Rating: PG-13
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino
Directed By: Steven Soderbergh

• Official Site

Ocean's Thirteen, the latest in a long list of franchises making their third outing this year, is an entertaining romp through the netherworld of Vegas casinos that's strong on camaraderie, if a little weak on plot details.

{mosgoogle right} Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his resourceful band of criminals are back where they belong - in Vegas, baby! After a brief sojourn in Europe for Ocean's Twelve, the team has returned to the Entertainment Capital of the World with an unusually high-minded objective: revenge for one of their own.

An unscrupulous and megalomaniacal casino owner named Willy Bank, played with relish by the masterful Al Pacino, has swindled Danny's dear friend and mentor Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) out of his share of a new luxury casino on the Vegas Strip, causing Reuben to suffer a heart attack. As Reuben lies listlessly in a hospital bed, his friends plot elaborate and exciting ways to Break The Bank.

At first it seems as though Danny and Co. have spared no expense to concoct and realize this scheme, which involves a three-fold strike at Bank—bankrupt his new casino on the night of its grand opening, steal his prized diamonds, symbols of the quality awards won by his luxury hotels, and, perhaps worst of all, prevent the Bank Casino Hotel itself from receiving the coveted Five Diamond rating. However, if you want to enjoy the rest of the movie at all, that's about as far as you should delve into the plan because it seems that no expense has been spent on making the details of this scheme appear credible.

A cack-handed explanation of how the hotel's supposedly impenetrable, artificial-intelligence based security supercomputer (which resembles a graphic equalizer on steroids) was to be brought down by using the drill that dug the Channel Tunnel to create an earthquake under the casino, allowing Ocean and Co. a crucial three minutes of reboot time to trigger an unprecedented and bank-breaking winning spree for all the players on the casino floor using a series of stacked decks, trick balls and loaded dice (uh, did you follow all that?) drew some incredulous sniggers from the audience. And OK, Danny Ocean might be extremely well connected but does he seriously have the pull to import not one, but two (because the first one breaks at a critical juncture, of course) humungous and fabulously expensive tunnel boring machines from Europe and secrete them under the Strip without anyone noticing whatsoever? Paging Homeland Security...

If you can look past these tiny details, there are some fine performances to enjoy, starting with Clooney and Brad Pitt, whose precision deadpan riffs on each other are a real pleasure to watch. Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Bernie Mac reprise their earlier roles with their trademark style and humor. Eddie Izzard totally hams it up as tech genius Roman Nagel, returning from Ocean's Twelve. The token female role goes to Ellen Barkin as Abigail Sponder, Willy Bank's right hand woman, who transforms from her usual ruthless, conniving executive self to a pheromone-crazed "cougar" in a hilarious scene with Matt Damon. Andy Garcia makes a welcome return as Terry Benedict, once Danny's mortal enemy but now, out of necessity, his financial backer. Benedict has his own peculiar reasons for wanting to bring down Bank - not only is Bank an arrogant adversary but his hotel also casts a shadow over Benedict's own hotel pool. Such is the dog-eat-dog world of Vegas casino management.

The film works best when it deals with the personal relationships between the characters and the teamwork they employ to pull off the heist. Thankfully, it's blessed with sharp dialogue and several entertaining gag-runs throughout the film, including the team's embarrassing attempts to comfort Reuben, Danny and Rusty's secret Oprah obsession. Overall, it's an entertaining movie - maybe not a masterpiece, but you probably wouldn't want to bet against an Ocean's Fourteen.

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mxjzarvdic   |2007-07-06 07:09:15 Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! uxszoofjxgfdo Reply 0   0

Diane   |2007-06-10 19:48:04 Great review...thanks for the opinion. I appreciate it and may have to go and see this one. Reply 0   0

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."