Ocean's Thirteen
Dir: Steven Soderbergh
2007
****

I had absolutely no interest in Ocean’s Thirteen after the shambles that was Ocean’s Twelve. I resisted for some time, avoiding it in the cinema and when it was released on DVD. I believe I first saw it when it came to television, and even though my expectations were about as low as they could have been, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did they better the last film (which really wasn’t difficult) but they also exceeded the first. It is a thoroughly enjoyable heist film, ‘third time is charm’ being the phrase that comes to mind. Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin are the new additions to the cast and Vincent Cassel and Eddie Izzard return from the previous film. The nerd in me was very happy to see Julian Sands added to the cast also but both Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones refused to come back, stating that they wanted bigger parts. I would argue that everyone has the same screen-time – it is an ensemble cast – but they wanted more. There are far too many men in the film and I agree that it isn’t particularly equal but I don’t think the blame is on anyone other than the two a-list actors. To be honest, their characters were not missed, in fact, I think the film was better without them. Why on earth would Danny and his gang want to pull off another heist though? A new set of writers set it up beautifully, as this time it was all about revenge and doing something good. It begins with Elliott Gould’s lovable Reuben Tishkoff as we see him coerced by thugs employed by Willy Bank (Al Pacino), his erstwhile business partner, into signing over his stake in ownership rights of the new hotel-casino they were building on the Las Vegas Strip. Reuben suffers a heart attack and becomes bedridden (I honestly think I would have stopped watching had he died). Danny Ocean offers Bank a chance to set things right, given his long history in Las Vegas and the fact that he "shook hands with Sinatra," but Bank refuses and completes construction of "The Bank", renamed since breaking his deal with Reuben. To avenge Reuben, Ocean gathers his partners-in-crime and plans to ruin Bank on the opening night of the hotel – a nice little change of plan than the usual money-robbing heist. They develop a two-fold plan to occur on the casino's opening night. One is to prevent The Bank from winning the prestigious Five Diamond Award, which four of Bank's previous hotels had won. Saul Bloom is designated to stand in as the anonymous Diamond reviewer, while the real reviewer will be treated horribly during his stay by Ocean and his associates. The second part of the plan is to rig the casino's slot machines, forcing them to payout more than $500 million in winnings; by law, Bank would be required to cede control of the casino to the gambling board. While they can implement various rigging mechanisms into the casino, Ocean and his crew know that they would be easily stopped by the Greco Player Tracker, a state-of-the-art computer system that continuously monitors the gamblers' biometric responses and predicts when cheating is happening. Instead, they plan to use a magnetron (which is a real thing apparently), disguised as a new cell phone as a gift to Bank, to disrupt the Greco. They also obtain the drilling machine used to bore the Channel Tunnel to simulate an earthquake under the casino, assuring that Bank implements safety protocols to evacuate the casino in case of another earthquake. Their plan on opening night is to have Bank inadvertently disrupt Greco, initiate their rigged machines and dealers on their payroll, and then simulate the earthquake to force the evacuation and have players leave with their winnings. As opening night draws near, the drill breaks down. Ocean is forced to turn to Terry Benedict, whom Ocean had slighted before, for funds to buy a replacement. Benedict, who also seeks retribution against Bank, offers the funds for a portion of his share of the take, but demands that Ocean also steal the four sets of diamonds Bank had bought for his wife after winning each of the previous Diamond awards. These are valued over $250 million and secured in a case at the top of The Bank. Ocean has Linus Caldwell get romantically close to Bank's assistant, Abigail Sponder, to gain access to the case. Secretly, Benedict contracts master thief François "The Night Fox" Toulour to intercept the diamonds after Ocean steals them. Ocean institutes the final part of the plan on opening night, by having FBI agents on his pay arrive at the hotel and publicly arrest Livingston Dell on suspicions of rigging the card shuffling machines, allowing them to be replaced with actual rigged ones under Bank's nose. Another FBI agent arrests Linus after he switches the diamonds with fakes. The agent takes Linus away but reveals himself to be his father, Robert Caldwell, also in on Ocean's plan. They try to evacuate from the roof but are intercepted by Toulour who takes the diamonds. However, Ocean had anticipated this, and Linus and his father escape in a helicopter piloted by Basher, tearing the case from the roof and taking the real diamonds with them. The remainder of Ocean's plan goes as expected, and as they trigger the earthquake, the players evacuate with millions of dollars of winnings. Ocean approaches a devastated Bank and tells him they did everything for Reuben. Ocean also reminds Bank that he cannot go to the police due to Bank's past illegal activities, and that all of Bank's associates favor Ocean over him. With their share of the winnings, Ocean's crew buy property on the Strip for Reuben to build his own casino. Because of his treachery, Ocean donates Benedict's $72 million portion of the take to charity in Benedict's name, forcing him to admit his philanthropy on broadcast television. As Ocean, Rusty, and Linus prepare to head off at the airport, Rusty triggers one of the rigged machines there to allow the real Diamond reviewer to win $11 million as a way to compensate him for how they had treated him. It is a bit over the top and ridiculous in places but most importantly it is fun. The series finally takes itself less seriously, in a serious manner. The first film had a flawed but clever-ish plan. The second film had a stupid plan that relied on lazy flashbacks. The third however is a lovely mix of intelligent idea, silly circumstance and plenty of second-guessing. It shouldn’t really work but now that the characters are all established they somehow get away with it. I should have been a huge mistake but getting Vincent Cassel back as François Toulour was a stroke of genius. A trilogy that redeems itself in the third act and bows out on a high.