By Kofi Outlaw

The great thing about OCEAN’S 11 was that it kept you guessing about how this band of über-suave grifters planned to pull off the heist of the century. And, by the time the cards were all turned over, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his cohorts came away with the money, the girl, and the admiration of the audience, who had been conned by their smoke-and-mirrors trickery, just like Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia).

Then came OCEAN’S 12, which was basically an excuse for Clooney, director Steven Soderbergh, and a laundry list of their friends to ham it up for two hours, making reference to a bunch of Hollywood inside jokes while winking at one another. Special thanks should also go to Vincent Cassel, who single-handedly encouraged a whole generation of douchebags to become wannabe Capoera masters.

Last, but certainly not least, came OCEAN’S 13. As I was still retching from the sour taste of 12, I spared myself a trip to the multiplex to see the flick this past summer. However, by the time the end credits rolled on my DVD copy, I could happily give the OCEAN’S team a solid thumbs-up for bringing the serious to an adequate conclusion, which I would place just a little bit under 11, but leagues above 12.

The story in the third installment revolves around a revenge scheme Danny and his gang concoct to get back at a grimy Las Vegas casino tycoon (Al Pacino), who screwed the gang’s friend and financial backer, Reuben (Elliott Gould), out of a landmark casino deal, causing the Vegas vet to suffer a crippling heart attack.


Good-natured as he is, Danny tries to reason with the shrewd tycoon the only way he knows how: by promising not to rob him of every penny he has. The tycoon, Willie Banks, of course refuses, betting that his new casino will be a money-making juggernaut just like every other hotel he has owned. That provocation is enough to set the Ocean gang into motion, with a con designed to clean out the Banks casino, just as Danny promised.

If you’ve seen any of the previous installments then you know the format: the gang splits up, half of them doing the technical work, half assuming false identities to insert themselves into the mark’s inner circle. Hurdles arise, which the gang most jump over, until the appointed night arrives and the plan goes into action. Their adversary this time around is controlling, cunning and ruthless—as is his assistant, Abigail (Ellen Barkin), a woman so ruthlessly thorough that she goes so far as to monitor the body mass indexes of casino’s cocktail waitresses. Yikes. Without spoiling too much, the con has some entertaining moments, Banks goes bust, Reuben is avenged, and the whole gang goes home happy.

As I said at the start, the strength of OCEAN’S 11 was that the con kept you guessing almost up until the last frames of the movie. No such ambiguities exist in Ocean’s 13. From the very start we are given a clear blueprint for how the job will go, and it is executed exactly as planned, with a few half-hearted “twists” thrown in to try to make it all seem unpredictable. You can really see where the writers were beginning to run out of steam, trying to plot the in and outs of each deception and moment of misdirection. Most of the subplots could have well been left on the editing room floor along with the DVD’s deleted scenes, which were definitely deleted for good reason.

Small gripes aside, the look of the film is as stylish as ever. Soderbergh’s command of the camera is impeccable, steering our eye up, down, and all around crowded casino floors so seamlessly that we never lose track of the gang, or what they’re up to at any given point. As usual the cast earns every cent in their paychecks, thankfully restraining themselves just enough this time around so that we can actually believe in the characters they are trying to portray, rather seeing George Clooney and Brad Pitt on screen being George Clooney and Brad Pitt. That Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones sat this one out was also a blessing. (Ellen Barkin does a more than adequate job providing a bit of sexy for the guys.) Al Pacino, ever the pro, wisely disappears into his role, avoiding any ham-offs with his equally famous cast mates. Andy Garcia’s role as the 13th member of Ocean’s gang is so insignificant, it begs for the film’s title to be recalculated.


All-in-all, OCEAN’S 13 provides a more straightforward, by-the-numbers version of everything we liked about OCEAN’S 11. After three installments of what is essentially the same film, I can forgive them for a lack of originality—though I would STRONGLY advise that they end the franchise on this particular hand: it’s a lot better than a pair, but it’s no royal flush either.