Ocean's 13
It can be great fun when, on Saturday afternoon, you can live your life vicariously through a handful of rascals on the movie screen; and that’s just what I did last Saturday.
Danny, (George Clooney), Rusty, (Brad Pitt), and the boys come together one more time to pull off the most bizarre stunt yet, in Ocean’s 13; and it wasn’t for the money. So, why you ask did they do it? Friendship.
Without giving too much away I’ll try to explain it. A heartless casino mogul, Willy Banks, (an excellent performance by Al Pacino), double-crosses Rueben Tishkoff, (Elliott Gould), in a casino partnership and Rueben has a heat attack and is left in a near catatonic state. Well, that’s all it takes to pull the lads back together with the intent on “breaking the Bank”. Although, the nice guy he is, Danny did start out by asking Willy Bank to be nice and reinstate Rueben, to which Bank said, politely, up yours.
For, about, the first 15 minutes I was totally confused on what the hell was going on, but after a bit, it cleared up for me; so don’t walk out if you feel a little overwhelmed in the beginning. “13” focuses mostly on the scam; there is no romantic interest in this on to distract the lads… unless you want to count Oprah. A little side fun, though, is the bad things that happen to the hotel reviewer from the “Five Diamond” review board, or what ever they called it, don’t let that part slip by you, it’s funny.
You have to remember one thing in this one, there really is only eleven of them; they just practice the art of disguise here and there.
Anyway, the plan, they are told, won’t work because of a high tech security system; it would take something like a natural disaster just to get this thing to blink. Somewhere in the move they are told their chances are about 13 to 1 to pull this off; hence, I understand, “Ocean’s 13”. I can’t verify that myself, I guess I missed that statement. No matter, the challenge was set and the scam was on. Willy Bank’s own ego would be one of the things they would depend on to cause his downfall.
There are many layers to this scam so you gotta focus on what’s going on, but it is an enjoyable endeavor from beginning to end. Even on the middle when the boys run low on cash and hit up an old friend, (old friend?), Terry Benedict, (Andy Garcia), for a little help. You remember Terry don’t you? He’s the one they scammed in “Ocean’s 11”. Well, that made for an interesting partnership; did they scam against scam? You betcha.
Okay, ‘nuff said. That’s all I am going to tell you… I think. I don’t want to ruin it for you… Although… I did wonder, how in the hell did they get that huge machine down there to start with. What machine? Go see the movie, and if you stop to think, you’ll wonder the same thing.
It’s great fun and everybody, but Willy, comes out a winner; even Oprah, 200 kids and the hotel reviewer.
I’ll give it 4 out of five clouds, just below “Ocean’s 11”, which is still the better of the three. On the other hand, they are all still a bit below the first one; after all, I am 60 and a bit partial to Frank, Dean and Sammy.
