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Ocean's Thirteen
If Danny Ocean and co frittered away a lot of their gloss in the irritatingly frivolous Ocean's Twelve, Thirteen restores much of the original luster. It's a stylish, confident caper movie that cruises along for two hours without breaking into a sweat. The crew's second reunion is occasioned by the collapse of an ailing Reuben (Elliott Gould), cheated out of a partnership in a new Vegas hotel by the ruthless casino magnate Willie Banks (Al Pacino). To square things up, Danny and the boys scheme to infiltrate 'The Bank', rig the roulette wheels, the tables and the slots, and see to it that the high rollers invited to opening night carry off millions in winnings. At the same time, they mean to ensure the egomaniac Banks fails to earn another coveted 'Five Diamond' rating for his establishment, and relieve him of his precious previous prizes. Anyone who found Twelve too complicated for its own good will be relieved to learn that having laid it out, this time director Steven Soderbergh and his screenwriters stick to the plan and play it relatively straight. 
This is Soderbergh's ninth feature film in seven years, and while you better believe the challenges are technical, not intellectual, he shuffles the deck with the aplomb of someone who knows he's got aces up his sleeve. Actually, with more than a dozen players in rotation, a better Vegas analogy might be a roulette wheel. The trick is to keep everyone in motion without letting the thing spin out of control, and that Soderbergh accomplishes through a barrage of short, snappy scenes, breezily distinguished through adept shifts in visual texture and location, and propelled by David Holmes' retro musical cues. Without any romantic involvement for Danny or Rusty (Tess - Julia Roberts - and Isabel - Catherine Zeta Jones - are the only notable drop-outs, but they're surely missed), George Clooney and Brad Pitt hone their own affectionate double act, finishing each other's thoughts (and the thought after that one); even waxing nostalgic about the Sands of time. 'You're the Morcambe and Wise of thieves,' notes an approving Eddie Izzard, to general consternation all round. 
But if anyone can stake a claim to it, this third outing belongs to Matt Damon's Linus, by a nose - the outrageously false one he wears to seduce Banks' personal assistant, an improbably easy Ellen Barkin. A stunning 53-year-old, she at least seems to have worked out how to resist gravitational pull, though the character, Abigail Sponder, is a pretty flimsy counterweight to the inveterate guying going on. As for Pacino (Barkin's Sea of Love partner, many moons ago) he's every inch the bronzed, manicured bully. You couldn't fault his performance, but iconically-speaking, the star of Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Heat belongs in a different universe. I'm thinking they should have got Warren Beatty to play Banks - he played Bugsy Siegel after all - or maybe George Segal, come to that. Someone whose reputation doesn't promise fireworks this suave but utterly superficial entertainment cannot possibly deliver. Tom Charity 
More information about Ocean's Thirteen » Critics' Reviews
The ties are off and the collars are out for this breezy third entry in the slick crime caper serial in which the... read more on www.timeout.com Members' ReviewsReviews Voted Most HelpfulMost Recent Reviews |
David Jenkins, Time Out