07-06-27 Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

Seen: June 26th, 2007
Format: Theater
Rating: 7

I'm not gonna spend too long on this one. Either you like this series or you don't. Either you buy into the scenario by this time, or you don't. And if you've liked the series so far, you'll probably like this one too.

Or not.

I actually liked this one better than the second. Though the premise has grown a bit tired, this outing manages to remain fresh by changing things up, but keeping things the same.

There's a new bad guy, and he's really bad. There's an old bad guy, or two, and they're as bad as they ever were. There's a new complicated heist, that gets more complicated. There's personal dynamics that get in the way. Everything that made the previous two installment good is here, as well as what made them bad.

The patter here is a bit snappier, which is nice. The scope of the scheme is larger, much larger in some ways. This makes it more interesting, but a little less "real", though if you're expecting "real" what are you here for? There's less tension at the top, which is nice, because it's spread out over a much larger playing field. Things move quickly, and it's easy to stay involved, it's required in fact, if you plan to follow the action.

Many of the characters play a smaller part. This is a bit of a shame, as there's a lot of interesting characters here. Some of the camaraderie is lost as each character becomes subsumed by the larger plot. Some factor very little, having their roles become almost inconsequential. This is the only real downside to the film.

Bottom line; if you like complex heist films or ensemble films with snappy dialogue, you'll like this installment. If not, you'd best look elsewhere, because that's about all there is.

The Good: More of the same

The Bad:

The Ugly: The extent of ego