Ocean’s Thirteen- Analog players in a Digital world.

The crew is back for more shenanigans

Clooney, Pitt, and the rest of the crew were apparently unsatisfied with themselves for the disappointment of Ocean’s 12, so they decided to come back and make a suitable sequel. Do they deliver? Hell yes. Two heists. New cons. and a Mexican factory revolt. What's not to love?


By now you may have heard that this one is about friendship at heart—leave the women at home, this one is about loyalty between friends. These movies have always been self-referential, and this probably parallel’s the actors themselves again- you’ve got a crew of buddies that have a lot of fun together, but other than these movies they probably don’t get to work together very often. You can see the fun they are having making the movie, and as usual it’s contagious.

There was another theme that resonated with me in Thirteen- to put it simply, its a nostalgic comparison of ‘old school’ vs ‘new school’—the new Vegas compared the the golden age when Sinatra was running around. There’s a scene in the movie where Roman (Eddie Izzard) tells Danny and Rusty “You guys are analog players in a digital world”. He’s talking about the high-tech security systems being too sophisticated for them to beat, but it’s also a bigger metaphor of the movie. The movie is literally peppered with references to this old school/new school dichotomy. Rusty and Danny are reminiscing on the strip about the old casinos that have long been replaced, and about their early days in Vegas, and how it was back then. In other scenes, characters reference the guys that “shook Sinatra’s hand”—a reference not only to those who have been around that long, but also to a code of honor where a handshake was good enough to seal a deal. It gives you something to think about in a world where everything is about the newest technology and MTV soundbites. What happened to style, craftsmanship, design? What happened to old ideals? Friendship. Loyalty. The human bonds that enrich life.

I may be extrapolating a little far- this is, after all, a heist film.
Anyway, on to the heist:

I actually enjoyed 12, right up to the point where they pull the Julia Roberts-pretends-to-be-Tess-pretending-to-be-Julia Roberts fiasco. To be fair, it was a risky move. They had to know that premise would either be considered hilariously inventive or bomb completely. But my biggest complaint with 12 was that most of the crew spent most of the movie sitting in jail. That is definitely not the problem in Thirteen—each member of the crew is given their own tasks and sub-missions to pull off the heist, so all the characters get plenty of fun screen time. On top of that, several fun characters from the previous movies get screen time as well.

Thirteen twists the standard heist convention slightly. We already know the crew, so there is no need for that usual setup. The movie jumps right into the planning of the heist, which is a critical piece of any heist movie. And plenty of time is devoted to the planning. But what I really enjoyed was that as they went through the preparation of the heist, the crew runs into several dead ends and has to come up with alternate ideas. That was a very fresh take on the heist convention. How many times have you seen a Mission Impossible type movie featuring an incredibly complicated plan, only to watch it go off without the slightest inconvenience or hitch, EXACTLY as planned? Where's the fun in that?

The theme of analog players in a digital world also shows up here in the heist- the Bank Casino is billed as the most technologically sophisticated Casino in the world, with state of the art security, all monitored by an artificially intelligent computer. Yet Danny and the crew plan to beat it with a plan as old school as it gets- loaded craps dice, a trick roulette ball, and modified blackjack machines. There is a secondary heist thrown in as well- stealing Willie Bank’s personal collection of diamonds from hotel awards he has won. This heist has its own set of challenges to be dealt with.

Ultimately the heists play out with great fun and complication.

As a heist purist, there were two things that disappointed me, both involving the secondary jewel heist. I don’t want to give anything away, but suffice to say the crux of that heist, as well as some of the events, were completely out of character for the personalities established in previous movies. The Ocean’s franchise isn’t just about stealing things, but doing it with style, panache, and a clever plan. The second heist ultimately lacked that sense of style and sophistication. But this is a very minor complaint that most viewers probably won’t even notice. Overall, I thought the primary heist was an inventive take on the genre, which is a helluva lot more than I can say about most heist movies.

A couple minor complaints:

The movie felt rushed in the beginning, partly because it wasted no time getting into the heist planning. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but much of the first half of the movie feel slow, largely because there is a lot of exposition, but not much humor. In fact, the entire movie felt much longer than its actual running time (which is under 2 hours). I have to say, as much as I enjoyed Thirteen, I can’t say I feel this was a great editing job. The movie felt longer and slower than it was, and ironically I think adding a couple more humorous scenes would have actually made the movie move along faster.

My last complaint is that there was never really an element of tension or suspense to the heist. What was great about 11 was that you didn’t see the critical aspect of the heist (getting out) until after the fact. The movie had you wondering how they were going to pull it off, like a magic trick, only revealed after it was performed. In Thirteen it is all spelled out so cleanly, that when the heist actually happens there is no element of surprise or tension. To continue with the metaphor, it’s like explaining a magic trick before it is performed, so there is no sense of wonder or build up of drama in watching it. But hey, it's not like you were seriously thinking they weren't going to pull it off anyway. The whole point is to just roll with the fun.

There is a minor attempt at a ‘twist’ near the crux of the heist, but the audience never really falls for it. Perhaps this is partially the burden of being a third sequel- audience is familiar enough with the Ocean’s gameplan to expect that everything has been thought of ahead of time. And to be fair, we’ve all seen what happens when a director keeps trying to pull the same trick over and over. Just ask M. Night Shyamalan.

But really, these complaints are minor. For the normal moviegoer, this film is entertaining, funny, and enjoyable romp with some very likeable characters.

It’s like going on a road trip with a bunch of old college buddies- you’ve heard many of the jokes before and you’ll probably end up at some of the same ol’ places, but you have a great time anyway just because its good to hang with the old crew again.