Vegas, Baby, Vegas!
Kyle Martinak
Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: Culture
This last summer was dominated by 'threequels,' those insufferable third installments of a franchise with taglines like "They're back!" I did not expect to get summer fever this last year from one of these widow-making box office bonanzas, but I can say that my favorite theater experience of 2007 was over a dozen male actors schlepping around Las Vegas.
"Ocean's Thirteen," one of the last "third installments" this past summer of rehashes had a lot of bad things going for it. One, it could not live up to the slick fun that the first movie offered. Two, it had the distinct honor of following 2004's jumbled mess, Ocean's Twelve. Three, movie fans were officially burnt-out early on with sequels, during sequel season no less. Despite all this, Thirteen was the most fun I had in a big-budget sequel all year.
I was genuinely surprised to enjoy the newest adventure from Danny Ocean (George Clooney, playing himself), Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt, playing a very slick version of himself) and all my old friends, on a new adventure.
Everything from the first two installments played a valuable role in this movie, but a newcomer could still enjoy it because the plot follows a sit-com archetype, just with a bigger budget, better humor and more unbelievable situations. This flick begins with a fresh idea that one of the loveable rogues from the original can get conned. Instead of a two hour heist, we get a two hour revenge plot, with some heist-like qualities.
The acting, as with any powerhouse cast this size, is amazing. Between the original eleven, Andy Garcia as old-time villain Benedict and Al Pacino as new-time villain Willie Bank, there are seven Oscar nods or wins and half a dozen Emmys. Pacino played Pacino in this picture and he is delightfully wicked. Garcia is humorous in his deadpan glory and the illustrious eleven are like Abbot, Costello, the Three Stooges, the four Marx brothers, James Bond and Austin Powers packed into a single franchise. One cannot help but note the absences of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julia Roberts, but I honestly think that it made guy's night so much better.
"Ocean's Thirteen," one of the last "third installments" this past summer of rehashes had a lot of bad things going for it. One, it could not live up to the slick fun that the first movie offered. Two, it had the distinct honor of following 2004's jumbled mess, Ocean's Twelve. Three, movie fans were officially burnt-out early on with sequels, during sequel season no less. Despite all this, Thirteen was the most fun I had in a big-budget sequel all year.
I was genuinely surprised to enjoy the newest adventure from Danny Ocean (George Clooney, playing himself), Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt, playing a very slick version of himself) and all my old friends, on a new adventure.
Everything from the first two installments played a valuable role in this movie, but a newcomer could still enjoy it because the plot follows a sit-com archetype, just with a bigger budget, better humor and more unbelievable situations. This flick begins with a fresh idea that one of the loveable rogues from the original can get conned. Instead of a two hour heist, we get a two hour revenge plot, with some heist-like qualities.
The acting, as with any powerhouse cast this size, is amazing. Between the original eleven, Andy Garcia as old-time villain Benedict and Al Pacino as new-time villain Willie Bank, there are seven Oscar nods or wins and half a dozen Emmys. Pacino played Pacino in this picture and he is delightfully wicked. Garcia is humorous in his deadpan glory and the illustrious eleven are like Abbot, Costello, the Three Stooges, the four Marx brothers, James Bond and Austin Powers packed into a single franchise. One cannot help but note the absences of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julia Roberts, but I honestly think that it made guy's night so much better.
Be the first to comment on this story