This Town is an All-right Town

I find that certain leading men are no longer believable these days. James Bond, Jason Bourne, Batman, Ethan Hunt, even Indiana Jones, are involved in such death-defying antics and often have such a simplistic personality that it’s hard to imagine people like that in real life. A special ops soldier may take out several enemies, but will never have the Swiss-watch precision of a Jason Bourne.

Danny Ocean is, I believe, the exception to the rule. This may have to do with the fact that actor and character are almost indistinguishable; Clooney has rightly been described as one of the few proper, classic-like movie stars working today. The man is cool on and off the screen. Adding more star power to the franchise are Brad Pitt as Rusty, the second in command, and Matt Damon as Linus, a young pickpocket bent on gaining his father’s acceptance.

Ocean’s Eleven, the most bankable in the series, unofficially picks up where Clooney’s character from Out of Sight left of, coming out of jail. He is an absolutely believable thief with a code; a conman who makes mistakes, puts personal matters first and only swindles those who deserve it. The film depicts, of course, the first gathering of the bunch to steal the vault from three casinos in Las Vegas and it works like clockwork, something which can be said for Soderbergh’s entire trilogy.

Ocean’s Twelve, while adored by many, was the low point, if you can describe a highly entertaining movie that way. It was based on a script that had other characters and was adapted to fit the Ocean universe. Yet it succeeded and is the one in which women; Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones, play a larger part in the all boy’s club. The antagonist from the first film, Terry Benedict, played again by Andy Garcia, tracks down the gang and forces them to exile to Europe. The Amsterdam title card struck me as one of the simplest yet cleverest bits of editing in recent memory.

Ocean’s Thirteen was the return to form of the series, so breezy by now it rivaled Scorsese’s Casino. There are so many characters that the main stars appear for mere minutes, yet the screen time issue by no mean detracts from the non-stop action. This time the villain is not Terry Benedict but Mr. Bank, played by Al Pacino, who double crosses father figure Reuben, played by Elliott Gould, and the gang then decides to give him a “Billy Martin” (a warning) before they try and con him. All three films are well known for using lingo to refer to people or schemes. Also, Linus finally gets his father’s seal of approval.

There’s no doubt that these swindles are abundant, but, while watching an episode of American Greed, it became fairly obvious to me that cons almost always end up with the perps in prison.