what happens in vegas...

i like heist movies. and i love the ocean movies (although i liked 12 the least). i love this series for a number of reasons. here's 5 reasons why i enjoyed 13:

1) amazing cast. mr. clooney, mr. pitt, mr. damon and mr. cheadle are definitely among the greatest actors of our time. even the not so well known members are talented and essential to the movies. i am soooo grateful that the original 11 stayed with the movies all the way through. that is a feat hard to come by, getting 11 people to sign on for a second, let alone a third movie. also, mr. pacino and mr. garcia... top notch. i did slightly miss julia roberts though. it would have been nice if she came back and kicked benedict in the balls... for old times sake.

2) accessibility. these movies really are accessible to everyone. all three work as stand-alones, so it's not something one has to commit to, unlike say the lord of the rings. they are also accessible to a wide spectrum of iq scores. you could be a bona-fide smarty pants or you could be slightly brighter than a rock and still enjoy them. the intricacy of the actual heist plan, the inter-relation of the characters and the double-double crosses appeal to those in my own iq bracket, while the humor, the bright lights, and the general concept of robbing some stuffy asshole blind are easy for everyone to understand.

3) vegas. 'nuff said. if you've been there, you know.

4) the script. it's intelligent! which is not really the norm for movies in this genre. usually with heist/shoot 'em up/ flashy movies you get sub-par cliched one liners. the "bangs!" and "booms!" usually do all the talking. oceans' is different. the dry, witty banter here makes it for me. and the lines at the end from mr's clooney and pitt digging at each others personal lives were a nice touch, even if a little corny.

5) the plot. the writers make the twisty-turny plot pretty easy to follow (pay attention!) and you almost think you could use the movie as an actual blueprint for robbing an impenetrable casino... hmm, clever. anyways. you really want the gang to succeed because you want banks to go down in a blaze for screwing reuben over. i like how this movie was a little different with respect to the "heist" part. the original plan was to just make banks lose a shit load of money on opening night. the stealing of the diamonds was added after. it reminded me of home alone exploits only on an adult/millionaire scale. the sabotaging of the hotel rater, the rigging of the games and machines, the forethought to control everything and the use of greedy employee insiders was genius. the only minor issue i had with the plot was the parts in mexico with the malloy brothers. don't get me wrong. i thought that was one of the funniest parts of the movie, but it was clearly a plot device to make the movie a few minutes longer.

while the first one is still the best one, the third comes in at a close second. (o.O)

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overall, i give ocean's 13 a B!

-t