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What do you get when you remake, revisit,
re-imagine, re-whatever the word of the moment is, an old classic, throw
in a couple of 'A+' List actors (Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts), a few 'A-'
List actors (George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia) and a really
strong supporting cast (Don Cheadle, Elliot Gould, Carl Reiner, Casey
Affleck, Scott Caan, Bernie Mac, Shaobo Qin)?
Well, for one thing, you probably get a budget that has too large of a
percentage of it going towards the payroll. And you probably have a
recipe for disaster. There are not too many movies that can assemble as
impressive a list of actors, throw them in Sin City, of all places, to
shoot a film and expect to have the chemistry and the attention that is
needed to make the movie interesting.
At least, that is what I thought. But along comes Steven Soderbergh, the
man who brought us Traffic and ... (hold on while I check what else he
brought us) .... Erin Brockovich ... (I thought that was kind of
overrated!) Out of Sight (slick, but didn't knock my socks off), sex,
lies and videotape (never saw it) . Okay, well at least he brought us
Traffic and that was one of my favorites from last year. And, I must now
add, he did an outstanding job with Ocean's Eleven. The brilliant
direction of this movie, the slick dialogue and the suave acting take
Ocean's Eleven from being just another run-of-the-mill heist movie to
being a rather enjoyable run-of-the-mill heist movie.
Ocean's Eleven is the story of life-long con-artist and recent parolee,
Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his ingenious plan to pull off the
biggest caper in Las Vegas casino history - the robbery of the shared
vault of the three biggest casinos in Vegas - the Bellagio, the Mirage
and the MGM Grand - all of which are owned by the same ruthless
billionaire, Harry Benedict (Garcia) who just happens to be dating
Ocean's ex-wife, Tess (Roberts). The night Ocean figures that he will
pull this off is the night of the biggest prize fight of the year and a
night that he figures the vault will be filled with about $150 million
and as he puts it, "more security than most nuclear power
plants". So Ocean, along with his ultra-smooth sidekick, Dusty Ryan
(Pitt) and with the financial backing of one-time casino king-pin, Ruben
Tischkoff (Gould), assemble a rather quirky cast of swindlers, con
artists, bomb experts, computer geeks, circus sideshows and pickpockets
to pull off this seemingly impossible plan.
Seem confusing? It is a bit confusing - and not very suspenseful - and
with not as many twists and turns as you would expect from a movie of
this genre - and the plan is not as ingenious as it should be or other
plans have been - and to top all this off, there is little to no
character development. However, with Soderbergh's direction, the whole
story comes together rather neatly and with just enough finesse to keep
the audience interested. He does a great job of making sure that the
focus of the movie is not Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts or George Clooney.
They are simply a part of the whole.
Every performance and each character is important in keeping this movie
rolling, and although there are a few performances that do come to the
forefront (Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia, Elliot Gould, Carl Reiner and, as
much as it pains me to admit this, George Clooney) the movie avoids
directing the audience to focus on one actor or actress. It moves at a
pace that keeps you interested in every character's role and dialogue -
a dialogue that is at times witty, at other times humorous and, most of
the time, masterful in its delivery.
I must admit that when I first heard about Ocean's Eleven, I thought it
was going to be about a movie about eleven people trapped on a ship or a
submarine out in the ocean or something like that. I had no idea what
this movie was about. However, after seeing the trailers I became much
more interested and also a bit hesitant. Although the all-star cast is
appealing, I often wondered how a movie with such a diverse cast could
be successful. I am sure, because of the cast, there will be people who
will go to this movie expecting the world and more. There will also be
the Clooney, Pitt and Roberts detractors who would be more than happy to
see this movie fall flat on its face.
Just go into this movie and expect this: Ocean's Eleven is a really
good, entertaining movie. It is not going to knock your socks off but it
will not disappoint. Consider this: Danny Ocean meets up with
professional pick-pocket, Linus Caldwell. The two men have never met, do
not know each other. Ocean tells Caldwell he is planning a robbery, one
that promises an 8-figure payday. He has thirty seconds to decide - is
he in or is he out? After reading this review, you now tell me in thirty
seconds - are you in or are you out? Make the right choice and you will
not get an 8-figure payday. You will, however, be happy that you paid
the 2-figures to see this movie. It is quite a joy to watch.
 
- 8/10
Brendan Cullin - Senior
Editor
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