More Stars and Gadgets Do Not a Better Movie Make

Rating: 6/10 (11 June 2007)

In another era, this is the kind of studio-made Hollywood movie where you would expect to have little boxes of the stars on the official poster, á la many-a murder mystery or disaster flick of the 1970's. (If you're not familiar with this, check out the original posters of movies like "The Towering Inferno" or the Agatha Christie murder mystery of your choice, like "The Mirror Crack'd".) I once read there was a tendency for such movies to be marginal. "Ocean's Thirteen" is certainly a decent two-hour escape and you will get your money's worth. And even a bit or two is worth the price of admission. But within this escapist entertainment movie was probably a better movie wanting to come out. More stars and more gadgets do not necessarily a-better-movie-make.
Essentially the plot is simple. Al Pacino, magnificently cast as the no-holds-barred Godfather of Vegas, double-crosses and then strips casino-investor Elliot Gould of his money and his dignity. Pacino already owns a half-dozen or so other casinos, and he does this just for spite. I guess it's personal. Not very healthy for Gould who lapses into a coma. Pacino is not just corrupt, he's not just a thief, he's the kind of son-of-a-bitch who would sell his own mother down the creek for a big win at the Black Jack table. So what else is new? That's what casino owners are. The only thing Pacino doesn't know is that Gould is friends with Danny Ocean (George Cloony) and his gang of casino-busters (Pitt, Damon, Cheadle et al). Right away we learn this is a revenge movie as a motivation for the heist.
There are a few bits that will stay with you, particularly Matt Damon playing Linus Caldwell playing the lackey of a supposed Chinese Billionaire, Dr Weng, played by Shaobo Qin out to put 10 million on a single play. Damon's nose alone is worth the price of admission as he attempts to seduce Pacino's wife, played by Ellen Barkin. And the reason that Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict (the "victim" of the first movie) is brought back into the action is just the kind of reason you want and expect from your rival casino magnate. Another side plot is a casino-reviewer played by David Paymer who is shown a "good time" at the hands of Ocean's gang. This bit is also priceless.
The challenge with Caper Movies is that to work they have to have a certain amount of believability. In other words, the minute you start thinking, "Oh, come on", the suspension of disbelief starts to sink back to the ground. There were a few too many moments when I thought the busters were trying to solve unsolvable problems with budgets approaching the funding for NASA. There are more gadgets in this movie than in a Julia Child cooking show. Everything from dice-manipulators, rigged slot machines, to a tunnel-boring machine the likes of which was used to create the famous "chunnel" between England and France. One of those only cost 30 million. Peanuts for these guys.
But it doesn't end with the thieves as rip-off-artists. The casino has the highest-state-of-the-art security system in which each patron is tracked for blood-pressure, heart-rate, cholesterol level, metabolic rate, financial standing, hobbies, and sexual orientation. Apparently, if a winner really is surprised, then thats on the level. If the winner acts like they were expecting to win, then I guess they're hauled in and beaten by the security guards. Seemed a bit off the charts, so to speak. If the robbers have a budget approaching NASA, the casino has a budget rivaling the US defense department. So the gang of casino-busters has to break through this digital-wonder of computer surveillance without their faces and heart-rates appearing on the read-out screens of the surveillance team while ripping millions off the casino. No problem, I guess, if you have 50 million to spend.
Where the story suffers is its characters and the number of gadgets. Maybe there are just too many of them. Not only does each character have a little "story" but all the gadgets seem to have stories too, and none get too much development. Don Cheadle hangs around the tunnel-boring machine but seems to do little else. Shaobo Qin as the athlete who also "plays" Dr Weng is never given much screen time, and yet that seemed to have huge potential for some great humor. Brad Pitt in some ways seems the most cliché of the bunch, playing a Vegas hunk, considering he is currently Hollywood's hunk. His only good moment is at the very opening of the film. There's also a strike going on at a Mexican dice manufacturing plant that's never quite fully explained.
The comedic standout performances were by Matt Damon and Ellen Barkin, and you'll just have to see it to understand why. Their "chemistry" kind of worked for some reason. Look for the nose.
The gadgets are certainly fun, and the moments mentioned above are worth the $10 ticket + $20 for popcorn, munchies and soft drinks. Certainly a great choice for a first-date as it's fun and you don't have to think. But it gets to be a bit too congested for its own good: too many characters, too many gadgets and too many side-plots. The characters are never really developed enough to give you a sense of why they are doing this. Maybe Ocean's 10 might have been a better more focused film.