Ocean's Thirteen is a 2007 American comedy heist film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring an ensemble cast. It is the third and final film in the Soderbergh series (Ocean's Trilogy) following the 2004 sequel Ocean's Twelve and the 2001 film Ocean's Eleven, which itself was a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film Ocean's 11. All the male cast members reprise their roles from the previous installments, but neither Julia Roberts nor Catherine Zeta-Jones return.
Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin joined the cast as their new targets.
Filming began in July 2006 in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, based on a script by Brian Koppelman and David Levien. The film was screened for the Out of Competition presentation at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. It was released on June 8, 2007, in the United States and in several countries in the Middle East on June 6.
Plot
Reuben Tishkoff is conned by Willy Bank, his former business partner, by being forced to sign over the ownership rights of the new hotel-casino they were building together, "The Bank". Reuben suffers a heart attack and becomes bedridden. Daniel 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," though Bank refuses. To avenge Reuben, he gathers his partners-in-crime and plans to ruin Bank on the opening night of the hotel.
First, they plan to prevent "The Bank" from winning the prestigious Five Diamond Award, which all of Bank's previous hotels have won. Saul Bloom poses as the reviewer of the board, while the real reviewer is treated horribly during his stay by Ocean's associates and the staff on their payroll. Next, they plan to rig the casino's slot machines and games to force a payout of more than $500Â million in winnings, forcing Bank to cede control of the casino to the board. This requires defeating "The Greco Player Tracker," a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence system that ensures that all winnings are legitimate by measuring the players' biometric responses for authenticity.
They trick Bank into carrying a cell phone with a magnetron to disrupt the Greco. Ocean's team acquires one of the giant drills used to bore the Channel Tunnel to simulate an earthquake under the hotel on opening night to ensure that the Greco shuts down. The drill breaks, forcing them to approach Terry Benedict, their previous antagonist, to fund the purchase of a second drill. As Benedict has a grudge against Bank, he offers Ocean the funds only if they also steal four necklaces Bank bought representing the four Five Diamond Awards, now on display in a secured case at the top of the hotel.
On opening night, FBI agents have been informed that machines have been rigged by Livingston Dell, and have identified him. This was intended, resulting in the card-shuffling machines being replaced by Nagel, as Livingston was unable to effectively rig them. Basher distracts Bank long enough to allow Virgil and Turk Malloy to change the group's FBI records, including their names and appearances, to prevent being identified alongside Livingston.
Linus Caldwell seduces Bank's assistant to gain access to the display and switch the diamonds with fakes. He is interrupted by the lead FBI agent, who explains the diamond theft to Bank's assistant. Linus is arrested, but as they exit in the elevator, the lead agent is revealed to be his father, Robert 'Bobby' Caldwell, who is in on Ocean's plan. As they exit to the roof of the hotel for extraction via helicopter, they are caught by François "The Night Fox" Toulour, whom Benedict had ordered to intercept the diamonds. Linus gives the diamonds to Toulour, who escapes by parachuting off the hotel, but after departing discovers that he holds only the fakes; Ocean, who had been aware of Toulour's presence, had arranged to extract the entire display case from the hotel.
The plan continues as expected. With "The Greco" disrupted, and guests leaving the hotel with their massive winnings, Bank realizes his ruin. Ocean lets him know that they did everything for Reuben. Bank cannot get revenge as he cannot prove that Ocean did anything illegal. The group uses the money they made off with to buy property north of the Las Vegas Strip for Reuben. To punish Benedict, Ocean donates his $72 million portion of the take to charity, forcing Benedict to publicly admit his philanthropy via television appearances. As the group disperses, Rusty ensures that the real Five Diamond reviewer, who suffered numerous discomforts during his stay at the hotel, is compensated by allowing him to win the jackpot on a rigged slot machine at the airport.
Cast
Ocean's Thirteen
- George Clooney as Danny Ocean
- Brad Pitt as Rusty Ryan
- Matt Damon as Linus Caldwell/Lenny Pepperidge
- Bernie Mac as Frank Catton
- Elliott Gould as Reuben Tishkoff
- Casey Affleck as Virgil Malloy
- Scott Caan as Turk Malloy
- Eddie Jemison as Livingston Dell
- Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr/Fender Rhodes
- Shaobo Qin as "The Amazing" Yen/Mr. Weng
- Carl Reiner as Saul Bloom/Kensington Chubb
- Andy GarcÃa as Terry Benedict
- Eddie Izzard as Roman Nagel
Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones did not appear in their roles as Tess Ocean and Isabel Lahiri due to script issues, their absence being explained by Danny, who repeatedly states, "It's not their fight."
Others
- Al Pacino as Willy Bank
- Ellen Barkin as Abigail Sponder
- Vincent Cassel as François Toulour
- Bob Einstein as FBI Agent Robert "Bobby" Caldwell
- Olga Sosnovska as Debbie
- David Paymer as the "V.U.P.", the Five Diamond Award reviewer.
- Julian Sands as Greco Montgomery
- Angel Oquendo as Ortega, a guard
- Jerry Weintraub as Denny Shields
- Scott L. Schwartz as "The Bruiser", seen cashing in a large number of casino chips
- Oprah Winfrey as herself
- Bernie Yuman as himself
- Noureen DeWulf as one of the casino game show expo women
Reception
Box office
The film did well on its first weekend, reaching the top spot at the North American box office. Despite being opened in 250 more theaters than Ocean's Twelve, it had a slightly weaker opening weekend than the former, pulling in $36 million, compared with Twelveâ€â€â€Š'​â€s $39 million opening weekend. By the end of December 2007, Ocean's Thirteen had generated $311.4 million in box office revenue worldwide.
Critical reception
Critical reception to the movie was more positive than its predecessor, with some critics liking the movie's style and others criticizing it for being overly complex. Joel Siegel, in what turned out to be his last review for Good Morning America, stated that if it had been the first movie, there still would have been a sequel. On the movie website Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has received an overall 70% score. In his review for New York, David Edelstein wrote, "As the plotting gets knottier, his technique gets more fluidâ€"the editing jazzier, the colors more luscious, the whip-pans more whizbang. It's all anchored by Clooney, looking impudent, roguish, almost laughably handsome." Manohla Dargis, in her review for The New York Times, wrote, "Playing inside the box and out, [Soderbergh] has learned to go against the grain while also going with the flow. In Ocean's Thirteen he proves that in spades by using color like Kandinsky and hanging a funny mustache on Mr. Clooney's luscious mug, having become a genius of the system he so often resists." However, Roger Ebert wrote, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, "Ocean's Thirteen proceeds with insouciant dialogue, studied casualness, and a lotta stuff happening, none of which I cared much about because the movie doesn't pause to develop the characters, who are forced to make do with their movie-star personas." Peter Bradshaw, in his review for The Guardian, wrote, "Sometimes we go to split-screen, and sometimes - whooaaa! - two of the split-screen frames are funkily showing the same thing. It is all quite meaningless. As if in an experimental novel by BS Johnson, the scenes could be reshuffled and shown in any order and it would amount to the same thing. There is no human motivation and no romance."
Home video release
Ocean's Thirteen was released on DVD in November 2007.
References
External links
- Ocean's Thirteen at the Internet Movie Database
- Ocean's Thirteen at Box Office Mojo
- Ocean's Thirteen at AllMovie
- Ocean's Thirteen at Rotten Tomatoes