Oceans 13

Oceans 13 (2007) requires no exertion of intellect by the audience. It is an entertaining film. It is fun to watch the plot unfold, to see the cast members interact, to witness the mugging exaggeration of Al Pacino, who seemed as serious as ever even though he must have been aware of the self-parody in which he engaged. Technically, the film is smooth and seamless. Director Stephen Soderbergh moves it along inexorably and steadily. It rarely flags. The Las Vegas setting is exploited to good effect. All the actors are more than up to the parts they play. This is the best installment in the Oceans series.

The plot is simple. Al Pacino's character, Willie Bank, a ruthless Las Vegas developer, basically cheats Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) out of his money. Tishkoff has a stroke and lies in a coma for much of the film. The gang (Don Cheadle, Bradd Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, et al) plot revenge, and we watch as the movie unfolds. There's pleasure in the watching, though little suspense and tension. It's like one of those old episodes of Mission Impossible, where everything goes like clockwork. There's never any doubt that the boys will succeed in their plot. And as Gould's character becomes aware of the progress of the revenge plot, he gradually recovers.

That this film is able to do what it does so well, with little effort, and absolutely no substance, is partially due to the skill of Soderbergh and crew. It's also due to the American fascination with celebrity. The subtext of this film is the celebrity of the actors. The audience knows the actors so well that the parts they play hardly seem to matter. We recognize the in-jokes, and we understand that when they make fun of one another they are doing so both as characters in the film and actors in real life.

Watching this film is like watching a rerun of Hollywood Squares. The answer doesn't matter. The jokes and jibes of Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly do.