Surf’s Up!

Ocean’s Thirteen

by Steven Soderbergh

Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin, who give excellent performances, are nice welcomes to the latest of Ocean’s schemes. The first one was awesome (I’d give it 5 stars), but the second one tanked (see Ocean’s Waning). Fortunately, unlike the Pirates of the Carribbean trilogy, you don’t have to see Twelve before watching Thirteen. And yes, I’m still planning to write reviews on Pirates 2 and 3. Some day. I’m writing this one now because April requested it!

First of all, don’t bother trying to count who the thirteen people involved in the scheme are. I think it’s just part of the title. Brothers Virgil (Steve Caan) and Turk (Casey Affleck) seem to have grown smarter. Yen (Shaobo Qin) has grown cockier — I guess money will do that to you. Linus (Matt Damon) is blooming as a con man, though still not good enough for dad. He has an awesome scene with Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin) that’s totally hilarious. Saul (Carl Reiner) is as great as ever playing different characters, his specialty. Reuben (Elliott Gould) looks like he lost weight, so it doesn’t make sense that he ends up in the hospital in critical condition because of Willy Bank (Al Pacino). Livingston (Eddie Jemison), Frank (Bernie Mac), and Basher (Don Cheadle) don’t get enough screen time, in my opinion. Terry (Andy Garcia) is his usual condescending, conniving self. And there isn’t enough banter between Danny (George Clooney) and Rusty (Brad Pitt), which I think is a huge part of Eleven’s success.

Another thing that bothered me was that, for a two-hour long movie, the plan wasn’t as intricate or, perhaps, we don’t see as much details as we do in Eleven or Twelve. However, there are still plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, though much more dry and subtle, which will definitely appeal to the intelligent viewer.