Ocean's Thirteen

Stars: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino, Andy Garcia

Director: Steven Soderbergh

This long, rambling second sequel to Ocean's Eleven seems to stretch well past two hours, but it does restore the franchise to its core raison d'etre - a fiendishly cunning (and almost too complex to follow) raid on a Las Vegas casino, with most developments heavily signposted.

What reunites Ocean (Clooney), Rusty (Pitt), Linus (Damon) and their brethren from the first two movies is the conning of their veteran chum Reuben (Elliott Gould) out of a fortune by the ruthless gambling magnate Willie Bank (Pacino), whose henchman beats Reuben into signing over his half of their joint venture: Vegas's biggest and splashiest new casino.

Clooney and Co just spend a few months devising a revenge plan that involved games expert Eddie Izzard - who tells then 'You're analog players in a digital world' - and former adversary Garcia (who wants Pacino's legendary diamonds), and put it into motion.

Bernie Mac's domino table finds an unlikely place in the casino, Damon seduces Pacino's right-hand girl (Ellen Barkin), Clooney aims to thwart diamond rival Vincent Cassel (left over from Ocean's Twelve), Pitt makes hotel inspector David Paymer's life a misery and Don Cheadle engineers an 'earthquake' that will stall Julian Sands' mega-computer behind the casino scenes.

As you can see, no star is left unturned, no expense spared (except perhaps on the script). Clooney and Pitt coast along and look as if they could be lots of fun if more of their banter had a cutting edge. Pacino is allowed to do little more than act the pantomime villain.

David Quinlan

USA 2007. UK Distributor: Warner Brothers. Technicolor.
122 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: PG.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 03 Jun 2007