SOC
08-06-2007, 09:49 AM
It started as a terrific remake of a dud 60s heist movie — a classy, witty ensemble piece. Then came a dud sequel that's better off forgotten. Now Clooney and his gang redeem themselves with this terrific second sequel that recalls what was so good about the first film — the style, the laughs, the camraderie and the heist. And in a summer of so far so-so threequels (Spider-Man 3, Pirates 3), it's great to have a film that sets out to do nothing more than entertain ... and succeeds.
Ocean's Thirteen is, like Eleven was, at its heart a revenge flick. The tagline even says it — "Revenge is a funny thing" — so it must be true. And like that old saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold. Although in this case it's very, very cool, all Las Vegas glitz and designer suits for its leading men, headed by George Clooney and Brad Pitt — who, incidentally, make a terrific team and really need to do some more films together, a la Hope and Crosby. In the meantime, though, Danny Ocean (Clooney) gets his team back together after his old buddy Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) is conned by double-crossing casino king Willie Bank (Pacino), causing him to have a heart attack. The gang decide to get Bank back by rigging all the games so that the opening night of his new Vegas hotel, The Bank, sees the house lose its shirt. In other words, they plan to ruin him.
So they pull the old crew together for another heist, this time back on familiar turf, good old Las Vegas (Ocean's Twelve really suffered from being outside its comfort zone). The plan sees them getting their own devices into the casino — a camera in Banks's office, along with special dice, card shufflers and poker machines — and making sure some of the gang are employed on the gaming floor. Now as is usual with these heist films, we're asked to suspend our disbelief somewhat; unfortunately, Ocean's Thirteen goes a little to far and asks us not only to suspend disbelief, but to send it to the Bahamas for a two-week vacation. As part of their exit strategy, the guys need to crete an earth tremor (don't ask). And how do they do this? They buy, and ship to Las Vegas, one of the giant drills used to dig the Channel tunnel. A drill that weighs nearly 600 tonnes. Which they sneak into Las Vegas. And then sneak under Las Vegas. Without ANYONE noticing. Riiiiiiiiight.
Despite this monstrous lapse in logic (and there are several others, just not as gigantic) Ocean's Thirteen never fails to entertain. There's plenty of action, loads of laugh (along with the usual smartarse dialogue) and enough testosterone flying around to form a whole new Spartan army to kick some Persian butt. Now, if only they could teach Don Cheadle how to do an English accent properly...
Ocean's Thirteen is, like Eleven was, at its heart a revenge flick. The tagline even says it — "Revenge is a funny thing" — so it must be true. And like that old saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold. Although in this case it's very, very cool, all Las Vegas glitz and designer suits for its leading men, headed by George Clooney and Brad Pitt — who, incidentally, make a terrific team and really need to do some more films together, a la Hope and Crosby. In the meantime, though, Danny Ocean (Clooney) gets his team back together after his old buddy Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) is conned by double-crossing casino king Willie Bank (Pacino), causing him to have a heart attack. The gang decide to get Bank back by rigging all the games so that the opening night of his new Vegas hotel, The Bank, sees the house lose its shirt. In other words, they plan to ruin him.
So they pull the old crew together for another heist, this time back on familiar turf, good old Las Vegas (Ocean's Twelve really suffered from being outside its comfort zone). The plan sees them getting their own devices into the casino — a camera in Banks's office, along with special dice, card shufflers and poker machines — and making sure some of the gang are employed on the gaming floor. Now as is usual with these heist films, we're asked to suspend our disbelief somewhat; unfortunately, Ocean's Thirteen goes a little to far and asks us not only to suspend disbelief, but to send it to the Bahamas for a two-week vacation. As part of their exit strategy, the guys need to crete an earth tremor (don't ask). And how do they do this? They buy, and ship to Las Vegas, one of the giant drills used to dig the Channel tunnel. A drill that weighs nearly 600 tonnes. Which they sneak into Las Vegas. And then sneak under Las Vegas. Without ANYONE noticing. Riiiiiiiiight.
Despite this monstrous lapse in logic (and there are several others, just not as gigantic) Ocean's Thirteen never fails to entertain. There's plenty of action, loads of laugh (along with the usual smartarse dialogue) and enough testosterone flying around to form a whole new Spartan army to kick some Persian butt. Now, if only they could teach Don Cheadle how to do an English accent properly...