People did not really expect Steven Soderberg to move on with the Ocean’s gang after Ocean’s twelve but he did, and this time around, he stuck to basics. No convoluted plots, no over-the-top sequences and no love stories. In an impossible seeming heist, Ocean’s gang of 13 multi-talented goons, execute their jobs suavely in Willie Bank’s newly opened Casino. Welcome to Las Vegas folks….
This time, we have Al Pacino play the mean guy who is a rather classy and tasteful Hotel owner with a few 5 Diamond Properties already running under him. The witty and charming Reuben(Elliot Gould) is cheated out of a partnership for a new Vegas Hotel by the astute and ambitious, Willie Bank(Al Pacino).
So now, Danny Ocean wants to avenge Bank’s negligence for principles and attitude towards Reuben. He plans a mega heist, in the impregnable and inconvceivable Hotel belonging to Willie Bank and in the brief period of the film, we are entertained by stars, witty ideas, pithy lines and some good old payback!
Ocean and his men rig the tables, the slot machines, the deck and all possible games in the casino to ensure that more people take back a lot of money home so their adversary, Willie Bank, is beaten at his Bank. Oh and at the same time, they are determined to prevent Bank’s hotel from winning the much sought after ‘Five Diamond’ rating while stealing his precious gems to pay for a handsome loan that they receive from Andy Garcia. Thus, in typical Hollywood style, the wit of all these con men execute an almost impossible plan suavely in good old fashioned ways.
George Clooney is the best of the lot with Al Pacino venturing into a domain that he isn’t really expected in but nevertheless, manages to impress because he is Al Pacino. The rest of the gang justify their roles earnestly but no fireworks there.
Ocean’s Thirteen is strictly, a Popcorn flick and nothing more. No intricate plot, no jaw dropping sequences, no twists in the tale, no gorgeous women and Mission Impossibles. Soderberg sticks to basics in a manner that entertains lightly and never leads to boredom. At the same time, it lacks the novelty and complications of story telling that we are now so used to expecting.
- 7.927 on a scale of 1-10.