Thirteen is a Lucky Number

Ocean's Eleven was a heist movie that was smart, stylish, and, most importantly, fun. Each scene oozed playful excitement from director Steven Soderbergh and the star-studded cast. The sequel, Ocean's Twelve, was also a light and fun romp, but, unfortunately became too playful for its own good. The whole Julia Roberts bit was a late and over-the-top silliness that completely threw the movie off its rails. Learning from their mistakes, Soderbergh and crew have decided to make Ocean's Thirteen more in line with the first movie and, in effect, created an enjoyable popcorn flick.

Ocean's Thirteen pits the Ocean gang against Las Vegas hotel tycoon Willie Bank (Al Pacino). Bank double-crosses Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) on a business deal, causing the original Ocean's Eleven crew member to lose millions and suffer from a heart attack. Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and the gang decide to enact revenge on Bank by rigging his new casino, an over-the-top architecture beautifully CGIed in the Vegas strip, to lose $500 million on the grand opening. However, to finance the job, Ocean has to make a deal with the devil: Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), villain for the first two movies and fellow Bank-hater.

The plot is focused on the heist job, a welcome change from the previous movie. It sets up Bank's double-cross early in the movie and immediately delves into the fun part: the planning and execution of the casino job. The detailed explanation of the heist game plan, presposterous as it may be, is half the fun of a heist movie; the previous movie completely forgot about that. The script provides a number of schemes for the heist job, some plausible, a few over-the-top, all fun to watch. And, like in any good caper movie, there are also some pleasant twists along the way.

Another change from Ocean's Twelve is the absence of the ladies, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julia Roberts, the latter being the main source of the silliness of that movie (not her fault, to be fair). But as the movie loses two actresses, it gains one in Ellen Barkin as Abigail Sponder, a deputy to Willie Bank and, according to what Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon) read on Maxim, a "cougar."

Meanwhile, the boys are all back, bringing with them the playful chemistry that has become the key signature for the Ocean movies. While the spotlight would undoubtedly fall to the two actors with the highest profile, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, their characters are restrained, giving the others opportunity to shine. Matt Damon continues to entertain as the inconfident con man, Linus. Casey Affleck and Scott Caan stand out as the constantly bickering brothers Virgil and Turk Malloy; their hilarious story arc is best among the eleven in the movie.

The movie is, however, not without its flaws. Perhaps too focused on the mechanics of the heist plot, Ocean's Thirteen lacks the emotional aspects of the first movie. As a result, the heist job loses some of its urgency. The plot itself, on a closer look, is actually a bit long and unnecessarily complicated. But, as any summer movie, it's not meant to be dissected in detail. It's a breezy movie with glamorous setting, pretty pictures, fun characters, and a smart enough story. Those are enough to make Ocean's Thirteen one of the most enjoyable movies of this year's summer blockbusters.