Ocean's Thirteen Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)June 6th, 2007
OCEAN'S THIRTEEN
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2007 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
Sometimes -- albeit not very often in the movie world -- three really is a charm. With OCEAN'S THIRTEEN, the third in his OCEAN'S series, director Steven Soderbergh gets lucky and comes up with a real winner. I haven't been a fan of the series up until now, but this latest outing from Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his crew, which is made up of just about every actor in Hollywood, is just too much fun to say anything bad about it.
Sure the easy going pacing and the convoluted plot may put off some, but I was thoroughly entertained by the shenanigans on the screen, as the cross and double cross unfolded like layers on an onion. (Hmm, should have thought of a better metaphor, since the deliciously colorful OCEAN'S THIRTEEN smells like anything but an onion.)
The setup for the plot is that Danny and his crew are going to take down Willie Bank (Al Pacino), whom you can think of as the Donald Trump of the Vegas strip. Bank made Danny's friend and mentor, Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), an offer Reuben couldn't refuse, unless he was willing to jump off a skyscraper. The offer looks like it will prove fatal for Reuben, since it causes him to suffer a massive heart attack. The movie can even be downright touching in some of the scenes surrounding bedridden and dying Reuben.
A classic popcorn picture, its best part is the long and elaborate con that Danny plans with Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle) and the other crooks that work with him. Especially good in a small part is Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict, the money man or multimillion dollar loan shark they are forced to turn to when their con starts running wildly over budget.
The movie is filled with wonderful, Damon Runyon sort of dialog. "I don't lose," Bank tells Danny early on, "People who bet against me lose and lose big." Bank is a guy so rich that the silver (cutlery) in the rooms in his high end suites is all gold. Late in the story, Bank again tries to threaten Danny, but this time it is Danny who gets the best line. "I know all the guys that you'd hire to come after me, and they like me better than you," Danny smugly tells Bank about his threat.
So how does Danny plan to hurt Bank? They'll let the "whales" win at the opening of Bank's new casino, his pride and joy. Translated, that means they plan on rigging the casino so that the really big high rollers can win a half a billion dollars in a matter of minutes. The big problem is their "exit strategy." No, not how Danny and company can sneak out of the casino, but how they can get the whales out before they gamble away everything they won, hence giving it all back to Bank. Danny will come up with a scheme for this too. Everything, however, will run into plenty of funny snags, which only serves to enhance our viewing pleasure.
OCEAN'S THIRTEEN runs 2:02. It is rated PG-13 for "brief sensuality" and would be acceptable for kids around 9 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, June 8, 2007. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
