"Thirteen": A Sequel Better Funny (And Lucky) Than Great
The Popcorn Reel Film Review: "Ocean's Thirteen"
By Omar P.L. Moore/June 6, 2007
A New Vegas: Ellen Barkin (as Abigail Sponder) and Al Pacino (as Willy
Bank) are the new entrants to the "Ocean's" series, with Bernie Mac (right, as
Frank Catton) playing "Let's Make A (New) Deal," in "Ocean's Thirteen", directed
once again by Steven Soderbergh. (All photos: Melissa Sue Gordon)
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Smooth, stylish, colorful. Oooh yeah. The threads. The glamour. The glitz. The looks. It's so slick it's almost manipulative. It is manipulative. A grand manipulation, and all the better, because "Ocean's Thirteen" is a lucky thirteen and thankfully it's entertaining enough to keep the average audience member interested. This film is the celluloid equivalent of a Mercedes-Benz. It looks good, it runs well, and it takes you for a great joyride. There's lots of laughs to go around as director Steven Soderbergh gives everyone something to do -- and this reviewer means everyone, as many more cast members than a baker's dozen are involved in this latest scheme of schemes.
Amazingly enough, with more characters than you can shake a
stick at, the director fits everyone in without sacrificing or overusing them.
Each has their place and many are introduced in a tidy but busy opening 20
minutes, with main characters Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Brad
Pitt) finishing off each other's sentences. Add the other male characters
(many of whom are listed at the end of this review) and you have a homoerotic
jamboree.
Bank on Willy -- he's the big man on the Las Vegas campus strip. Wheeling,
dealing and deceiving to stay numero uno in the casino game. Willy Bank
(Al Pacino) loves diamonds and has received "Five Diamond" Awards over and over
again for his casino and hotel. He intends to continue the primacy of Bank
-- "try and break the Bank!" -- he exhorts in a television ad, before revealing
a little sleight of hand. But Bank made the grave mistake of doing wrong
to Reuben Tishkoff, the Swifty Lazar glasses-wearing mogul played by the great
Elliott Gould, so he has to pay (no pun intended). Reuben has been a
card-carrying member of the Ocean's clan since 2001. And you need not have
seen the prior two films in this "Ocean's" series to know that Willy Bank pays
in full.
Who's your daddy? Homoeroticism abounds in Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's
Thirteen". Here, previous "Ocean's" villain Andy Garcia is back as Terry
Benedict, joining Danny Ocean (George Clooney) to bring down Willy Bank in Las
Vegas.
Ellen Barkin (as Abigail Sponder) provides much-needed sexual dilution as the
film's lone (or primary) opposite-sex participant, breaking up the hi-jinks of
the film's male bonders as Bank's right-hand woman. Meticulous and
fastidious, Sponder is impregnable, keeping the Bank-meister and his opulent
surroundings up to snuff, almost single-handedly. But even Sponder will be
tested, in a scene where the director appears to cheekily parody Barkin from
movies past. [As an aside, it is revealing to see how time has
transformed Pacino and Barkin, who were last together on the big screen steaming
it up almost 20 years ago in "Sea Of Love". Soderbergh puts the two
together here and they barely look at each other. And given their onscreen
relationship such nonchalance is justified.]
Perhaps the "Ocean's" guys will meet their match in "Ocean's
Fourteen" -- if Soderbergh decides to do something revolutionary and cast
fourteen women (top actors like Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman,
Angelina Jolie, Naomie Harris, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Lauren Bacall, Jennifer
Lopez, Gong Li and Vanessa Redgrave, etc., as an equally-determined group of
heist maidens), to rain on the guys' parade. Now there's an idea!
(Are you listening, Brian Koppleman and David Levien? -- they wrote the script
for this film, although George Clayton Johnson and Jack Golden Russell, who
devised the "Ocean's" characters in the original 1960 film, may have a lot to
say about that.)
There are a variety of comedic diversions to keep the audience enticed, with
continuing characters (such as Roman, played by Eddie Izzard, who fits neatly
into the Ocean's gang's machinations.) Roman is the film's the trump card
and he comes up aces. There are twists. There are turns.
There's Matt Damon as Linus Caldwell, doing a Steve Martin impression as a
"Dirty Rotten Scoundrel" of sorts, an abridged Cyrano De Bergerac. There's
the self-mocking cell-phone ring tone that Rusty has -- a funny, affectionate
nod to the 1980's. Every time the audience hears it they will laugh.
And there are old "Ocean's" rivals like Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) who as a
rival player in the Vegas market doesn't care too much for Mr. Bank and his
swagger. Steven Soderbergh provides such a busy and grand stage for all
his players that it is actually impossible for them (or the film) to stumble --
a major feat considering the old axiom "too many cooks spoil the broth."
In "Thirteen" all of these cooks conjure up recipes with unexpected flavors,
rendering some characters a little hot under the collar.
The Big Un-Easy: Ellen Barkin and Matt Damon get acquainted, and somewhat
seduced, in Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's Thirteen", which opens on Friday.
Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac and Carl Reiner supply some noteworthy comedic moments,
as do the tandem of Scott Caan and Casey Affleck, who feature in several crucial
scenes, including a Mexico sequence indispensable to the film.
Nevertheless, Mr. Soderbergh seems to want to go to war with Mexico and Mexicans
in one or two of his films (see "Traffic") and here he takes potshots, albeit in
jest, at the neighbors to the south. Some of it is only mildly amusing.
(Something tells a reviewer that we're not likely to see a lot of mocking of
Israelis by Soderbergh in an "Oceans" film anytime soon. Besides, such
parodying wouldn't belong here -- or anywhere else for that matter -- so what's
with the Mexico-bash? What on earth did Mexico ever do to Mr. Soderbergh?)
"Ocean's Thirteen" preserves the vigorous and jaunty energy of Soderbergh's
"Ocean's Eleven", restoring pacing, gimmickry and old-fashioned comedy that is
abundant here, a triumphant return to the freshness of the 2001 film and the
singularity of the seminal 1960 effort starring the Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Frank
Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr.) This new film is an action movie without
action, as the star-wattage electrifies, with sumptuous cinematography by the
director (who took an alias as one "Peter Andrews") and rich color and endless
Armani suits dominating the view. There is so much visual splendor here
that the most ardent paparazzi may feel compelled to take pictures of the big
screen while the seductive imagery flickers before them.
Major league eye-candy, "Ocean's Thirteen" is a feast of fun and entertainment
that does more with more -- and in less time -- than some of this summer's
higher-octane sequels.
Bank on that.
Back row (l-r): Casey Affleck (as Virgil), Scott Caan (as Turk), Bernie Mac (as
Frank), Brad Pitt (as Rusty), George Clooney (as Danny), Don Cheadle (as
Basher). Front row (l-r): Eddie Jemison (as Livingston), Carl Reiner (as
Saul), Elliott Gould (as Reuben), Matt Damon (as Linus), and Shaobo Qin (as
Yen). Not pictured: Andy Garcia (as Terry), Vincent Cassel (as Francois),
David Paymer (as the V.U.P.), Julian Sands (as Greco), Eddie Izzard (as Roman).
Film title logo: Warner Brothers.
"Ocean's Thirteen" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture
Association of America for brief sensuality. The film's duration is two
hours and two minutes. Jerry Weintraub produced the film, which opens in
the United States and Canada on Friday. George Clooney is one of its
executive producers.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2007. All Rights Reserved.