In Ocean's Thirteen the gang returns to Las Vegas, the city of lies; the main lie is that gambling, an addictive fantasy, will make you rich; the next lie is that Robin Hood should be reversed - you can steal from the rich to give to the rich, to provide for the richer; the bigger lie is that revenge is sweet. The idea is to trick the viewers-it is you, the audience that are being fleeced, not Mr Bank - so that you enjoy parting with your money. But after all isn't all acting a con?
Ocean's Thirteen remains a fun film, not as laid back as Ocean's Twelve (see Mmegi 7 January 2005), but tighter and more entertaining, and better than the franchise's remake of Ocean's Eleven (2001). Producer, Jerry Weintraub, to make up for the absence of the Lake Como retreat used in "Ocean's Twelve", provided the large team of actors with a club room he dubbed, The Ocean's Club, complete with everything required for cooling out after a hard day at work acting-but without the view.
Danny Ocean (a wonderful George Clooney, at times hiding behind a mustachio) is back with his gang. You can hear them singing "Hail, hail, the gangs all here". His left (or is it right) hand man is Rusty Ryan (a lethargic Brad Pitt who remains a bit aloof) meets Danny on his way to Las Vegas to tell him that the gang's elder needs help. Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) has had a heart attack because he was betrayed by Willie Bank (a most colourful Al Pacino). Now if you'd "shook Sinatra's" what would you do? Seek revenge is the only answer for this latter day Rat Pack-without it there'd be no action and no film. Mr Bank has built the biggest and best hotel and casino in Las Vegas and renamed it Shuffle Royale. It has had a "soft opening" for months and is due soon to hold a grand opening. Let's organize to shake it, both figuratively and literally. Ocean's gang sets about to do so, in a very complicated strategy intended to bankrupt the new casino on opening night and make off with Mr Bank's prize, his collection of diamonds worth US$250 million.
Most of the action in this revenge caper takes place six months later. To achieve their objectives the team have to stop Shuffle Royale's new computer, Greco, that spies on all his guests, a hard task if, as they are told, they are "analog players in a digital world". They have to bail out a factory in Juarez, Mexico, where the dice are made and rigged to respond to Ocean's lighter. They also get their own card shuffling machines and roulette balls into the action through various devious schemes. Can they, in the end, fleece Mr Bank of US$500 million, and thus bankrupt him? Perhaps, or is that left for "Ocean's-14"? You'll have to go and see it to find out yourself if you are an Ocean's fan. Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon having fun too) ends up playing a dude with a false nose so he can seduce Mr Bank's girl Friday, Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin) and get access to the diamonds. To see what Mr Bank is planning Rusty Ryan poses as an expert on earthquakes and is able to plant a seismograph in his office suite (Pitt is at his best here). The other members of the pack are: Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), Virgil Malloy (Casey Affleck), Turk Malloy (Scott Caan), Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison), Yen (Shaobo Qin), Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner) and Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). The Night Fox, Franois Toulour (Vincent Cassel), returns to try to seize the diamonds. Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts) is missing - why?
To add to the humour, but not to the caper, they sabotage the work of an evaluator for a guidebook, something that splices in and out of the main story and is really totally extraneous. The best in this genre of gambling and revenge flicks, for my money, remains George Hill's "The Sting" (1973) where Paul Newman and Robert Redford engineer the caper. Now 34 years later have Clooney and Pitt, and their mates in the gang, assumed Newman and Redford's mantle?
Ocean's Thirteeen is fun, but it also is a great tease. It is nearly two hours long and rated PG. The script is by a new team to join the Ocean's franchise, Brian Koppelman and David Levien (who teamed before on a card flick, "Rounders" in 1998). Oprah Winfrey makes two unusual cameo appearances that help add to the fun.
Director Steven Soderbergh is his own cinematographer under the pseudonym of Peter Andrews. Andrews/ Soderbergh does have a unique touch with the camera and an unusual sense of colour. Watch his golden, red and bluish tints as he takes us through the action. As before, the editor is Stephen Mirrione and the music is by David Holmes. At the end Frank Sinatra sings, "This town is a lonely town ... a use-you, abuse-you until you're down town ... It's a miserable town ... a nowhere town ... You better believe that I'm leavin' this town" and for "town" read both Las Vegas and Gollywood.
[email protected]
