Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
Starring:  George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino, Don Cheadle, Elliot Gould, Bernie Mac, Andy Garcia, Ellen Barkin, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Carl Reiner, Eddie Jemison, Shaobo Qin, David Paymer, Eddie Izzard, Vincent Cassel, Julian Sands, Bob Einstein, and Oprah Winfrey
DIRECTOR:  Steven Soderbergh
WRITERS:  Brian Koppelman and David Levien (based upon characters created by George Clayton Johnson & Jack Golden Russell)
PRODUCER:  Jerry Weintraub
GENRES:  Crime, comedy
RATING:  MPAA – PG-13 for brief sensuality
DISTRIBUTOR:  Warner Bros. Pictures

Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his rat pack are back.  This time Danny, Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), and the rest of the gang are out for payback in Ocean’s Thirteen.

When Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould), Danny’s mentor and a member of his crew, is screwed over in a casino deal by the ruthless Willie Bank (Al Pacino), Danny tries to convince Bank to make it right, but Bank refuses.  Danny gathers his team and hatches a plan to turn the opening night for Bank’s new casino, named, of course, Bank Casino, into a financial disaster by fixing all the games and machines so that the gambling customers will win every time.  However, cracking Bank Casino’s security is a Herculean task and will require millions of dollars in cash.  Danny turns to his old nemesis, Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), for the money.  So many things must go right to sabotage Bank Casino and make opening night a disaster, and that means there are more things that can go wrong.  Plus, Danny and crew also have to deal with Bank’s crafty assistant, Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin).

Ocean’s Thirteen is a mess, not always an incomprehensible mess, but a mess nonetheless.  This new heist is so complicated that the first half of the film requires the viewer to pay attention with mean intensity.  Every member of Danny Ocean’s crew has a unique task, and each task has a minimum of at least one complication.  But keep watching, it all comes together like the perfect potluck dinner – a clever how-did-they-pull-that-off.

Still, like the other entries this film franchise, Ocean’s Thirteen is fun and occasionally mesmerizing.  It’s magic how these diverse actors come together under the exquisitely skilled direction of Steven Soderbergh.  George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and friends simply charm large segments of the movie-going public.  Their simmering coolness works here, as if they were the perfect ingredients for this specific crime/heist franchise.  Even with its flaws, as Ocean’s Thirteen fades away, it certainly leaves at least some of us hoping that this isn’t the last appearance of the Danny Ocean and friends.

B