Oceans 13

Plot

Danny’s mentor and ‘one of the eleven’ Reuben – is double crossed on a new casino opening by billionaire Willy Bank, so Danny and the rest of the eleven decide to get even.

When their plans come awry financially, they turn to the last person they thought they would ever reach out to… Terry Benedict.

Direction

Third (and final?) film in the series, is once again directed by Steven Soderbergh. It is is a vast improvement on the second film, with a more retro like feel of ‘old Hollywood’ and Vegas.

Cast/Characters

All the primary “Oceans Eleven” are back, with new players being Al Pacino as Banks, and Ellen Barkin as his ‘right hand’ Abigail.

Also returning is Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict, looking like he’s having more fun here than he did previously.

Breakdown

Considering my (too harsh?) take on the second film, I was quite cautious going into this – but thankfully I was put at ease. This is a significantly better film than the first sequel.

The team plan – which is going after the man who financially ruined their mentor is a good one. And Pacino is on point as the apathetic Banks. Banks is desperate to have a grand opening of his casino and win another “Five Diamonds” award for exceptional service by a visiting judge.

There is some over abundance of exposition – especially as the gang go through in detail how they are going to sabotage each game within the casino. This goes on for about 20 minutes, when it should have been condensed.

There is a fun running gag on how the team sabotage the Five Diamonds award, where Saul (Carl Reiser) pretends to be the judge, and the poor real judge (David Paymer – who always delivers) is subject to almost relentless ‘torture’ during his stay. I’m glad they gave his character a happy ending in the final minutes of the film.

The return of Garcia’s Terry is well done – as Benedict does not care for Banks either. It’s also fun to have that ongoing tension between Danny and Terry too, even without Tess this time. Julia Roberts sat this film out – as did Catherine Zeta Jones. Their characters are mentioned however.

Some other downs, the return of Vincent Cassell’s The Night Fox from the previous movie didn’t really add anything. There is also a scene or two with silly dialogue that doesn’t really make any sense (Danny watching Oprah), or add anything to the film.

Overall

Significantly better than the atrocious #2. The plan, the characters, the narrative is all vastly improved upon.

I would recommend this.

3.5/5