Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
6/10/07
The movie franchise that
began with Steven Soderberg's 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven is a
truly odd duck. Each film assembles as much star power as is possible
in today's Hollywood, then lacquers on truckloads of gloss and production
values, all in the name of mild, understated entertainment. The formula
worked pretty well in the clever and amusing original, then drowned under
a tidal wave of self-satisfied smarminess in Ocean's Twelve.
The cute and entertaining Ocean's Thirteen is a back-to-basics romp
that focuses on the camaraderie of Danny Ocean's cheeky band of thieves
and benefits from adding a top-shelf villain in Al Pacino. Fans should
have a good time, but new recruits are unlikely.
Desperate to be part of an
ambitious new Las Vegas undertaking that would secure his legacy, casino
tycoon Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) ignores the advice of his friends
and throws all his money into a new project with underhanded developer
Willie Bank (Al Pacino). But Bank is every bit the nightmare business
partner he was advertised to be and violently forces Reuben to sign everything
over to him. Left penniless, he collapses with a heart attack, and
while he hovers between life and death, his old friends assemble to plot
revenge. You know them well: Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and
Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) provide the brains, backed by ambitious young Linus
(Matt Damon), veteran Saul (Carl Reiner), brothers Virgil (Casey Affleck)
and Turk (Scott Caan), explosives expert Basher (Don Cheadle), Chinese-speaking
acrobat Yen (Shaobo Qin), electronics wiz Livingston (Eddie Jemison) and
slick Frank (Bernie Mac). Their plan is inconceivably complex, with
two goals: hit Bank with heavy losses on Opening Night by rigging
his games to give away tens of millions of dollars, and deny him future
business by putting the V.U.P. (David Paymer) sent to judge his casino
for a prestigious travel guide through hell. But any plan reliant
on using the machine that dug the Chunnel to simulate an earthquake is
gonna cost money. And for that, they must turn to their old rival
Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). He's got a plan of his own, which requires
our heroes to steal hundreds of millions in diamonds.
Which is a good thing, because
that original plan to jeopardize the business futures of the man who tried
to kill their friend is kinda wussy even by Danny Ocean standards.
But, for better or worse, that's what the Ocean's... franchise is
all about: frustrating the viewer's expectations. We join Danny
and Rusty halfway through conversations whose subject we can't imagine
and listen to them speak in shorthand we probably wouldn't get even if
we'd heard it all. Most of the planning and even the execution of
their heists occur off-screen. Ocean's Twelve went hog-wild
on this style to the point where there barely was a movie, while we watched
characters sit back and observe it racing past them. Thirteen
corrects the balance a bit, leaving love interests Isabel (Catherine Zeta-Jones)
and Tess (Julia Roberts) behind (the absence of both is quickly and slyly
explained) to focus on the Honor Among Thieves camaraderie of the gang.
Honestly, Clooney and Roberts never really had any chemistry, and it does
him good to focus instead on his silly male bonding with Rusty.
Pitt's such a master of laid-back
comedy, it's a shame he doesn't do it more often. Rusty is in many
ways his Hamlet, and he's able to make his easy-going goofiness fascinating.
Pacino makes a great villain, and both his nastiness and slow burn once
the wheels of Danny's plan start turning against him are great fun.
This is particularly important because the awkwardly named Bank isn't much
of anything on the page. Ditto his assistant Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin),
a poorly chosen comeback vehicle for the 80's star. It's not that
there's anything wrong with her performance, it's just that there isnt
much for her to work with. As for everyone else, the franchise is
so overrun with characters by now that they must make the most of one or
two showcase scenes. It's a good outing for Affleck and Caan, who
get a wonderfully silly subplot where Virgil starts a strike at a Mexican
dice factory (don't ask...). Reiner can do a funny British accent
in his sleep, and does. Cheadle has a couple cute scenes, and Garcia
is good enough to make it a shame he's not in the movie more (Soderberg
tries to make up for this with a few lame inserts of him watching the action
on a video monitor). Damon has a lot of screen time but never really
finds his comic rhythm. Qin, Jemison, and particularly Mac don't
really have enough to do to justify this not being Ocean's Ten.
A fascinating subplot involves
the super computer security system designed by Greco Montgomery (Julian
Sands) and how the gang outwits it. The machine measured everything
about every customer: pulse rate, pupil dilation, anything that might
suggest dishonesty from a winner. With Sands steely superiority backing
it, the machine really played into my inherent distrust of the gambling
industry. There's a lot of cleverness in the guys' plans, even one
moment that made me gasp approvingly, but also a lot that doesn't serve
much purpose or stand up to scrutiny. But I kinda expect that Soderberg
wants it that way. There's an almost Coleman Francis-like perversity
(my apologies to anyone who wasn't a fan of Mystery Science Theater
3000) to the way he keeps speakers off-screen, cuts away from what
we want to see, and generally seems to make the movie intentionally shoddy
in spots. But again, the Oscar-winner has done it this way three
times now, so we have to assume it amuses the hell out of him for some
reason.
That's pretty much what Ocean's
Thirteen is: a huge, expensive in-joke that will either strike
you as rib-ticklingly clever or hopelessly smug. It's not as good
as the original (if anyone wants to write a song by that title, it could
serve as the 2007 Summer's theme), but a big step up from the flawed first
sequel. I doubt I'll remember much of what happened by Labor Day,
but I guess as long as Clooney, Pitt and Soderberg do, I suppose their
tri-annual get-together has served its' purpose. |
