Here's the biggest ever of Danny Ocean's cons: a film so quick and so fun and so pretty that you may not even notice how silly it is.
If you do, you won't care.
Ocean's 13 is a delicious tale of revenge played out in a beautiful Vegas casino.
Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), father figure to the Ocean gang, gets cheated out of his share of a mammoth new casino project. He has been double-crossed by partner, Willy Bank (Al Pacino), and it's such a shock to his system that Reuben ends up in hospital with heart problems.
The rest of the gang -- George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Carl Reiner, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Eddie Jemison and Shaobo Qin -- offer Willy Bank a chance to square things.
When Bank refuses to play nice, the Ocean outfit decides upon a fitting revenge. They will ruin the opening of Bank's fabulous new hotel and casino, hitting him in the pocket and the ego.
The financial side will require rigging all the games so that the house loses big, and the ego side will involve making sure the hotel fails to win a coveted Five Diamond Award.
All of Bank's other hotels have won the award, and it's a source of pride to him.
Simple idea: (1) Impoverish bad guy; (2) Make sure he fails to win a hotel award.
But this is a Danny Ocean undertaking, so nothing can be simple.
Let the complications begin.
Infiltrate the Mexican factory where all official casino dice are manufactured.
Get the machine that will simulate an earthquake. Fiddle with the card shufflers, the roulette ball and the slots.
Ensure the guy who reviews the hotel (David Paymer) gets bed bugs and poisoned food. Seduce the bad guy's assistant (Ellen Barkin).
Bring in Andy Garcia (and Eddie Izzard and Julian Sands) for one reason or another. Slap magnificent clothing on everyone.
Photograph Vegas to look splendid and desirable.
Toss in the Damon Runyon repartee. Add a double-cross and a triple for good measure.
And on and on and on it goes. Big fun. Big, confusing fun. Why didn't they just shoot the bad guy and save everyone a lot of time and energy?
Ocean's Thirteen is soaked in testosterone It's an exercise in smoke and mirrors. If it ran five minutes longer it would cross the line from amusing to annoying. But it doesn't.
(This film is rated PG)
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