Review of Ocean’s 13

In this tiresome summer of tired sequels, it’s a distinct pleasure to be able to tell you that the latest “three-quel” is a terrific comedy-thriller. “Ocean’s 13,” the third Danny Ocean adventure, is a whirlwind caper about taking down Willy Bank (Al Pacino) the egomaniacal Las Vegas high roller who has cheated Danny’s mentor, nice guy Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), out of his half-ownership in the most glorious new hotel-casino in the town’s history.

When Reuben has a coronary as a result, Danny (George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) get the old gang back together to exact a fitting revenge from Bank, by ruining his “5-Diamond” reputation and by breaking the bank of his casino on its opening night.

To accomplish that, they’ll need to manufacture magnetic dice, rig all the machines, don a zillion disguises and, of yes, create a real earthquake on the Vegas Strip! Of course, since this is a lightning-paced caper movie, most of the fun is in guessing how all the bits and pieces we’re shown will fit together, to bring down Banks with the help of Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner), Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), Virgil Malloy (Casey Affleck), Turk Malloy (Scott Caan), plus a few more co-conspirators.

All they really have to do is outsmart a super-smart villain and a super-computer that can think for itself, which should be no problem for a gang whose sense of style and, more importantly, sense of humor have no equal.
While it doesn’t all make sense, “Ocean’s 13″ has so much fun getting us to the inevitable payoff that it easily steals our attention while it also steals 4 1/2 tickets out of 5 on the Mr. Movie Scale.