourteen.

7/10

What did you think?