|
The remake of “Ocean’s Eleven” was a lot of fun; the
producers of the film took an enjoyable caper film that
had little social relevance and made into a fun modern caper
film with little social relevance. George Clooney, Brad
Pitt, Matt Damon, Elliot Gould, Bernie Mac, Julia Roberts
and Don Cheatle (one of the best actors around—someone find
this guy another Oscar caliber role) all gave terrific,
fun performances that injected this slight roller coaster
of a film with wit and energy. The film also came at a perfect
time—it premiered three months after 9/11 providing intelligent
escapist entertainment at a crucial time. It did help that
it had a terrific directing/writing team (Ted Griffin who
wrote Ridley Scott’s “Matchstick Men” also about con men
and Steven Soderbergh director of “Traffic” and “Erin Brockovich”)
and that the original screenplay was a lot of fun as well.
***
Then came “Ocean’s Twelve” a lesser sequel that I was
still game for simply because it had the same team. “Ocean’s
Thirteen” and its predecessor prove the devolution theory
of sequels—the further we get from the original inspiration
the worse the films are. There are exceptions (“Terminator
2”, “Aliens”, “The Empire Strikes Back”) but generally the
rule holds pretty true. What was inspired in the first film
becomes hackneyed and clichéd with each one after. ***
If you don’t expect much from the film, you’ll enjoy
it but the film, like the sequel, is built with a house
of cards. If you get too close to take a look at them, you’ll
shake the table and the whole house comes down. For escapist
entertainment, it’s not bad just not memorable. ***
So “Ocean’s Thirteen” once again has a con and heist
at its heart. As with the first and second films, the bad
guys deserve it. This time around Rueben (Elliot Gould)
is double crossed by his partner Willie Bank ( a character
with a very punny name played by Al Pacino) in a new hotel
venture. Rueben has a heart attack as a result (or did he
pull a fast one on Danny Ocean, too?) prompting Danny Ocean
(George Clooney) and his guys (the aforementioned cast members
except Julia Roberts) to pull the rug out from under Willie,
inspired a South American revolution and even allow old
nemesis Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) a bit of revenge old
style as well. ---
Image & Sound:
“Ocean’s Thirteen” looks extremely good. I haven’t seen
the Blu-Ray version yet, but the conventional DVD has terrific
looking colors. Detail is incredibly good as well. ***
The audio sounds terrific whether it be in the casino
or during the earthquake (you need to watch the movie to
find out about that as I’m not going to give any more spoilers
out). Dialogue is crisp and clear and the music positively
jumps out of the speakers ready to perform for you, LIVE!
ON STAGE!
|
