Previously Viewed: Ocean's Thirteen (2004)

Well I made a choice today to wrap up this trilogy right away and I threw on Ocean's Thirteen while Ocean's Twelve was still fresh in my memory. As it turns out, it seems I made a mistake yesterday when I claimed I hadn't seen Ocean's Thirteen, because pretty soon after getting into the movie, and seeing Al Pacino show up as the villain, it all came flooding back to me. So what was I to do? Well, I decided to watch it again with my new knowledge of Twelve in mind and see how it shook things up. I'll have to watch another movie after this, but for now, hit the jump to see what I thought.


While Ocean's Twelve deviated from the "break into the casino" story of the first film, Thirteen returns to it in an attempt to recapture the magic missing element that seemed to make Ocean's Twelve feel lacking. This time around Reuben has decided to get out of the crime business and get into casinos legitimately, but his partner Willly Bank betrays him and forces him to sign over his share to the casino. Reuben suffers a heart attack, and upon hearing this, Danny Ocean and Rusty jump into action to get some revenge, thief style!

There's the AAA team we know and love!

Boy oh boy, is this movie better than Ocean's Twelve! The script is far more witty, the back and forth between Danny and Rusty is great as they keep finishing each-others sentences, and the rest of the crew seem to be given far more screen-time, making the story feel much more balanced. I definitely think the casino element is that missing piece that I missed in Ocean's Twelve and didn't even realize it. All the security, all the games, all the money involved, and above all else, the atmosphere that a casino just oozes is what brings it all together to make these movies exciting!

One of the things I liked about Ocean's Twelve was how the characters, especially the villains, were kept from the previous movie. Ocean's Thirteen continues this trend, and compounds it, as not only is Vincent Cassel from Twelve brought back, but this time Andy Garcia's character is brought onto the team which just made me smile from ear to ear. I didn't talk about Cassel in my Ocean's Twelve piece, but he's the rival thief they go up against. As a side note, he's also the crazy brother in Brotherhood of the Wolf. Having just seen Twelve, it was really cool to immediately recognize him while he was supposed to be an unknown bystander in the background! This brings me to the big concern I thought I'd have with this movie.

Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino make an awesome team of adversaries!

In Ocean's Twelve I had what turned out to be a legitimate concern that what I was watching simply didn't matter. While there are unknown elements in Thirteen, they aren't the sort that destroy the story when they're revealed. And while in Twelve I don't think there were any clues at all to what was really going on, in Thirteen there definitely are. Such as being able to spot Cassel's rival thief character hidden in the background, and some out of place phone calls here and there. Big concern eliminated!

Even though it turns out I'd seen it before, Ocean's Thirteen didn't lose any of it's impact and was a really enjoyable experience, enhanced due to finally seeing Ocean's Twelve yesterday. I was glad to see the character growth of Matt Damon's Linus, and Al Pacino made a fantastic adversary! My biggest disappointment though is that if they ever make an Ocean's Fourteen, which I would really LOVE for them to do, we won't get the full cast back no matter what, due to the tragic passing of Bernie Mac. He got far more screen-time this time around and it just reminded me how much I loved his work. If you haven't seen Ocean's Thirteen, go see it however you can, it's a damn fun movie!

Now to find a movie I actually haven't seen!

R.I.P Bernie Mac