News
Books
Writing
Hobbies
Gallery
Links
Email Brian
Email Kerri

Unless otherwise noted,
all material on Heromaker.net
is written by Brian Murphy
© 2006.

Review Archive
  • A.I.

  • America's Sweethearts

  • American Pie 2

  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire

  • Beautiful Mind, A

  • Billy Elliot

  • Blade II

  • Blade: Trinity

  • Boondock Saints, The

  • Bourne Identity, The

  • Brazil

  • Bridge Too Far, A

  • Brotherhood of the Wolf

  • Bubble Boy

  • CQ

  • Casino

  • Cast Away

  • Cool Hand Luke

  • Count of Monte Cristo, The

  • Daredevil

  • Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

  • Die Another Day

  • Dish, The

  • Dog Soldiers

  • Don't Say a Word

  • Donnie Darko

  • Election

  • Fearless

  • Finding Forrester

  • Flatliners

  • Frighteners, The

  • Full Frontal

  • Gangs of New York

  • Garuda

  • Godfather Trilogy, The

  • Gosford Park

  • Hard Target

  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

  • Heist

  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas

  • How to Marry a Millionaire

  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

  • Insider, The

  • Jurassic Park III

  • Kill Bill: Vol. 1

  • Ladyhawke

  • Last Castle, The

  • Legally Blonde

  • Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, The

  • Life as a House

  • Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The

  • Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The

  • Lost Highway

  • Made

  • Magnificent Seven, The

  • Manhunter

  • Memento

  • Minority Report

  • Miss Congeniality

  • Moulin Rouge!

  • No Retreat, No Surrender

  • Not Another Teen Movie

  • O Brother, Where Art Thou?

  • Ocean's Eleven

  • Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior

  • Others, The

  • Pollack

  • Punisher, The

  • Queen of the Damned

  • Rat Race

  • Recruit, The

  • Reservoir Dogs

  • Ring, The

  • Royal Tenenbaums, The

  • Score, The

  • Seven Year Itch, The

  • Shadow of the Vampire

  • Signs

  • Six Degrees of Separation

  • Some Like It Hot

  • Species

  • Spider-Man

  • Spy Game

  • Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones

  • Stepford Wives, The

  • Swordfish

  • Training Day

  • Transformers: The Movie

  • Transporter, The

  • Tron

  • Troy

  • Truman Show, The

  • Unbreakable

  • Verdict, The

  • Windtalkers

  • Wonderboys

  • X-Files: Fight the Future, The

  • X-Men

    		•

    FILMS

    Ocean's Eleven (2001)
  • Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Andy Garcia, Elliott Gould, Carl Reiner, Scott Caan, Bernie Mac, Edward Jemison, Shaobo Qin

  • Directed by Steven Soderbergh


    • Of the three heist movies that I've seen recently Ocean's Eleven is probably the most entertaining, and ultimately, the best. You must understand that I am extremely reluctant to say this, as the other two burglar/caper movies I've seen are The Score and Heist. I find that my reluctance stems around the fact that the Ocean's Eleven is so "Hollywood."

    Oh, don't get me wrong, De Niro and Hackman are Hollywood icons. Sure. But Ocean's Eleven is designed, not so much as a movie, but as a product with beautiful packaging. It has all the pretty people doing all the exciting things for gobs of money, the likes of which we're not even allowed to think about because our small, middle-class income brains can't count that high. (Wow, not too much mortgage/house anxiety coming through here, eh?)

    It's not that I don't like Brad Pitt or George Clooney or Matt Damon or any of the other hunky guys in the film (note: Elliot Gould does not fall into this category)—it's just ... grrr ... obnoxious that they get to be so handsome and rich and to be able to have so much fun at their job (for which they make lots of money.) But I like this cast. Actually, I take that back—I love this cast. Call me a 14-year-old girl with a subscription to Tiger Beat but I think these guys are all "totally awesome."

    Another drawback: Ocean's Eleven is a remake—an annoyance to be sure, but in this case it's translucent and easily forgotten. The trend over the past few years seems to be if a studio can't come up with an original idea, then they'll do a remake ("with a new spin! and a fresh cast!"). If no remakes (good or bad) come to mind, they'll they'll adapt a video game. (Lord, save me from a second Tomb Raider film!) But for me, on this one, it's OK that Ocean's Eleven is a remake.

    Not to put too fine a point on it—I was extremely reluctant to watch, much less like this film. (You can tell my emphasis from my italics, see!) And yet, much to my chagrin, Ocean's Eleven is an incredibly entertaining movie.

    (Fair Spoiler Warning: Spoilers ahead. Stop reading if you don't want the film to be ruined.)

    Ocean's Eleven is about Danny Ocean (Clooney), a hustler who just got out of jail and, while inside, has been planning the biggest Vegas rip-off in the history of Vegas rip-offs. Of course, this time it'll be the little guy scamming the casinos, not the other way around. The movie and the trailers made a big point of the fact that he's not breaking into just one casino's vault, but three. Ooooh! I gots chills, Soderbergh! What they don't tell you, is that, for all intents and purposes they're really, in fact, only stealing from one casino. There's only ever one vault break-in scene—it happens to be the destination vault for three different casinos, but that's not the point. (Granted, there's so much money in the vault, and it's extremely well-guarded, they may as well be breaking into three vaults ... but I'm splitting hairs.)

    Perhaps what I like best about Ocean's Eleven is that this movie doesn't deal with the real world. The Vegas they're stealing from is kind of an uber-Vegas. It's the Vegas we'd like to think exists—all glitz and glamour, lights and luxury—but that's not the real deal. The Las Vegas I visited was much, much different than the location in the film. Because of this, it allowed me to accept certain things, be they conveniences of plot or precognitive character reaction (i.e., how one character just "knows" that another character will react a certain way.) This all adds to the film. It's not unlike when watching a James Bond film that things just always work out for 007. Sure, there's last-minute saves and nick-of-time escapes, but that's OK. He's Bond and he leads a charmed life. That's kinda how I view the characters in this film. (Though, I must note, that they're nowhere near as cool as Bond.)

    Honestly speaking, The Score probably had better real-life technical solutions to burglary, and Heist probably had better acting—but despite myself, I liked this one the best. It didn't try to be "real," and in doing so succeeded in being fun.

    Keep an eye out for the scenes with Scott Caan, James' son, and Casey Affleck, Ben's brother—these guys argue all the time and are hysterical. Also, Shaobo Qin does some amazing contortionist manuevers. They look painful, but cool.

    Also, there's a great scene where Pitt is teaching a bunch of Hollywood actors (Holly Marie Combs from Charmed, Topher Grace from That '70s Show, Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek, Barry Watson from 7th Heaven and some other guy I didn't recognize) how to play Poker. And the actors, playing themselves, are total 'tards. They're kind of the way people expect actors to be, but probably not how actors actually are in real life. I could watch this scene over and over again.

    If you have time and are so inclined, I highly recommend watching this on DVD. There's a secondary audio track with voice-overs from Damon, Garcia, and Pitt. If you would like a clue as to how it goes, it starts off with Brad Pitt saying he wasn't really sure what the studio expected of him for the narration, so he plans on going for a "MST3K-thing." And then, as Clooney walks onscreen for the very first scene the three proceed to bash ol' George, good-naturedly...but it's still lots of fun.