Overview: Jackpot! Danny Ocean and his elite crew of tricksters and thieves are back to back to back in all 3 of the sleek thrillers directed by Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh.

Ocean’s Eleven kicks off the fun with a daring Las Vegas heist. The team goes global to European glamour spots in Twelve. And Thirteen has the group reuniting in Vegas for a dazzling scheme of payback against a double-crossing casino kingpin.

4K UHD Blu-ray Verdict: Warner Bros. Entertainment is expanding their 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray catalog offerings this month with the release of the highly-anticipated Ocean’s Trilogy in the expansive 4K Ultra HD video format this November 21st, 2023.

For my money, this Ocean’s Trilogy [4K UHD BR] combo pack sharpness takes a fairly large step forward from others in their 4K Ultra HD catalog and even comes with HDR (High Dynamic Range) for the complete 4K Ultra HD experience, of course.

So, what we have is Ocean’s Trilogy presented to us as a three-disc combo pack with a sheet for a Digital HD Copy. Other stand out points you should know are: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 4K (2160p), HDR: HDR10 and Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1.

Featuring Dolby Vision and HDR10 for brighter, deeper, and way more lifelike colors, as with most all 4K UHDs, everything that we watch features these qualities - but somehow, this film gloriously shines within them all.

Noticeably crisp with the overall clarity receiving an obvious boost here on this release, what is more is that it is enjoyably noticeable. For as well as some new nuances to the somewhat drab palette courtesy of Dolby Vision, we also get to witness sudden bright pops of color, which makes the eyes draw in, for sure.

As for the audio, well we get the choice of: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish: 5.1 and French: 5.1.

Overall, this is a very strong 4K HDR Blu-ray presentation, and, for the most part, the audio track remains fairly similar to its DTS-HD counterpart; with much of the action occupying the surrounds with outstanding directionality and placement where effects flawlessly pan between the sides and rears.

As for the stories to hand, well, we kick off strongly with Ocean’s Eleven (2001), where Danny Ocean wants to score the biggest heist in history. He combines an eleven member team, including Frank Catton, Rusty Ryan and Linus Caldwell. Their target? The Bellagio, the Mirage and the MGM Grand. All casinos owned by Terry Benedict. It’s not going to be easy, as they plan to get in secretly and out with $150 million.

Ok, so maybe the original 1960s film was just an excuse for Frank and his buddies to hang out and make some money out of it, but it was still a smash hit. Let’s face it, if they had all just been sitting there doing nothing it would still have been a highly successful film. People would have paid to see them organize their sock draws. However, this time around with a brand new script and an immensely prosperous cast and crew we have ended up with a film ten times better than the original.

In the case of this adaption we are safe in the knowledge that the actors at least wanted to be there and that they all had fun making it. I man, from the off, because of the fact that they all took pay cuts so that it could happen and secondly because it comes across on screen. The easy friendship between Clooney, Pitt, Roberts, et al shines throughout the film and seems to draw the audience in to their inner circle. We know they had a good time filming it just as we are having a good time watching it.

It is refreshing to sit and watch a film such as this and not have to suffer the usual barrage of swearing and violence. The lack of such profanities only increases its wide appeal. It just goes to show that it can be done and that films do not necessarily need it.

In the follow-up Ocean’s Twelve (2004), they pulled off one of the biggest heists ever and now they have another job to complete. Ocean’s Eleven, which consisted off Danny Ocean (Clooney), Rusty Ryan (Pitt) and Linus Caldwell (Damon) and others, all thought they would be able to enjoy their money, but someone has other plans.

Terry Benedict (Garcia) is still fuming after losing his money and wants it back. The team now have the job of getting all the money they spent back, or risk being thrown in jail. How are they going to get it all back? By pulling off another amazing plan.

Well, as always, at least the cast are enjoying themselves, but that doesn’t mean that the film uses them well at all, sadly. Clooney and Pitt are good because they have plenty of screen time and ooze cool for the majority of the film. Damon cuts his way into the screen time with a nice line of joking about coming up, but Roberts and Jones are really pushed to the edges of the film even if they do have some things to contribute.

Affleck, Caan, Garcia, Qin, Mac, Cheadle, Reiner, Gould and Coltrane are all pretty wasted, sorry, and are often just pushed out of the story for the sake of convenience (Mac and Qin are two very good examples). Willis is actually quite amusing, Cassel is not that bad and Izzard is pretty good in a minor role, in truth.

Overall though the film is never better than average; reasonably entertaining at best. The plot is all over the place and cannot even distract the audience enough so that the holes are hidden until the end - as it is the second half of the film is a shambles and I couldn’t help but be annoyed by it (sorry, again).

Not featuring the gloss, shine and flair of the first film, sure, and again, the cast appear to have enjoyed themselves, but many of them have next to nothing to do and it all just feels a bit too cluttered for most of the time. The first vehicle was fun and slick, but to my mind, this one tries to keep up but stalls way too many times.

The third of the trilogy is Ocean’s Thirteen (2007), where the last time we saw Danny Ocean’s crew, they were paying back ruthless casino mogul Terry Benedict after stealing millions from him. However, it’s been a while since they’ve come back together, which is all about to change.

When one of their own, Reuben Tishkoff, builds a hotel with another casino owner, Willy Bank, the last thing he ever wanted was to get cut out of the deal personally by the loathsome Bank. Bank’s attitude even goes so far as to finding the amusement in Tishkoff’s misfortune when the double crossing lands Reuben in the hospital because of a heart attack.

However, Danny and his crew won’t stand for Bank and what he’s done to a friend. Uniting with their old enemy Benedict, who himself has a vendetta against Bank, the crew is out to pull off a major plan; one that will unfold on the night Bank’s newest hot spot opens up. They’re not in this for the money, but for the revenge.

To begin with, nearly the entire movie is the team pulling the job against Willie Bank, and that’s perfectly suitable because their was a lot to tell. Looking in at the entire scheme of things, their were a lot of little mini-jobs the crew had to pull off to make the whole thing work, and it was very fun watching them do it.

Granted the script was globe-trotting a bit and did have some minor plot inconsistent moments, but any simpleton should be able to decipher it and appreciate it. All the humorous inside jokes and funny one-liners are back to. The Cinematography was elegant and the music (composed by David Holmes) was second to none and blended nicely with the films late ’60s early ’70s motif.

I for one loved Ocean’s Eleven and really liked Ocean’s Twelve (believe it or not from my words above), but Ocean’s Thirteen is a simply terrific follow-up to them all, and a wonderful way to close the trilogy.

Special Features:
Ocean’s Eleven
• Commentary by Steven Soderbergh and Ted Griffin
• Commentary by Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Andy Garcia
• Are You In or Out? The Making of Ocean’s Eleven
• Pros & Cons: Inside Ocean’s Outfit
• The Style of Steal
• The Look of the Con
• Original Ocean’s, Original Cool

Ocean’s Twelve
• Commentary by Steven Soderbergh and George Nolfi
• Ready, Jet Set, Go: The Making of Ocean’s Twelve
• HBO First Look: Twelve Is the New Eleven: The Making of Ocean’s Twelve
• Deleted Scenes

Ocean’s Thirteen
• Commentary by Steven Soderbergh, Brian Koppelman and David Levien
• Third’s a Charm: The Making of Ocean’s Thirteen
• Ahab with a Piggyback: The Means & Machines of Ocean’s
• Jerry Weintraub Walk and Talk
• Masters of the Heist
• Deleted Scenes