Ocean's 13: B

"Ocean's 13" is not a movie -- it's a world. But in this world, the audience will forever be on the outside looking in. By no means does the film leave the viewer jealous of this cinematic world; for us, it's just fun to be along for the ride. The feel is, in a word, cool. \nThe movie begins with a shady business deal between casino czar Willie Bank (Pacino) and Reuben Tishkoff (Gould), Danny Ocean's financier, which causes Reuben to have a near-fatal heart attack. Ocean (Clooney) and the crew decide to rig Bank's casino so that for one night only, the house loses. Smuggling in Black Jack card shufflers that guarantee the table always gets 21 while the dealer busts and dispersing remote controled dice throughout the casino are only a few of their revenge-driven schemes.\n"Ocean's 13" pays homage to the 1960 original film. Both Bank and Tishkoff are "old school" guys who live by a code. They've even shaken hands with the Godfather of their world, Sinatra himself. To them, that's supposed to mean something. \nThe missteps of the second film (the worst of trilogy) were a painfully difficult-to-comprehend plot and the absence of a Vegas setting. This time, though, the boys are back in the desert, and the plot, at its core, is a simple revenge story which kept my attention the entire time. \nThe cinematography is brilliant, right on par with Soderbergh's previous two "Ocean's" and "Traffic." The set and costume design is such that a still from this movie could be put right into the pages of GQ. It's not just the clothes -- it's the never-panicked and super smooth attitudes of the characters that men want to emulate and women want to get with.\nAlso, Soderbergh uses creative editing techniques like freeze frames and wipes to weave the story together coherently and smoothly. In one seduction scene, the audience even gets to see exactly how pheromones are dispersed into the air.\nAl Pacino is a great addition to the elite, coolest-of-the-cool cast, but his performance is noticeably toned-down. It's refreshing to see Pacino in a supporting role, and it's nice to see that he doesn't mind being upstaged by a ensemble cast with the best on-screen chemistry in recent memory. \n"Ocean's 13" is a venue for the elite of Hollywood to flaunt their immense talent for the audience to eat up, but it's clear by watching them work that everyone involved is having fun. And you know what? As a viewer, I did too.