Ocean's 12/Ocean's 13 [Blu-ray]

Ocean's Thirteen
Cinema icon Al Pacino joins a powerhouse cast headed by of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, and series newcomer Ellen Barkin for this, the third installment of director Steven Soderbergh's popular series of glitzy crime comedies. The only hotelier in Las Vegas who can claim that each and every one of his establishments has earned the Royal Review Board's Five Diamond Award, Willy Bank (Pacino) has made more than his share of enemies during his impressive ascent. While most of Bank's adversaries amount to little more than the occasional nuisance, however, this powerful player is about to find out that picking your enemies in Las Vegas can be a true gamble. In betraying Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), Bank has finally crossed the one man who could bring his entire empire crumbling to the ground -- Danny Ocean (Clooney). Now Reuben is in critical condition, and Ocean is determined to strike back at the man who nearly murdered his mentor. Bank may have taken down one of the original Ocean's Eleven, but his efforts only managed to unite the remaining ten closer than ever before. As the opening of Bank's newest casino draws near, Danny and the crew set into motion a bold plan to humiliate the cocksure casino owner and forever tarnish his spotless reputation. It won't be easy, but if Ocean and his team can get their elaborate plan together in time for the opening of The Bank, they just might be able to deliver some serious Las Vegas justice. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Ocean's Twelve
After pulling off the heist of their lives, Danny Ocean and his pals unexpectedly find themselves back in harness in this sequel to 2001's blockbuster hit Ocean's Eleven. After robbing a cool $160 million from the Bellaggio Hotel Casino and winning back his former wife, Tess (Julia Roberts), from Bellagio owner Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is living quietly on the lam in Connecticut when he's unexpectedly approached by Benedict. It seems Benedict has tracked down Danny and the ten men who helped him pull off the seemingly impossible robbery, and Benedict offers them a proposal -- if they can repay the $160 million in two weeks, he won't have them killed. As it turns out, both Danny and his best friend, Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), haven't been doing so well in terms of money management and could use some cash, so they set out to plan a robbery to recover the loot, with the same crew helping out -- Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner), Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison), Yen (Shaobo Qin), Virgil Malloy (Casey Affleck), and his brother Turk (Scott Caan). Danny and Rusty discover that an incredibly rare Fabergé egg is being displayed at a museum in Rome which would fetch the price they need, but they soon discover a notorious cat burglar, François Toulour (Vincent Cassel), is also after the egg, and it turns into a race to see who can claim it first. Adding to the intrigue is Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a woman Rusty used to be involved with who is now a top agent with Interpol and is after both Toulour and Ocean's crew. Shot on location in both the United States and Europe, Ocean's Twelve was, like its precursor, directed by the stylish Steven Soderbergh, who also photographed the picture under his nom de lens, Peter Andrews. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi