Review of Ocean's Thirteen (2007) by Joel H — 26 Jan 2013

Steven Soderbergh takes a full step backwards with Ocean's Thirteen, the final Ocean's film in the trilogy. I felt like Twelve was it's own thing, similar to Eleven in many respects but very different at the same time.

Thirteen felt like it was trying way too hard to be like Eleven again, which is sad because I loved Twelve: yet for some reason, most critics and audiences felt like it was the weakest of the trilogy.

Thirteen is just way too confusing to keep up with, there aren't nearly as many funny moments as Twelve had, and it didn't entertain me nearly as much as the first two did. Brad Pitt doesn't have as much screen time, Vincent Cassel is barely included (when it seemed obvious he would have a much more significant role after the end of Twelve), and the addition of Al Pacino isn't as good as one would expect.

Pacino plays the owner of a new casino who screws over one of the guys. The point of the film is for Ocean and his team to get back at him and essentially make him lose money. This concept isn't nearly as exciting as the first two, and the stakes aren't as high.

Ocean's films are about stealing mass amounts of money and/ or valuable objects, but here, it's pretty much about getting back at this one guy and that's it. It's just not exciting or fun enough.

Pacino's character Bank lacks the energy that Pacino is so great at normally conveying in his typical roles and should have been a lot crazier than he ends up being. While there are many many faults with this threequel, it wasn't all bad; it's still a very smart (if extremely difficult to follow) and stylized film, and the cast is still largely great and fun to watch.

Unfortunately, it was hard not to be disappointed and it just didn't come together for me like the last two did.