A solid entertainment that doesn't quite reach the heights of the first

Rating: 7/10 (9 June 2007)

This is a good entertainment. The first film in the trilogy was a great entertainment. When Ocean's Eleven came along, I remember myself being totally surprised  I had no idea there could be so much "cool" in one movie. The all-star cast, which we almost take for granted by this third installment, was unprecedented when it came out. And Soderbergh, who had a solid, fluid, complex script to start with, took all the pieces and mixed them all together to create a fantastically smooth, slick, fast-paced, funny and just plain enjoyable entertainment.
But with Ocean's Twelve the gang sort of stumbled. The film suffered from two major flaws. The first was that it gave off the impression of a "guy's night out" and not an actual structured movie, with a solid plot or characters. And deriving from this, it just seemed like nobody really cared about what was actually going on. Soderbergh went completely wild with his experimental film style; meanwhile the scriptwriters sloppily glued a plot together that started out from Benedict trying to get revenge on the Eleven and eventually became some sort of competition between thieves that required a lot of suspension of disbelief. Couple that with the actors basically just having their ball throughout and the movie basically being one big private joke, and you had a serious problem unless you were George, Matt, Brad, Steven or any of the other guys involved. The entire movie emulated this sort of feeling that the people on the screen knew something that we, the audience, didn't.
Luckily, everyone got their act together for the third installment, starting from the scriptwriters. The gang invited a new screen writing team on board replacing the original writers, and in turn the script returned to a more "back to basics" style. This time around no time was wasted and no unnecessary plot threads left astray like the all-over-the-place Ocean's Twelve. Once again, the film returned to the simple, straightforward style of the first: A gang of well-characterized thieves takes revenge on an evil Las Vegas megalomaniac by robbing his casino. The motive that sets things in motion this time around are a little more otherworldly than in the first film, in which Danny Ocean, unbeknownst to his criminal colleagues, set up the Benedict job in order to get back his wife Tess. In Thirteen the motive doesn't work all that well, but it doesn't matter because most of the film, like in the first one, chronicles the set-up and eventually the execution of the job, and it's just a blast to watch. In addition, I must take my hat off to the writers for actually being able to conceive such an amazingly and unbelievably elaborate heist as is featured in this film. It is unfathomably complex and yet, as it all unfolds in the third act, every little thing falls exactly into place. It's simply a thrill to watch.
The whole cast is back with the notable omission of a strong female actress. I mean, with all due respect to Ellen Barkin, she isn't exactly Julia Roberts, and in his quest to assemble the most shining all-star cast possible, Soderbergh had a winner with Roberts on board. That said, Al Pacino is quite the addition to the cast. Although we're all more than familiar with his shtick, it was absolutely wonderful to see him in this piece. I rather understandably skipped his last few forays (Two for the Money, 88 Minutes) so essentially the last time I saw him on in a film was in The Merchant of Venice back in 2004. I do hope Pacino does choose to take more higher quality projects such as this one, because it's really sad to see his career in the dump  and worse, he himself admits that the worse the script the bigger the paycheck. The rest of the cast, obviously, do a fantastic job, but the real treat is to see each cast member in his own moment acting opposite the legendary Pacino.
In an attempt to create the most unbelievably luxurious hotel man could possibly imagine, production designer Philip Messina went above and beyond to create a treasure cove of amazingly gorgeous sets that are the interior of the Bank hotel. And of course, Soderbergh, who also serves as the film's cinematographer under the code name Peter Andrews, delivers some interesting material, especially in terms of lighting and colouration but also some totally wild composition and an unprecedented use of the zoom lens.
In all, Ocean's Thirteen is a fantastic, light-hearted, fast-paced, fun and funny entertainment that contains a taut, focused screenplay that is elaborate and complex while never crossing over the line into confusing. And although it doesn't completely recreate the fresh-faced magic of the first film in the trilogy, Ocean's Eleven, it certainly emulates a similar sensation. It is safe to say that Ocean's Thirteen is the best and most satisfying of this summer's entire onslaught of threequels. Just one thing left me scratching my head: with the omission of Tess, I just don't understand who is the 13th member of the team as appears in the title?