Ocean's Thirteen (HD DVD)

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Consequently, "Ocean's Thirteen" is all about the scam, its new focus leaving very little room for twists or turns or character relationships. I missed the old silliness.

Video:
It's hard for me to rate the HD DVD video quality on this one because Soderbergh seems to have gone out of his way to make the movie look as unnatural as possible. Or, conversely, the director went out of his way to make the movie look as much as possible like a garish 1960s' flick, with bright, oversaturated colors. To further show you how hard the video is to rate, take the example of my colleague Dean Winkelspecht, who thought the picture quality on the Blu-ray edition looked as good as it could be. Well, understand that the video engineers at Warner Bros. use the same masters and the same encodes for both Blu-ray and HD DVD, so Dean and I essentially watched the same picture. Yet we came to different conclusions about our ratings: Different conclusions based on the same observations. Here's the thing: The HD DVD and the Blu-ray presentations are, as Dean says, probably as good as the engineers could make them and probably excellent replications of the original film print. But I found that Soderbergh's look for this film distracting, even annoying, and that's part of what I'm basing my video rating on: This is a good transfer of what I thought was troublesome source material.

On the positive side, the video engineers maintain the film's original 2.40:1 aspect ratio, and the transfer reproduces solid black levels and color depth. On the negative side, the opening shots are dark and grainy, with faces looking reddish orange; then a moment later we get a daylight shot, and things are just as odd, the darkness and grain remaining. The fact is, as I say, Soderbergh chose to use a gaudy color palette to remind us of the glitz and neon of Las Vegas, and he also appears to favor a degree print grain. So that's what we get: Lots of dark, bright, oversaturated, neon-highlighted hues, mostly the reds, yellows, and oranges of the 60s, and a modicum of grain. On the SD side of the disc, the delineation is somewhat soft; on the HD DVD side, there is no question the 1080 resolution improves the definition. Although the HD subdues the grain somewhat, it has little effect lessening the flashy colors, which apparently is exactly what the director wanted. Overall, whether you're looking at the SD or HD version, the picture quality is not exactly what you would call realistic or true-to-life. Then again, neither is the movie, so I suppose that's the point.

Audio:
Warner Bros. offer two soundtracks on the regular DVD side, Dolby Digital 5.1 for folks with full surround-sound systems and Dolby Digital 2.0 for people using only a single pair of speakers, and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 on the HD DVD side. In all of the soundtracks, the filmmakers confine the sound to the center channel most of the time because the movie is mostly about people talking. There are, however, times when the floors rumble with bass and the rear channels come alive with the sounds of casino crowds, rolling dice, clinking glasses, and musical backgrounds. In Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 you have slightly greater clarity, and when the "earthquake" occurs in the picture's climax, the rafters in your room should shake. In general, whichever soundtrack you use, you'll find the sonics well balanced, clean, and smooth. These are just not 5.1 soundtracks that have much opportunity to show off the potential for 5.1-channel audio reproduction.

Extras:
There are two bonuses exclusive to the high-definition side of the disc. The first is an audio commentary by director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien. Their give-and-take is reminiscent of the "Ocean's" movies themselves--casual, witty, self-deprecating, amusing, and entertaining. Incidentally, as I mentioned in the opening, Soderbergh says that this movie is it; he always meant the "Ocean's" films as a trilogy, beginning and ending in Las Vegas, and he's won't do another one. The second exclusive is a forty-four-minute documentary, (SD) "Masters of the Heist: Recalling Real-Life Sophisticated Heists." It chronicles four real-life thefts, with Penn and Teller among others explaining who did them and how they did them.

In addition, there are several other items you will find on both sides of the disc: The first is a twenty-two-minute featurette, "Vegas: An Opulent Illusion," which purports to be a history and overview of the city and its unique attractions but comes off more like a promotional from the Las Vegas Tourist Bureau. The second extra is a two-and-a-half-minute featurette, "Jerry Weintraub Walk and Talk," in which the movie's producer takes us on a brief tour of the movie's sets. The third major extra is a series of five additional (deleted or extended) scenes, lasting about four-and-a-half minutes.

Finally, there are thirty-four scene selections (but no chapter insert); English, French, and Spanish spoken languages on both sides; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles on both sides, with English captions for the hearing impaired, plus Portuguese, Chinese, and Korean subtitles on the HD side.

Parting Shots:
Basically, what you get with "Ocean's Thirteen" is more of the same, but less. More plot, more watching the intricacies of the latest flimflam unfold, and less character interaction. Since for me it was always the character interaction that made the movies come alive (and why I liked the second installment best), this new one didn't strike me as anything special, although it was easier to watch in HD.

Warner Bros. are making "Ocean's Thirteen" available on HD DVD either individually or in the "Ocean's" three-pack giftset, which also contains "Ocean's Eleven" and "Ocean's Twelve."

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