Ocean's Thirteen: Will They Bring Back the Fun?

Ocean's Thirteen will be released to theaters across the nation on June 8. I will buy a ticket. But I won't be cheerful about it.

The disappointment I felt towards Ocean's Twelve is still with me, so I can't look toward the next movie in the Danny Ocean franchise without a scornful certainty that they will surely botch it up again.

Oh, it will be a successful film, mind you. They have all the elements to draw audiences to the movie like sheep to the fleecing. Box office draws George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt will be returning along with Andy Garcia reprising his role as the Machiavellian Terry Benedict. Add to that the luster of long time movie great Al Pacino, and the solid gold direction of Steve Soderburgh, just how exactly could you go wrong?

But not going wrong just ain't good enough.

See, Ocean's Eleven was a truly great film. It wasn't the cast, though the ensemble cast was great. It wasn't the plot, though the plot was smart and entertaining. It was the jazz! Ocean's Eleven managed to capture an old-time, sexy, broody movie feel, what with sultry music set to Basher's pyrotechnics, and the classy, growling swing of old Saul. Ocean's Eleven encapsulated the glamour of old time movie classics, and it's because of that quality that the film was greater than the sum of its parts. That perfect scene in front of the Bellagio Fountain at the end, as each crook stands in the light, a little redeemed for the success of one great heist until each steps back and moves away in turn, leaving the greenhorn and the old pro to linger in the light from the fountain. That was great film making.

And Ocean's Twelve did not experience one minute of the same.

It would be great if Ocean's Thirteen surprised me and turned out to be a must-see movie experience, but I predict that they will get a little edgier, a little more tongue in cheek. They will again fail to revisit the principles that made the first movie great and come out with a forgettable, two-hour escape from reality instead. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that. But my, how it suffers in comparison to the first.