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One of the things that made Ocean’s Eleven such fun was the
feeling that director Stephen Soderbergh was raising the velvet rope and
allowing us to hang out with his ultracool crew. For two breezy hours, we
rubbed elbows with the hippest dudes on the planet. In contrast,
Soderbergh’s follow-up, Ocean’s
Twelve, sported an air of condescension, daring
audiences to keep up with its needlessly convoluted plot.
It comes as no surprise that the third entry in the
series, Ocean’s Thirteen, is an improvement over its predecessor. Not only does it
return to the scene of the first film’s crime (the casinos of Las
Vegas), but it also goes out of its way to please the audience, as if
George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and the rest knew that they’d
been guilty of cinematic elitism before. The group’s mentor, Reuben (Elliott Gould),
finds himself on the short end of the bargaining stick and in the hospital
after his new business partner, the renowned Willie Bank (Al Pacino), cuts
him out of a deal with a bit too much force. Of course, seeing his beloved
advisor laid up is all the reason Danny Ocean (Clooney) needs to reunite
his compadres. What with Bank’s being such a big fish in Vegas,
it’s easy for Ocean to figure out where to hit Bank where it will
hurt the most: his new casino. You’d think that rigged slot machines,
magnetized dice, and strategically placed insiders would be enough to pull
off this scheme, but it wouldn’t be an Ocean’s film if it were that simple. Before screenwriters
Brain Koppelman and David Levien are through, Ocean has to enlist the aid
of his former nemesis Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) to help finance a fake
earthquake under the casino, ensure the theft of diamonds that Bank holds
dear, and deny the casino a prestigious resort award. Although it would appear that the film is plot heavy,
many of the narrative elements here are throwaway bits that we’ve
seen before. Given that these movies are really exercises in style, the
plot provides little more than an excuse for these characters to reunite
and interact. After the last twist is turned and the final con pulled, you
realize that you wouldn’t mind spending even more time with this
company of thieves.
This article appears in May 31 – Jun 6, 2007.
