Ocean's Eleven Lite

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2015)

The first Ocean's Eleven (the remake, not the Rat Pack version) is a classic heist film. Good team, excellent plot, clever twists, action, excitement, the whole nine yards. Ocean's Twelve, the sequel, is a convoluted mess that is best left forgotten. Ocean's Thirteen, the movie in question, falls somewhere in between. It's a huge leap forward in quality when compared to its immediate predecessor, but it doesn't quite reach the novelty and sheer fun that the first had in spades.
We return to Las Vegas as Reuben (Elliott Gould) has fallen to some hard times, being cheated on a casino deal by heinous Willy Bank (Al Pacino) and now it's up to Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his crew to settle the score. It's a workable plot, though a touch too similar to the first movie to really impress with its originality. The movies look too similar for you to be able to appreciate it fully, and even the twists are somewhat predictable because of this.
And while the acting is generally very good, I don't really buy Pacino as an effective villain in a heist movie. The man can certainly play a villain, no doubt about it, but he doesn't quite hit the right notes here. Especially when the movie also contains Andy Garcia, the slimy ball of haughtiness from the first film. I also have to note that none of the characters have evolved at all. They're still the same old rogues they were in the first film, and while I don't expect a lot of character development in a cheerful heist film series, I'd appreciate if there was a little bit of it.
All that being said, I do think it's an enjoyable film. The heist itself is a lot of fun, the characters are still delightfully quirky and it seems like the film crew had a lot of fun.