Let’s turn back the clock to December of 2001. I left work in Baltimore, drove four hours to Pittsburgh, and arrived in a surly mood. But I agreed to go to a movie anyway (being the wonderful boyfriend I was). So it was another 25 minute drive to a movie theater. Then a 10:30 showing of a movie I really had no interest in. A remake of a heist movie I’d never seen, nor had any interest in seeing. Two hours later I left the theater convinced I had just discovered a new favorite movie. I can’t remember another time a movie so completely flipped my mood. The surliness was gone, replaced by the adrenaline of a successful heist, and the feeling that I was hip to a new Rat Pack style cool.
Fast forward six years. After an enjoyable but unremarkable sequel, Ocean’s Thirteen arrives to my most eager anticipation. It may be unfair to judge a highly-anticipated sequel against the original when there were no expectations for the original. It’s impossible for the sequel to live up. Or so I thought.
With Ocean’s Thirteen director Steven Soderbergh (and the all-star cast that comprises Danny Ocean’s band of merry misfits) has recaptured the magic that made Ocean’s Eleven so great. It’s a simple formula: take charismatic actors, give them fun roles and snappy dialog, come up with a cool plan, setup a great villain, shoot them in creative and interesting ways, and most of all, PUT THEM IN VEGAS. Vegas is as much a character in these movies as Danny or Rusty is. It provides the framework for all the action and attitudes. It breathes its excitement into the fabric of the story. And it’s great to look at on film. I’m firmly convinced that one of the major flaws of Ocean’s Twelve was its setting. Keep the gang in Vegas and they just pop.
I’m not going to say Ocean’s Thirteen is better than Ocean’s Eleven (that would be blasphemy after all). But I will say it’s got all the charm and fun of the original, and it lives up to its legacy.
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1 comment
November 3, 2008 at 9:43 pm
sara
ily