Ocean 13

July 24th, 2008

Danny Ocean (George Clooney), Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), Virgil Malloy (Casey Affleck), Turk Malloy (Scott Caan), Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner), Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), “The Amazing” Yen (Shaobo Qin), Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison) and Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) make up the Eleven. Strong cast and strong performance is to describe the ensemble.
Let me re-familiarize you to the team. Danny and Rusty are the mastermind and deputy. Linus is the rookie turned master thief. Frank is the professional dealer. Virgil and Turk are brothers who are experts in everything (they kind of do everything and run everywhere). Saul is the old and characteristic actor con-artiste. Basher is the demolition and machinery expert. “The Amazing” Yen is the well… the amazing Yen who is skilled in acrobatic. Livingston is the guru in surveillance and an electronic geek. And of course lastly we have Reuben who is the old man with the money and Danny’s mentor.
Danny Ocean and his Eleven are back in Las Vegas. This time, Danny tries to talk sense into Willie Bank, the owner of a series of highly rated “5 Diamonds” hotels who double-crossed one of Eleven, Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), on a hotel deal causing the man a heart-attack and coma-like state. After the ruthless and arrogant Bank suggests that Reuben “rolls over and dies”, Danny and his team decide to take the Bank’s stunning new casino out of business on the big opening night.

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The third Ocean’s movie is great fun and a wonderful mixture of genres that works as comedy/crime/thriller/revenge. Vegas is spectacular. The jokes are funny, the dialogs are witty, the directing is first class with the split screens, unusual angles, and the camera that always moves fast but does not rush. The acting is terrific. The absence of Julia Roberts and Katherine Zeta Jones is more than compensated by the presence of great Ellen Barkin who is a better actress than two and a hot beautiful woman, the real “cougar”. Besides Ocean and his Eleven, it was good to see David Paymer as an unlucky hotel reviewer and Eddie Izzard as a famous computer hacker. There are certainly the holes in the story and the absence of logic. “Ocean’s Thirteen” is not about logic or plausibility or realism, it is all about fun and entertaining and it entertains admirably. It is a very successful and enjoyable sequel in the series of Ocean’s movies and we all know that good sequels don’t happen too often.

The unlucky guy is Willy Banks (Al Pacino) who owns a series of highly rated “5 Diamonds” hotels. The team is not in for the money this round but for revenge because Banks had done the disfavour of first knocking Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), one of the Eleven, from a hotel deal causing the man a heart-attack and a sudden lost in zest for life. You could say old Willy Banks had it coming for him because his ego was too big for himself. He had without any regards dismissed the Eleven’s attempt for him to reinstate Reuben’s share of the hotel

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Ocean 11

July 24th, 2008

When Daniel Ocean is released from prison in New Jersey, his next robbery is already planned. Danny Ocean (Clooney) wants to score the biggest robbery in history. He combines an eleven team member, including Frank Catton (Mac), Rusty Ryan (Pitt) and Linus Caldwell (Damon). Danny’s target are three Las Vegas casinos: The Bellagio, the Mirage and the MGM Grand. They all belong to hard and selfish entrepreneur Terry Benedict, who, by the way, also shows a certain interest in Danny’s beautiful ex-wife Tess. During a much-anticipated boxing event (Lennox Lewis vs. Wladimir Klitschko), there will be $150 million in the safe, 70 yards below the strip. So, Danny starts to hire professionals from all over the country: There’s the card magician Rusty Ryan, the perfect pickpocket Linus Caldwell and the ingenious pyrotechnician Basher Tarr. Reuben Tishkoff, who lost a casino to Benedict, provides funding, the brothers Virgil and Turk Malloy will drive and help, and Frank Catton, a professional card dealer, gets a job at the casino to watch the routines. Saul Bloom, already retired, will play the rich heavy weaponry dealer and live in the hotel, while Livingston Dell bugs the place to have a look over the shoulders of the security personnel. Finally, the chinese acrobat artist Yen will be the one to move inside the safe before the motion detectors are turned off. There are three rules to be followed: First: no blood. Second: Rob only who deserves it. Third: Do it as if you have nothing to lose.

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What makes the story so intriguing is the fact that Danny’s mission seems so impossible: security in the casinos is paramount and the route to the reward is littered with obstacles. The number of close calls that the gang is faced with is great fun and one can’t help but root for these crooks throughout the film. It is also refreshing to watch a film which is dominated by male stars and is not filled with macho swearing. Instead, we have a banter between the stars which is indicative of their camaraderie.

‘Ocean’s Eleven’ is a welcome option in the choice of movies available at the moment which is dominated by Oscar nominees that are not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. With this film, it’s simply a case of sit back and enjoy the fun!

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