Oceans 11, 12 and 13
In the 20th century there were several decent movies being made, where the world of gambling played a part. Among them I would list “Casino” (1995), “Bugsy” (1991),“The Gambler” (1974) and “The Hustler” (1961).
But in the 21st century, there are three very specific Hollywood productions that rules when it comes to portraying the cheating, gambling and winning life in the gambling business. Naturally I am talking about the movies about the charming villain Danny Ocean and the crew that he puts together in order to various kinds of scams in a semi-Robin-Hood kind of way.
In the first film, the gang is after Las Vegas high shot Terry Benedict and the three casinos that he own, namely the Bellagio, the Mirage and the MGM Grand. Incidently he is also the new boyfriend of Danny’s lost love Tess. Using all the tricks in the book - and several others that you couldn’t find in there - the eleven of them are trying to steal no less than160 000 000 dollar from Benedict. Plenty of things occur during these attempts, to the background of a really great soundtrack.
Oceans Eleven is carried by a bunch of terrific actors, all managing to play their characters with the ease that it takes for this movie to balance humour and tension. Both in this and the two movies that follow, we have the pleasure of watching George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck and Elliott Gould among others.
A few “guest actors” worth mentioning in the trilogy are Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin. Many of the scenes are taking place inside casinos or at poker tables. And yes, there is foul play.
Ocean’s Eleven is based on the ‘60s cult movie with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as the leading men. The modern version is a bit more shaped by the so called MTV-generation, in the sense that there is more of everything. More editing, more colour, more violence, more jokes, more references to different kinds of popular culture. The Oceans-movies have made it a bit of their trademark to contain a certain kind of dialogue where the characters fill in each others sentences a lot. Pauses and silences are also an important part of the script, with adds a lot to the comedy part of the movies.
Ocean’s Twelve is about the problem that occurs when an old friend unexpectedly collects a very large debt – with interest – and how that problem is solved by stealing more… Once again, poker playing, roulette spinning and wagering are themes throughout the movie.
In Ocean’s Thirteen there are many sequences where it’s emphasized how our anti-heroes are getting older, or at least growing up. There is an adorable scene where super cool Rusty (Brad Pitt), surprises super cool Danny Ocean (George Clooney) watching Oprah, drinking red wine and crying. When Rusty sceptically enters his apartment and sees the rest of the show together with Danny, he himself is moved to tears by how Oprah is doing charity.
All in all, the three movies are of course similar to each other. But that doesn’t stop them from being equally entertaining and worth seeing.
