Ocean's 13

What do you do when you’ve robbed a guy and then paid him back?

Ask for his help, apparently.

But let’s ask about some previews first:

AMERICAN GANGSTER–Denzel Washington as a bad guy again? I’m for it. He plays a buy who has built his family up from nothing and Russell Crow (who looks like he’s lost a LOT of weight) is the cop who wants to take him down. Ridley Scott directs them both to some gangsterific fun. And Nicholas Pileggi is one of the producers!

Yeah. I’m there.

VANTAGE POINT–Dennis Quaid is a secret service agent when the President (William Hurt) is supposedly killed. Forrest Whitaker is a witness. But did they all see what they think they saw? Or is there a bigger conspiracy going on? Another big action flick that looks pretty awesome.

I AM LEGEND–Oh, I am SO down for this one. At first, I was a little worried about the whole Will Smith/Ahnold debate, but I think I can do with Will taking the place of Moses.

Will is the last man on Earth walking the lonely streets of Manhattan. But there’s something else out there trying to take him out. I’ve never read the book, but I’ve always wanted to. This version may be a bit closer to the source than The Omega Man was, but I like that one a lot. We’ll see how Will does, but I’m in line for it.

STARDUST–Neil Gaiman tries again for Hollywood. This one has something to do with a mythical city where people never leave. When a kid decides to go investigate a falling star (Claire Danes), he ends up swordfighting with Robert DeNiro and battling witches led by Michelle Pfeiffer.

Looks a little cheesy, but I’ll probably see it. I’ll see anything with Peter O’Toole. It ain’t no Golden Compass, though.

That’s it for previews…what about those boys in the Ocean?

So, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his crew need to do another job. This time it’s personal, though. ____ Bank (Al Pacino) has screwed over ______ (Elliott Gould) and basically put him in a coma. The crew comes back together to get him out of his medical funk and pull off a huge job on Bank.

(Of course, all of this makes it kind of weird that Danny would say that ‘It’s not Tess’ fight’ since she loved _____. They needed a better reason for Julia Roberts to not be here, I think.)

And, yes, at one point they have to call in a little help from Terry ____ (Andy Garcia), their mark in the first movie and the man who made their lives hell in the second. His reasoning for helping them is a little flimsy, but I can imagine that he wants Bank out of Vegas.

Basically, there are holes galore (I still don’t understand most of the plot)…but that didn’t matter this time. Unlike Ocean’s 12, it didn’t seem forced and there was no ‘She looks JUST like….!’ If the sense of fun has diminished a little bit, it didn’t hurt the movie. It’s not as good as the first, but it’s a FUCKLOAD better than the second.

These guys are still the epitome of cool. And Pacino just adds to the fun. It’s always great to see him be such a bad-ass that you want to lose. Ellen Barkin, who plays his right hand woman, seemed a little wasted in her role, but it was good to see the two of them together again.

I was NOT too excited to see ______ (_______) back again. He was the most annoying part of Ocean’s 12. But he didn’t have nearly as big of a role here and he was actually a little bit…cool…this time.

The most welcome addition to the crew was Eddie Izzard. He didn’t have a lot to do, but he was great. I would watch him in just about anything, though.

This is a good way to end the Ocean’s Epic. And I think they’re done. They kind of allude to the end here. They acknowledge that Vegas has changed and talk about the way things used to be. There’s a big scene where Danny and Rusty (Brad Pitt) reminisce about the Sands and how they learned to gamble from _______. You could tell that Soderberg and the boys aren’t too happy about the Disney-fying of Las Vegas. It’s no longer an amusement park for adults. It’s a place for people to show off their wealth and build bigger and more obnoxious casinos. Bank’s obviously Fred Ghery inspired casino is quite possibly the most obnoxious building I’ve ever seen…and it’s supposed to be the new crown jewel of Vegas. (It doesn’t really exist, of course. I’m not sure that something that tall and fragile would actually stand for very long.)

It made me sad for the old days of Vegas even though I’ve never really seen those days. I’ve been there once and it was already owned by Disney.

But once there was a day when shaking Sinatra’s hand meant something. A time when the casino was more important than the jewels. When kids didn’t want to go to Vegas. When a certain amount of honor was traded among the thieves of the town. And Danny and the boys belong to that time. And it’s time for them to fade away. As much fun as it would be to see what they could come up with for Ocean’s 14, 13 is a good number for them to stop on.

Besides, Linus (Matt Damon) is all grown up now.