'Ocean's Thirteen': steal crazy after all these years

The fun third 'Ocean' flick brings the festivities back to Las Vegas, where the series began.

from the June 8, 2007 edition

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Director Steven Soderbergh and his screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who once wrote an intriguing gambling movie called "Rounders," recognize that to make all this malarkey work you need two things (a) a cast with effortless charisma and (b) a villain worth hating.

Both requirements are met. Clooney is never so at home as a performer as when he's striding through a glitter palace in his tux. This may not qualify as acting, exactly, but who cares? (Actually, I'd argue that Clooney is a better performer in the "Ocean's" movies than he was in, say, Soderbergh's brackish art film "The Good German.") The other actors, especially Carl Reiner, are also having a high old time. The clan's easygoing throwaway banter has some of the charm of the old Hope-Crosby "Road" pictures.

As for the villain, Pacino makes Bank so eminently loathsome that watching his demise is like witnessing a bug being pulled apart. Most actors love playing bad guys. With Pacino, that love borders on adoration.

At times, "Ocean's Thirteen" coasts on its star power rather than being propelled by it, and some of the set pieces are clunky in the "Towering Inferno" mode. There is also a subplot about an undercover evaluator (David Paymer) for a top-ranked hotel award Bank craves that is a bit too punitive. The poor guy is targeted by the clan and his life made miserable. It's hard not to think that the filmmakers are using this critic as payback for all the bad reviews they've ever received.

That shouldn't be an issue this time around. Grade: A–

• Rated PG-13 for brief sensuality.

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