| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
A- |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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| Visuals: |
A- |
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In a summer of sequels, 13 really is lucky
by Southpaw (movies profile)
Mar 14, 2008
53
of
61 people found this review helpful
It’s refreshing, after the disappointments that were Spider-Man 3, Pirates 3 and Shrek the Third, to see that the “threequel” this summer still has hope. Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his crew are back for one last heist, but this is not a heist for kicks, it’s for revenge. Willy Bank (Al Pacino) is a casino mogul in Las Vegas and the new business partner of Reuben (Elliott Gould), the lovable Italian casino extraordinaire of Ocean’s crew. Just as Bank and Reuben are about to open their new casino, Bank turns the tides and kicks Reuben out of the circle, leaving him with nothing. In shock, Reuben states “We’ve both been around long enough to shake Sinatra’s hand, and you know the code with guys who shook Sinatra’s hand.” “Screw Sinatra’s hand!” Bank replies, “Screw!?” says Reuben, which leads him into a state of shock, unknowingly if its because he was screwed over or if he was insulted by Bank’s comment. In either case Ocean and the entire crew round up to get revenge on Bank for double-crossing Reuben, which is “The most dangerous heist of all” Saul (Carl Reiner) states.
Some of the crew, including Basher (Don Cheadle) and the Malloy brothers (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan) want to have Bank killed. But the crew realizes it’s better to hit him hard and take him out by taking out his new Bank Casino by rigging all of the games so that the house loses. There is a big problem, however, and that is the security system known as “The Greco”, which can read gamblers and see if they are not conning the casino. Basically the system reads each player’s heartbeat, excitement level and pupils to see if a big win is legitimate or the result of a con. Even Nagel (Eddie Izzard) is impressed with the system and knows it cannot be hacked. What results is an impossible scheme to shut down “The Greco”, but in order to execute the plan Ocean needs money, and a lot of it. Linus (Matt Damon) suggests the help of past nemesis Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia); the old foe becomes a new ally.
This is a wonderfully shot and witty film that franchise fans will be sure to get a kick out of. Many were disappointed in Ocean’s Twelve for a lot of reasons. A lot of people must remember that the script to Twelve was never intended to be a sequel to Ocean’s Eleven. Fans should be pleased that the final installment in the franchise takes it back to what made Eleven so special. I think that as time goes on, Twelve will begin to grow on fans and become an interesting, if not somewhat entertaining bridge between Eleven and Thirteen the far superior films in this franchise. I have always been entranced with the characters in this series and with this final film, director Steven Soderbergh has created a world where con artists are cool and the casino bosses are only interested in any evil-doers main passion, more power.
The film also has some very good parallels to real life, much like Ocean’s Twelve did. At points, Ocean and Rusty (Brad Pitt) are heard having conversations about their presumed wives, this makes for some witty dialogue as we cannot quite be sure if it’s Rusty we hear talk about Isabel from Twelve or if it’s Pitt talking about Angelina Jolie. I wasn’t sure and I did not care; it’s fun to imagine though.
Let’s not forget Al Pacino. This man just does not seem to know the meaning to the term “bad role”. He has made a career out of being a character-actor, and being a damn good one at that. Consider his transition from Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, to Tony Montana in Scarface. Only Pacino could go from playing a Italian mob boss to a Cuban immigrant who takes over the Miami drug world. Here he gives another performance worthy of his recent AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. He creates a character that would normally be a cliché into a role he has a lot of fun playing, and that we have a lot of fun watching. Pacino always said he was intimidated working with an actor like Marlon Brand on the set of The Godfather saying that he was “the man”. Today, that revelation has come full circle and it is Pacino who is “the man” everyone wants to work with, even the most popular actors of our time get jitters working with a legend. |
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