Warner Bros Pictures with Village Roadshow Pictures present an R rated approximately120 minute film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney (Danny Ocean), Brad Pitt (Rusty Ryan), Matt Damon (Linus Caldwell/Lenny Pepperidge), Michael Mantell (Dr. Stan), Elliott Gould (Reuben Tishkoff), Ray Xifo (Rueben's Butler), Al Pacino (Willie Bank), Adam Lazarre-White (Bank's Junior Executive), Eddie Jemison (Livingston Dell), Don Cheadle (Basher Tarr/Fender Roads), Shaobo Qin (Yen/Mr. Weng), Casey Affleck (Virgil Malloy), Scott Caan (Turk Malloy), Bernie Mac (Frank Catton) Eddie Izzard (Roman Nagel) Ellen Barkin (Abigail Sponder) Jerry Weintraub (Denny Shields) Julian Sands (Greco Montgomery) Andy Garcia (Terry Benedict) Oprah Winfrey (Oprah) David Paymer (The V.U.P.) and Carl Reiner (Saul Bloom/Kensington Chubb).
Apparently 2007 is not the favorite year for the number three, since the Pirates ship somewhat sank, Shrek got swamped and Spider Man got eaten by its competition. I mean don't get me wrong they all made good money considering! Maybe drawn out sequels are meant to be left for the horror genre like Freddy, Jason or Michael. Ocean's was interesting to watch due to the star power attached with it but tended to lack some of the star dust. Could Julia Roberts have saved the day? Doubtful that she could but at least it would have helped some of the scenes which lacked much character development especially between the major thirteen players. But thank goodness for Al Pacino and Oprah, they were a saving grace to this film. Truthfully!
The story evolves around the premise of revenge and getting even. So what are the odds? Well, thirteen to one, of course! Danny Ocean rounds up his crew once again to go after Willie Banks who wrongfully so to speak stabbed their associate and one of the original eleven, Rueben, in the back over a new hotel deal in Vegas, causing the near death of their faithful friend. The crew seek revenge against Willie, the hotel and its state of the art Greco security system on opening night July 3rd, the clients, its five star diamond reputation, and the V.U.P. that truly becomes a hotel biohazard. Definitely some funny scenes surrounding the V.U.P. creating moments of comedic laughs in an otherwise dramatic crime thriller. Did you know that the average bed contains six billion dust mites at any given time? Well, you won't know that number from this film but you will experience the grotesque vision. Even Mexican workers at a plastics plant got rolled into the dice on this sometimes over the border trilogy.
The story tends to jump back than forward a bit causing somewhat confusion at times but if watched carefully sews itself back together thanks to some interesting conversations and character sequences. Sometimes the writing and directing fell on a bit absurd but overall came together in the end but no thanks to the actors. Man made earthquakes, back stabbing, con's conning con's who con con's, and some Austin Power mojo moments between actors Damon and Barkin made for some interesting albeit somewhat ridiculous developments to the plot.
All the players are sometimes confusingly laced throughout this film taking on different intricate parts to help the story unfold right down to the predictable climax. Three minutes and the roll of a dice, spin of a wheel or deal of a card can change the future in a half billion ways and for one seventy two million can land you a spot on Oprah's couch. It's all part of the blitz but in the end once again lucky number eleven saves the day but possibly not this sequel. Overall, a great cast and an interesting film sure to keep your attention for the most part but somewhat lack luster on the characters relationships amongst each other in relevance to the story line.
Reporting for Talkin' Pets, I'm Jon Patch.