Ocean’s 13
Ocean’s 13 is Ocean’s 11 part 3, but the 13 in the title could just as easily refer to the number of cons the eponymous gang of lovable thieves plans to simultaneously put over on Al Pacino’s evil hotel magnate. The Sting set the standard for cool con movie. Imagine cramming 13 Stings into one two-hour movie and you might get an idea of what doesn’t work in Ocean’s 13. There are so many gimmicks and plots that none of them is particularly engaging, let alone suspenseful. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and company are simultaneously rigging craps, blackjack, roulette, the hotel ratings guy, the high rollers, the slot machines, and some domino game whose role in the movie I didn’t even understand, but by the time Bernie Mac started pushing it on Pacino, I had pretty much given up hope of keeping track of the various schemes. The problem is that it is hard to get too worried about the success of Plan A, when there are also Plans B-M, and they don’t depend on Plan A. Clooney and Pitt have a cute way of finishing each other’s sentences that grows wearying when they are speaking in con game code speak. Don Cheadle is stuck for most of the movie directly underneath the Las Vegas Strip operating not one, but both boring (as in drilling) machines that dug the tunnel under the English Channel. Yeah, no one will notice that. The actors are fun to watch, and Steven Soderbergh nicely puts all the pieces together into a coherent whole, but there are so many pieces that the fun suspense and intrigue that should go with the movie ends up being spread too thin.
June 29th, 2007 at 1:29 am
My apology for adding my 2 cent comment, but Josh forgets to mention how cute the boys are
I never care about the story in the Oceans movie, I just want the eye candy and it delivers!