Fun and Slick, Although I Wouldn't Look for It at Oscar Time

Rating: 7/10 (30 October 2008)

The film is a definite improvement over Ocean's 12, although it's not as cool or hip as Ocean's 11. The saying "no honor among thieves" doesn't seem to apply in this film, as the gang reunites to back one of their own. Reuben (Elliot Gould) gets strong-armed out of a new Las Vegas hotel by the greedy Willie Bank (Al Pacino) and is in bad shape. The gang reunites to figure out how to solve this problem. What follows is a series of cons, some of which you've seen, with a few quirky surprises thrown in, to restore Reuben and his investment.
Addition by subtraction seems to work in this film, as neither Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones are absent. (dismissed very quickly, in fact) The beauty of the first film is that it threw us for a few loops, unless you were VERY observant. 12's plot was out of left field. In this one, you're in on the con, but they take a few sideways turns on you to make it funny. More importantly, they do a fair job of involving everybody in the film. Everybody has several good scenes, and unlike 12, everything meshes quite well when it's time for the big con.
It's not an Oscar winner by any stretch, but you certainly get the impression everybody was having fun working on this film. That always helps when watching a film.