Sunday, June 17, 2007

Movie Review

OCEAN’S
13


Cast – The usual suspects +’plus’ Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin –‘minus’ Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones

This third and final caper is about unspoken code amongst gentlemen, brotherhood and revenge as Danny Ocean summons all 13 bandits to break “The Bank”. Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) goes into partnership with the wily old fox, Willy Bank (Al Pacino) to build a new hotel casino called “The Bank” on the Las Vegas strip but got stiffed up badly despite having shaked on “Sinatra’s Hand”. Not only did Ruben lose his end of the deal, the double-crossing proved too much as he slips into a semi-conscious state induced by heart attack. David Soderbergh left out the leading ladies from Ocean’s 11 & 12 solely to focus on the plot but would they add more glamour to the proceedings, a definite YES! Ellen Barkin plays Abigail Sponder, the eagle eyes and bat ears of Willy Bank running the Hotel Casino floor with ruthless efficiency. While this movie is a worthy end to the Ocean’s trilogy, ‘11’ still gets my vote as the best one yet, with ‘13’ in close second and ‘12’ a very distant third. There is no gimmicky editing, what you’ll see is what you’ll get, unlike its predecessor’s mysterious “How did they do it?” hanging in the air till the final reveal at the end. For a fitting final reunion, they brought back characters like Frenchman Francois ‘Sticky Fingers’ Toulour (Vincent Cassel), technical genius Roman Nagel (Eddie Izzard) and Bellagio's owner Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) to very good effect. The plan was simple - To infiltrate “The Bank” and make it pay “BIG” on opening night. They have to take control of its casino operations be it manipulating dices, rigging jackpot & card shuffling machines, controlling the roulette table and even introducing their own rigged casino game into the fold. The lengths they will go in the name of revenge extends to digging a tunnel under hotel casino to manufacture a man-made earthquake [cue exit strategy]. The movie’s non-linear structure comes in quick flash backs of past to present while montage footage of multi-views incorporating scenes happening at the same time can be a little bit too busy for us to digest. As the plan sets in motion, hiccups happened along the way and Terry Benedict comes in the picture as an unexpected financier who has a vested interest in breaking “The Bank” but wants them to steal the five-diamonds awards as part of the deal. Another interesting sub-plot involves misdirecting the ‘real’ five-diamonds reviewer (David Paymer) into having the worst experience of his life but he is well compensated at the end courtesy of Rusty (Brad Pitt).
Con-artist Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon) grew up under the tutelage of Danny and Rusty as he puts up another fine performance as Lenny Pepperidge (with a huge prosthetic nose), the personal assistant of “Mr Yen” (High Roller) who seduces Sponder into giving him access to the diamonds. The Malloy brothers of Virgil and Turk are the same troublemakers who rally Mexicans in an uprising for better pay and working conditions while posing as factory workers to rig the casino’s dices but they can’t seem to stay out of unrest. The entire gang is fabulous to watch and when they are in their “Character”, it is hard not to be intrigued and strangely, be fascinated with the world of thieves. See it for one last heist, 3.5 diamonds out of 5.

Disclaimer

Copyright 2006-2008. All Rights Reserved.