Oceans 11
In this remake of the 1960 film of the same name, Danny Ocean has just been released from prison, and decides to rob three Las Vegas casinos… in the one night.
Along with best friend Rusty, they concoct a plan. All they need is nine others to help them do it.
Direction
Solid work from Steven Soderbergh, who gets to work with another big budget, and big cast.
Some moments are overused, like the slide dissolve from one scene to another, but he uses others like split screen well.
Cast/Characters
The 11 consist of many big names.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt play Danny and Rusty.
The remaining 9 are; Bernie Mac (RIP), Carl Reiner (RIP), Elliot Gould, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Eddie Jemison, Qin Shaobo, and Don Cheadle.
Andy Garcia plays Terry Benedict, who owns the casino’s Danny is robbing.
Julia Roberts plays Terry’s girlfriend Tess, who is also Danny’s ex wife.
Breakdown
George Clooney was still in his heyday here, and re-teams with Out of Sight collaborator Soderbergh. I did find the similarities between his Danny Ocean and Jack Foley too similar, which adds to the question of Clooney’s acting ability. While I do think he is a good actor, he did do several films in his filmography with the same stereotype.
Once the set up between Danny and Rusty begins, we get to meet the nine others through a series of humours moments.
This is somewhat poignant as some of them are no longer with us (Bernie Mac, Carl Reiner).
The cast are all mostly prominent, with either up and comers (Casey Affleck, Scott Caan) or screen legends (Elliot Gould), or then famous (and still famous Matt Damon).
The chemistry between the cast is off the charts, which is no wonder Clooney and Pitt would go on to make another six films together – two sequels in the Ocean trilogy.
Quite a lot of the films themes are to do with the world of casinos/gambling and poker – so if you are not familiar with the terminology it will be lost in translation (it did for me) – but it is still a fun film.
Andy Garcia who plays terry, is built up to be a monster (first he’ll kill you, then he’ll go to work on you), but Garcia felt a little too soft.
Julia Roberts isn’t introduced (even getting a hilarious “and introducing” in the credits) until 45 minutes into the film. If you didn’t go in knowing, it would have been a great twist that she was Danny’s ex wife.
The “job” both the build up and the actual event are all exceptionally clever – with roadblocks like Quen’s broken hand, and Danny being kicked out (which becomes red herring). The screenplay is exceptionally smart, and never makes the audience feel too dumb – or add anything “too” unbelievable (balloons in the casino etc, which are not allowed for the exact thing they do in the film).
I didn’t buy that Tess would go back to Danny in the end, especially given how antagonistic she was to him earlier in the film. If this was made with a modern take, Tess should have gone off on her own. It just reeked of “Hollywood” ending.
The start of the film has a humorous scene where Rusty is teaching celebrities (Topher Grace, Hollie Marie Combs, Josh Jackson, Shane West, Barry Watson) how to play poker, and when they exit into the press, there is no attention on Danny or Rusty.
Some creative choice by cast members are either very good choices (Rusty’s eating in most scenes are funny), or very poor (Cheadle’s atrocious accent). Despite the down, it doesn’t affect the film too much.
Score/Soundtrack
I LOVED THAT CREDIT SONG (69 police) and the score by David Holmes is wonderful.
There is also a cool soundtrack with such songs like the Elvis remake of ‘a little less conversation’
Overall
A very fun film, with great cast, screenplay etc.
Well worth revisiting even 25 years later!
4/5
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