Clooney, Pitt, Damon and the Crew Together Again in Oceans 13

Oceans 11 (2001) was such a good movie that when Oceans 12 (2004) came out, I ignored the bad reviews and went to see it anyway. Never one to let critics guide my movie going choices it was one of those times when I had to give the critics credit for being right; Oceans 12 fell far short of Oceans 11. Still, Oceans 12 had a few redeeming scenes, like the opening scenes when actor Andy Garcia as the casino heavyweight character Terry Benedict went around rousting the Oceans crew from their lives, personally giving each one of them a deadline by which to pay him back the money they stole in Oceans 11. It was especially fun when Garcia’s character showed up at the wedding rehearsal dinner for Scott Caan and Casey Affleck’s characters, the Malloy boys. It was fun, too, when Pitt’s character, Rusty, introduced Catherine Zeta Jones’ character, Isabel Lahiri, a detective who specialized in the kind of high priced theft that Rusty, Danny Ocean and the crew pulled. Pitt, finding out that he’s about to be busted with evidence of hair fibers, a boot heel, and DNA evidence collected by Isabel’s team, makes a get away through a window to avoid being arrested by Isabel. The scene where Clooney, Pitt, and Damon met with Matsui and they prank Damon’s character was priceless. Oceans 12 even had intricately designed schemes that helped the viewer make sense in bringing the team together again. But the highlight of the film was Vincent Cassel as the character Francois Toulour, who had ratted the Oceans team out to Benedict in order to draw them into a competition to determine who the better thief was, the Oceans team, or Toulor, AKA, the Night Fox. Cassel performs a modern dance routine to classical music in synch to roving security lasers that were the first line of defense in protecting a priceless Faberge egg. Cassel rescued the film with his modern dance performance, pulling the film out of the quagmire when it hit bottom when Julie Roberts, in character as Tess, Danny’s love interest, began acting herself. The film had well thought out technology and schemes, but the Oceans crew, for the most part, fell flat on acting.

Unfortunately, it did not get any better in Oceans 13 (2007). Oceans 13 brings the crew together once again, this time to rescue Elliot Gould’s character, Reuben, who has been swindled and bankrupted by Al Pacino’s character, Willie Bank. The Oceans crew want to avenge Reuben, and to maybe get him some cash back in the process. Enlisting the acting great Al Pacino, and Ellen Barkin as Bank’s sidekick does not rescue this film. While there are some engineering complexities in the team's scheme, the scheme lack the excitement and the precision of Oceans 11 or Oceans 12. It seemed like the Oceans 13 cast was relying on the stage set – which was not really that great and did not come close to conveying the sense of glamour and glitz of a real Vegas casino, or even the casino set in Oceans 11 – to carry the film. It does not work. Even if it had been a great casino stage set, the film still would have fallen flat without the benefit of acting effort, and that was unfortunately not in this film. As the movie goer, I had the sense that the cast had come together and made appearances, instead of acting.

Then, a spark of hope with the introduction of the Oceans 12 character of Toulour, played once again by Vincent Cassel, who might save this film with yet another surprising and astounding performance; but it does not happen. There is no spectacular modern dance scene in the laser lights to rescue this film. The film's saving grace is that Julia Roberts did not appear playing Julia Roberts. And just when you think you have gotten away - Clooney's character says to Pitt’s character, “You need to settle down and have a couple of kids or something.”

This one is a wait for the video release.