Yet "Ocean's Thirteen" still feels like one trip too many to the craps table, playing 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).

Vegas mogul Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), the money man of the Ocean's Eleven crew, is bilked out of his half-interest in a swanky new casino and hotel being opened by cutthroat Willy Bank (Pacino), who egotistically names his joint The Bank.

The absence of Roberts, who costarred in the first two flicks, is dismissed with an offhand remark by Danny, while "Ocean's Twelve" co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones also is a no-show.

Everyone else is back: Damon, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Carl Reiner, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Eddie Jemison and Shaobo Qin. Also returning is Andy Garcia as the gang's old adversary Terry Benedict, who forges an uneasy alliance with Danny and the boys to help nail casino rival Bank.

Ellen Barkin joins the cast as Bank's top aide, Abigail Spooner, a character played for comic effect, a woman who seems too giddy and insecure to serve as lieutenant to a ruthless titan.