Tonight's Movie: Ocean's 13 (2007)

Technically this isn't tonight's movie -- I took my older children to see it on the first night of our vacation. But I'm labeling it "Tonight's Movie" anyway for the sake of continuity and ease searching the site for movie reviews. :)

Bishop, California, has one movie house, the Bishop Twin Theatre, situated on the left side of Main Street (Highway 395) as you are heading north. (Click on the photo to enlarge.)


The theater had friendly service, was well maintained and had excellent projection. The only drawback was that the original theater had apparently been halved at some point, and the dividing wall wasn't soundproof. About 15 minutes after our movie began, we began hearing sound effects from THE FANTASTIC FOUR next door! Nonetheless, we had a great time.

As expected, Clooney, Pitt, Damon, and the rest of the gang were back for more fun. I agreed with a couple of reviews I read, including USA Today: it was better than OCEAN'S 12, though not quite as good as OCEAN'S 11.

This time around particular kudos go to Casey Affleck, whose Mexican subplot built to a riotously funny conclusion. Andy Garcia also provided some chuckles as Clooney's longtime enemy turned reluctant co-conspirator. Al Pacino's final scene, with an emotional Oprah Winfrey, provided some of the movie's biggest laughs.

Although she was quite effective in THE BIG EASY 20 summers ago (gulp!), I've otherwise never been a particular fan of Ellen Barkin, and she didn't do much for me in this. The role would have benefited from someone with a lighter, daffier touch...a little more explanatory character background might have helped, too.

The movie runs 122 minutes and was directed by Steven Soderbergh.

OCEAN'S 13 provides an extremely enjoyable couple hours of summer entertainment.