Ocean's Thirteen 2007

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: When a movie keeps you this entertained without insulting your intelligence, it's hard to complain. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The party may well be ending for these gentlemen, but it was fun while it lasted. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Thirteen is all about maintaining a barely perceptible smirk behind an impassive pose. The line between cool and cold is a thin one, however. Cool isn't the word for Thirteen; it's just smug. Read more

Laura Kern, New York Times: Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Is it possible that only a director so distrustful of surfaces could surrender so thrillingly to the big lie? Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Predictably adolescent and smarmy, with the mix of sentimentality and cynical flippancy that's becoming Steven Soderbergh's specialty (even when he's pretending to make art films), this is chewing gum for the eyes and ears, and not bad as such. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Hilarity-free. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I know full well I'm expected to Suspend My Disbelief. Unfortunately, my disbelief is very heavy, and during Ocean's Thirteen, the suspension cable snapped. Read more

Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ultimately, if you give yourself up to its manufactured charm, it all becomes comfortingly familiar. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Ocean's 11's easy chemistry and effortless style return alongside the let's-take-down-a-casino plot. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: A sequel (or three-quel, if you will) that returns to the vicarious fun of the first movie, Ocean's Eleven, and all but erases the not-so-fond memory of the preening ego-trip that was Ocean's Twelve. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: This might be the first piece of escapism to have a whiff of public service at its heart. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Ocean's Thirteen will please those who delight in its persistent self-mythologizing, but the thrill of the original is gone, and nothing can bring it back. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: An entertaining night out at the movies. Have some popcorn. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The most enjoyable thing about the Ocean's movies is that nobody involved seems to take them seriously. The star wattage is immense but the stars themselves are refreshingly self-deprecating, almost satirically so. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: In Hollywood's version of Vegas, I'll have the surf, and the turf, and the vegetarian, and anything else Soderbergh wants to serve me. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Ocean's Thirteen is hack Hollywood garbage, the sort of film that thinks so little of its supposedly sure-thing audience that it never breaks a sweat. That's not cool; that's lazy. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: [A] delectably elaborate and savory souffle of a mother-of-all-scams sequel. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A lightweight but altogether entertaining romp-reunion that seems like nothing more -- or less -- than a do-over for the Steven Soderbergh-George Clooney Gang's ponderous, too-hip-for-the room Ocean's Twelve. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Why put so much sheen on a movie that warrants and provokes nothing more than mild diversion? It's like serving sloppy joes on fine china. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: This time, the con is on the audience. Read more

Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: After the story's wheels are set in motion, you pretty much know everything that's going to happen, but director Steven Soderbergh makes it fun to watch your winning hand unfold. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: For two hours, life as you drearily know it is effectively suspended and a summery delirium takes over. This may be one of the busiest movies ever made, but Soderbergh keeps the activity percolating with a fizzy arsenal of retro editing flourishes. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: After a lot of buildup, not much happens at the climax. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Something seems to be off when the actors onscreen are having a better time than the audience. Just like the first Ocean's film, this isn't so much a movie as a private party. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Ocean's Thirteen is passingly enjoyable summer fluff, but if you can find a more genial, less edgy caper movie, you might want to own it as a pet. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Hollywood's summer of risk-free programming continues with the fourth three-peat in six weeks, Ocean's Thirteen, the least overbearing of the franchise installments rolled out so far. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Flat, abstruse, predictable and unable to raise your pulse rate higher than a blip on an EKG. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Its a funny, chummy movie that is every bit as over-plotted, absurd and indulgent as Ocean's Twelve. The big improvement? This time the ham is served on wry. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Evocatively shot with the saturated color of '60s film and accompanied by David Holmes' retro-mod score, Ocean's Thirteen is a boy's-night-out lark that girls can enjoy. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Ocean's Thirteen is the first sequel of the summer of 2007 not to fall on its face. The film is better paced and more involving than Ocean's Twelve but perhaps not as well executed as Ocean's Eleven. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: It's watchable, colorful and intermittently funny, but given the level of talent on display, it's reasonable to want more than that. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: It's time to send the Danny Ocean franchise out to sea, for good. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Like the first Ocean's, Ocean's Thirteen is a satisfying story of a grand-scale swindle, but it also retains the impishness and charm of Ocean's Twelve. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Surrendering to Ocean's 13's pleasurable surfaces is sort of like admitting your attraction to a luxury brand: Sure, those alligator loafers are extravagant nonsense, but they feel so nice on your feet. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: For all its forced twinkle, Ocean's Thirteen leaves you with no real warmth, like a croupier who's just cleaned you out before he wishes you a nice day. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: An exercise in stylish bravado that is as substantial as a catfight between supermodels. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: So listless and logy it needed Michael Moore to take it to Cuba for emergency medical treatment. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

David Fear, Time Out: You get what you came for, namely the usual suspects breezily hamming it up and a lot of forgettable banter going down incredibly easily. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: Thematically, though, this is an improvement on its forebears, mainly due to the way it deals - much like Scorsese's best work - with the archaic nature of the criminal set. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Though it takes a little while before it really takes off, this slick bauble of a movie qualifies as the best of the summer 'threequels" -- at least thus far. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: As smooth as a good mojito, as stylish as an Armani suit and as meaningful in the grand scheme of things as yesterday's Las Vegas betting odds, Ocean's Thirteen continues the breezy good times of the first two series entries without missing a beat. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: A spectacle blatantly predicated on a smug gaggle of mega movie stars in boss threads ostentatiously having fun by pretending to steal the house's money, while actually taking yours. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: The details, the plots, the stratagems, the counter-stratagems mount and mount and mount until the thing reaches a point of such overplotted density it can't be penetrated. Read more