What are the odds of getting even? Danny Ocean and the gang would have only one reason to pull off their most ambitious and riskiest casino heist--to defend one of their own. But they’re going to need more than luck on their side to break The Bank.Ruthless casino owner Willy Bank never imagined that the odds were against him when he double-crossed Danny Ocean’s friend and mentor Reuben Tishkoff, putting the distraught Reuben in a hospital bed in critical condition. But Bank miscalculated--badly. He may have taken down one of the original Ocean’s eleven, but he left the others standing and, worse for him, gave them a shared purpose: to take Bank down on the night of what should be his greatest triumph--the grand opening of his new casino, appropriately named The Bank. Their strategy is twofold. First they will ruin him financially by turning the tables on the precept that the house always wins. But that’s just money. The knockout punch will be to Bank’s personal pride and joy: his reputation as the only hotelier who has earned the Royal Review Board’s Five Diamond Award on every single one of his hotels. The plan is elaborate, dangerous and damn near impossible--but there are no limits when it comes to one of their own.

One of the comments that I have heard frequently about this movie from both the cast and the director is that this was the movie they should have made for Ocean’s Twelve. I mean that’s a pretty big backtracking, I mean so rarely do you see anyone admit that they pretty much dropped the ball on a film and made an inferior product. Before seeing Ocean’s Thirteen I would have agreed with that comment, Ocean’s Twelve was nowhere near as good as Eleven and was clearly a flawed movie. But after seeing Thirteen I am actually in disagreement with that statement, because Thirteen is just trying to be Eleven all over again. I mean at least with Twelve they went out and tried something new, they tried to advance the story and plot rather than just living off pass laurels. I mean sure Twelve is like a Eurotrash version of Eleven but at least it was its own unique movie even if it was flawed.

Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed Ocean’s Thirteen for the most part, I have always been partial to gamblers movies as I enjoy the thrill of gambling myself. For someone who has felt that adrenaline rush when the dice leave your hands or when the dealer flips over a bust card you can understand the need, the want to beat the house at there very own game. That’s what Eleven captured, it was a thrill, it was a great heist movie but it was also like capturing lightning in a bottle. And Thirteen quickly finds out hard it is to capture lightning in a bottle twice. But the movie from the get go to the finish is clearly just a cheap rip off of Ocean’s Eleven. The movie is fun, the movie can give you that thrill of trying to beat the house but that doesn’t douse the fact that the movie is just trying to be Eleven all over again.

The best part of any of the Ocean’s movies whether it was the original or the remakes is the cast. I mean with the original we had the rat pack and for the remakes we have the preppy pack (I had to make my own name for them) a bunch of rich, Hollywood players who love to gamble, have fun and just enjoy being in each other’s company. I mean you go down the list of players in both movies and you have some of the most prestigious Hollywood careers of two different generations having fun and making fun movies. I mean you can see Brad Pitt or George Clooney yukking it up over a blackjack table, you can see the comadrieship off screen and on screen and it makes for a fantastic cast and makes the movie just that much better. Screen chemistry is so important and sometimes it’s almost impossible to capture but the Ocean’s movies have it and might be the one of the best ensemble cast’s ever. The movie is fun, it does have that level of excitement and who doesn’t enjoy a good revenge story but the movie isn’t Ocean’s Eleven no matter how hard they try to make it so.

Grade: B-