Friday, June 15, 2007

Ocean's 13 - an inside joke worth being part of...

Fortunately, there's not a lot to the plot of Ocean's 13 - basically the wonderful Eliot Gould is scammed out of a new casino deal by meanie Al Pacino, has a heart attack, and Ocean's gang of thieves plans revenge. To flesh this out, there are excellent little bits all the way through that have no real bearing on the story, but are lots of fun to watch - like 2 of the gang starting a riot over fare wages at a Mexican dice factory, Clooney and Pitt discussing how they met Gould and reminiscing about old school Vegas, and walking down the street using their half sentences that show a secret language of friendship that's just fun to be part of. They basically succeed in fulfilling the dictum "It is not enough that I win, others must lose" except they make it - "it's not enough that you lose but lots of people who have nothing to do with the heist need to win all your money so you can't take it back" - I think that was too long as a tag line so they just called it Ocean's 13. It's very funny and the double crossing and who is in on the heist is mysterious right up until the end. They should just keep making these because they're fun and a lot like going to a college reunion - you don't need all the details of everyone's life, just being able to speak about things in common is enough.

2 comments:

Cat said...

I loved that about Ocean's 12. The scene at the end of that movie where they are all celebrating looks like Soderbergh just let the cameras roll when the cast was partying!

Jess said...

Exactly! There's also a great scene where Clooney answers the door and Pitt asks if he's been crying and then hears that Oprah's on in the other room and they both tear up watching it. It's like watching really good staged improv.