Ocean’s Thirteen puts Danny Ocean’s crew back in Las Vegas with a grudge instead of a payday. Steven Soderbergh directs the 2007 heist comedy from a script by Brian Koppelman and David Levien. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy García, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino fill out the ensemble. Warner Bros. released it in the United States on June 8, 2007. It runs 122 minutes.
Trailer, via Warner Bros. Rewind.
Willy Bank Doublecrosses Reuben Tishkoff
The setup is the best thing in the film. Reuben Tishkoff builds a hotel-casino on the Strip. Against Danny Ocean’s advice, he takes on investor and casino mogul Willy Bank as a partner. Bank’s thugs strongarm Reuben into signing over his ownership stake. Reuben suffers a heart attack and ends up bedridden.
Danny offers Bank a chance to make it right. Bank refuses and finishes the hotel, renamed “The Bank.” So the crew gathers to ruin him on opening night. The tagline promises that revenge is a funny thing. The film mostly agrees, and that is the problem.
Two Objectives and the Greco
The plan has two halves. First, stop The Bank from winning the Five Diamond Award, which every Bank property has won before. Saul Bloom poses as the anonymous reviewer while the real one gets treated badly. Second, rig every game in the casino to pay out millions. Bank needs $500 million in the first quarter or the Board of Directors takes the hotel.
Standing in the way is the Greco, an artificial intelligence system that reads gamblers’ biometric responses and catches cheating. The crew smuggles in a magnetron disguised as a cell phone, a gift for Bank. The plan depends on Bank himself disrupting the Greco with that phone, which unlocks the rigged machines. They also get the drilling machine used to bore the Channel Tunnel, hoping to fake an earthquake and clear the floor. The drill breaks down before opening night.
A Running Order That Never Slows Down
| Stage | What the crew does |
|---|---|
| Setup | Danny gathers the team to ruin Bank on opening night |
| Review | Saul poses as the Five Diamond reviewer |
| Device | Magnetron hidden in a phone given to Bank |
| Machines | Casino games rigged, dealers on the payroll |
| Quake | Channel Tunnel drill simulates an earthquake |
| Exit | Players walk out with their winnings |
That is a lot of machinery, and Soderbergh keeps it moving. The cast is deep enough that nobody has to carry the film alone. Pacino’s Bank is a fine wall for the crew to climb.
But the con has no bite. The mark is a bully with a trophy case, and the scheme is a checklist. The Greco is a clever obstacle that the film solves with a phone. The drill breaks, the team improvises, and the tension drains out.
What the $312 Million Buys
The film screened Out of Competition at Cannes on May 24, 2007, and grossed $312 million worldwide. That is a healthy return on a third pass at the same joke. It is also a sign that audiences will take comfort over surprise.
Ocean’s Thirteen is competent, well cast and easy to sit through. It is also the least necessary film in the trilogy. The revenge is personal, as promised, but the pleasure is not. This is a crew going through motions they have already perfected, and the film never finds a reason to make us worry they might fail.
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