Arrested Thirteen

Looks like no more Arrested Development.

On the upside(?), it looks as if there will be an Ocean’s Thirteen, featuring Soderberg, Clooney, Pitt, Damon, and the rest of crew, but excluding Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones. The exclusion of Roberts can only be met with great rejoicing, as she was the only major flaw to mar the first film, and was key to the worst excesses of the second.

Thanks to the magic of ten channels of HBO, I’ve seen Ocean’s Twelve several times in the last few months. My attitude on it has matured a bit. On the plus side, every moment that Garcia is onscreen is outstanding. The same can be said for Vincent Cassel. Damon is probably better in the second film than the first, largely because he has a richer role. On the other hand, there’s not enough Pitt or Clooney (especially the latter), the pacing is off (Soderberg couldn’t manage the trick of humanizing all eleven members a second time), the scenes with Roberts are uniformally terrible, and the plot is slapped together with visible tape and paste.

So, I don’t know what to think of the third effort. I’ll almost certainly see it, though.