I was kind of sad when they announced they were making a sequel - and viewing Ocean's Twelve validated that assumption - not that Ocean's Twelve is that dreadful, but it missed a lot of the magic that was in the first one.

Watching Ocean's Thirteen last night I thought Soderberg found some of the magic, maybe one box of it but the rest sadly was lost when it was sent to Solaris and Lost in Translation and never returned. What was missing? Ensemble cast - this one focused far too heavily on Danny, Rusty and Linus (a flaw left over from Ocean's Twelve) and the caper itself was lacking in believability and comprehension (something which was thrown at the first one, but the first one's caper was just perfect in my mind).

What has returned? Well Vegas, baby! That's the big one. And the villian of Al Pacino's Willie Bank is pretty darn good (not quite to the sublime level of Garcia's turn as Steve Wynn... I mean Terry Benedict in Ocean's Eleven). As the definitive fan of the first one (it would make my top 10 movies of all time), I am glad I went, glad I was taken on a date but am hoping that Soderberg and Clooney will leave well enough alone and collaborate on something new - their other work together is also pretty fantastic.