Ocean's 13 review

Ocean’s Thirteen is a sequel; that should pretty much send a waft your way as to how the movie fared in front of reviewers. And as with the majority of sequels aired recently, Shrek The Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and the like, the hype and the level of expectations have comfortably taken top spot, even if the cast includes Brad Pitt, George Clooney and, for the first time in the series, Al Pacino.

The idea behind Ocean’s Thirteen is slightly different this time round; the gang re-assembles for the second time but not to rob anybody. Instead, they plan on scamming hotel magnate Willie Banks (Al Pacino) who has just double-crossed their very own Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould). While Reuben takes to the bed in his mansion for the bulk of the duration, his cronies take up the task of not only enjoying the glamorous life that is Vegas (its panache and zeal rendered marvelously by director Steven Soderbergh), but also flim-flamming their ardent foe Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) into lending them a helping hand - and more.

Ocean’s Thirteen lacks heavily on female cast. There is no Julia Roberts or Catherine Zeta-Jones this time round. Not physically at least. Though Danny Ocean (Clooney) does throw in a reference to the latter during the initial phase of the film with a “it’s not her fight”, the void is filled substantially by the well-presented Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin) who plays assistant to the despot Banks and plays an involuntary aid to the men at a later stage.

While Danny and Rusty (Brad Pitt) play ringleaders once again, there is hardly a detailed role for any of the crew members due to the deployment of a massive cast. As with its predecessors, the film offers short cameos for its lead cast including Danny and Rusty. Frank Catton (Bernie Mac) gets confided to the tables, Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon) plays a slightly non-serious role this time round and even has time for a padded-nosed seduction persona as Yen (Shaobo Qin) finds himself jumping around amongst the elevators.

With such a star-studded crew, however, Soderbergh’s work is pretty much done for him as far as the action is concerned. It is only because of that, he can indulge in the lavishness of portraying the mighty Vegas as mentioned above as well as a bit of Mexico, due to the dice requirements at the Banks casino. Ocean’sThirteen is an action-packed film: there's imagination, intellect, tenderness, awe as well as ample serving of wittiness to be admired. However, low on the challenge offered by the opposition, be it physical or the noetic constraints levied onto the thirteen in order to complete the mission, the film glides mostly one-way.

The moral of the story, as worded plainly by Kit Bowen, is: Mess with an Ocean, you get pummeled by the waves. The waves might be the strongest out in the market, but with the creativity and deftness on display, a spare weekend can only benefit from this offering. As does a charity with Benedict’s generosity.

© Faras Ghani 2007

Published in Images (Dawn) 22nd Jul 2007