Danny Ocean and his team go out on a high

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2014)

After the disaster of Ocean's 12 there was only one way: up. Therefore, Ocean's 13 inevitably improves although it's not surprising Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones dropped out. The ridiculously likable crew are back, getting revenge on a businessman (Al Pacino) who conned their friend. It relocates the action back to Vegas, where it belongs, and this time they were polite enough to actually include a heist. Concluding the trilogy in better than expected fashion, O13 restores the trilogy to glamorous, slick, stylish glory and still shines brighter than the majority of the lights on the strip. It doesn't measure up the original. Don Cheadle is as jarring as ever and there are some irritating jokes and the heist sometimes feels lost in the comedy. It can be overly confusing and it's sometimes difficult to understand where the plot is going. These various flaws don't stop it from being a solid 4 star crime flick.
The characters are still entertaining and likable. This time, Brad Pitt and George Clooney are actually likable and aren't just smug. Matt Damon is still bland though. It's well directed by Steven Soderbergh and has another fine musical score. There's also a sense of finality and it wraps up the trilogy very well. It's not as surreally enjoyable as the first one, but it's humorous, slick and offers plenty of the escapist fun that the first did. It doesn't suffer from the laws of diminishing returns and does the formula of the first one without adding to it but also without copying it and doing a turd on it. This isn't the strongest or bravest second sequel out there but it deserves a lot of respect for being entertaining and learning from the mistakes of the awful Ocean's 12. Nothing memorable or daring, but O13 provides plenty of stylish and sub zero cool heist based fun. At least there's a proper heist set piece.
8/10