Movies

Ocean’s Thirteen

Glittery as a Vegas Strip stage revue, smooth and smarmy as a high-roller on the lucky streak of his life, the casino-heist franchise wins back some of the "Ocean’s Eleven" charm it lost amid the sputtering sequel "Ocean’s Twelve." Yet the latest caper with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and the gang still feels like one trip too many to the craps table. Director Steven Soderbergh and crew play the same hunches, with the outcome unimaginatively clear from the start: Categorical victory for the rascally good guys planning a Robin Hood-style heist, utter defeat and humiliation for the villain (Al Pacino).

Except for Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones, everybody’s back, including Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Andy Garcia, Carl Reiner and Elliott Gould. Ellen Barkin joins as chief aide to Pacino’s egomaniacal casino owner, whose joint is targeted by the Ocean’s boys for an impossible robbery after he double-crosses one of their own. A highlight is Pacino’s cool, though architecturally absurd, casino tower inserted into the Vegas skyline by computer images.

_ David Germain, AP