Movie Review: Ocean's Thirteen

(andPOP) - Immersed in a summer of over the top, unsatisfying, and unnecessary three-peats, Ocean’s Thirteen delivers what most third installments lack: unabashed entertainment. While director Steven Soderbergh falls short of recapturing the magic that was Ocean’s Eleven, he manages to succeed in reacquainting us with the hilarious horde of unlawful hipsters that cemented themselves as an unbeatable ensemble back in 2001.

Soderbergh went to great lengths to avoid the boring-self-indulgent-snooze-fest tag that Ocean’s Twelve will be forever plagued with. Thirteen is a hip, modish caper flick that brings Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and the gang back to where they belong: Vegas, baby. The apt milieu of the scorching hot and still indubitably cool Nevada desert does not disappoint.

The story goes like this: Hotel shark Willy Bank (Al Pacino) has double-crossed one of their own, lovable mentor and resident financer Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould), when he gets royally screwed out of a multi-million dollar hotel deal. After Bank breaks the unspoken honour among thieves code, Ocean and his trusty right-hand man, Rusty (Brad Pitt), cook up a revenge plot to rig the opening of Bank’s dazzling new high-rise monstrosity, located smack in the middle of the Vegas strip, so that he’s hit where it’ll hurt him most: his pockets. They round up the usual suspects for their most ambitious and risky heist yet, complete with magnetic dice, simulated earthquakes, seduction-inducing cologne, and a few financial setbacks that force them to seek the help of past nemesis, Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who ups the stakes and requests they also swipe Bank’s beloved diamonds ‘cause it wouldn’t be an Ocean’s flick without some good old diamond snatching.

If you can forget these plans are improbable and never fully developed; they are merely pulled out of the affable crooks’ caps, or perhaps thin air, the sheer intricacy of the process is a pleasure to watch.

If you’re unable to suspend disbelief a little and pretend that the French caper from Twelve isn’t lurking around the dark spaces of the entire picture for no good reason, then you’re taking the whole thing much too seriously.

Ocean’s Thirteen is not trying to comment on the state of the world or delve into earth-shattering issues; it exists solely for the purpose of taking the audience on a hell of an escapade with a crew of flashy bandits and a slew of intriguing gadgets.

The movie tumbles towards the inevitable payoff with performances that remind us why we fell in love with this goofy rat pack in the first place. Clooney and Pitt saunter through the chic-saturated flick wearing tailored suits and smug grins, providing sardonic wisecracks, and nonsensical thief banter about Susan B. Anthony, doing an Irwin Allen, Bellinis, pancake-eating, and Billy Martins that no one but Danny and Rusty seem to understand. A scene where Pitt walks in on Clooney tearing up while watching Oprah is pure breezy brilliance.

Don Cheadle (as gadget guru, Basher) is back to his usual scene-stealing magic, as Matt Damon (as nerdy shy-guy, Linus) brings in some surprising laughs with an absurd prosthetic nose, Casey Affleck and Scott Caan (as twins Virgil and Turk) have the funniest gag in the film when they induce a Mexican workers strike while manufacturing fixed dice.

Julia Roberts is noticeably absent and greatly missed but Ellen Barkin holds her own as the lone female in the midst of male camaraderie.

While Clooney channels his best Sinatra with quiet confidence and Vegas-esque elegance, Soderbergh uses the same subtle, substance wrapped in a whole lot of style approach in his directing. The score is funky with the fitting backdrop of 70s-style beats. The scenes are fresh and fast-paced, thrusting us into a visually appealing world of classy criminals that ooze unassailable cool and thrive in sophisticated humour.

The cast has continually referred to Ocean's Thirteen as "the movie the last one should have been." While that sentiment just about sums it up, it doesn’t nearly do the movie justice. Thirteen rounds out the Ocean’s series perfectly with unrelenting amusement proving that sometimes, boys just wanna’ have fun. And this time, they take us along for the ride.