Ocean’s 11 *** ½
Directed by: Steven Soderburgh
Written by: George Clayton Russel and Jack Golden Russel (1960 story); Harry Brown and Charles Lederer (1960 screenplay); Ted Griffin (Screenplay)
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Bernie Mac, Matt Damon, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Carl Reiner, Andy Garcia, Shaobo Qin, Don Cheadle, Edward Jemison, Elliot Gould and Julia Roberts.
Rated PG-13 (language, some violence. Oh, and the fact that it’s about one cool robbery)
“If it’s a remake of a classic, rent the classic!” – Jay “The Critic” Sherman.
OK, confession time. I’ve never seen the original Ocean’s 11. This probably makes me a bad person, and makes your trust in my ability as a movie reviewer very, very shaky. The original is, from what I’m told, a classic. It had the Rat Pack. Frank, Deano, Sammy. It defined cool. Cool didn’t even exist until the original came out. Oh, people thought that they knew what cool was, but they were living lies. Lame lies. Square lies.
Now, I’ve never seen the original. But, I liked the current version. Given the fact that the original is ALWAYS better than the remake, I can only assume that the original might even make me cool. Might.
Synopsis time. Danny Ocean (Clooney) just got out of prison for a con he pulled 6 years ago. He’s had a lot of time to think. Lots. And, he’s come up with a plan. A big plan. A cool plan. A crazy plan, man. He’s going to rob three casinos in Las Vegas on the same night. But, to do this, he needs to get a team together. A cool team. A crazy team, man. Not unlike Jake and Elwood Blues, he has to get the band back together. First up: Frank Catton (Mac). He’s the inside man. Next: Rusty Ryan (Pitt), a co-conspirator. Now: how to make this plan work. They’ll need money. That’s where Reuben Tishkoff (Gould) comes in. He’s a former casino owner, and, it just so happens that the three casinos Clooney & Company plan to rob belong to Terry Benedict (Garcia), the man who bought Reuben out. Reuben doesn’t like him, and gladly agrees. They’ll also need drivers and ‘utility men’ (my term). Enter Turk (Caan) and Virgil (Affleck) Malloy, a couple of bored citizens of Utah. Then we need some techies. Livingston Dell (Jemison) is a hacker and Basher Tarr (Cheadle) is a demolitions expert. They need a ‘grease man’ (the movie’s term) – someone who can get in and out of tight places easily. Enter Yen (Qin), a Chinese acrobat. Another inside man wouldn’t be bad, so why not get Saul Bloom (Reiner) – he’s got plenty of experience. And, someone with quick hands and an ability to tail people. That would be Linus Caldwell (Damon). Throw in a femme fatale named Tess Ocean (Roberts), make sure that she’s the ex-wife of Danny Ocean, and man alive, it looks like we have us one heck of a movie! Stuff is gonna get robbed, stuff is gonna blow up, there may be plot holes that we don’t care about, and, by golly, we’re gonna have fun!
I’m actually kind of glad that I went into Ocean’s 11 with a blank slate. Cinematic purist that I am, I was able to enjoy the movie without comparing it to the original. I can only hope that this remake is able to stand on its own merits, rather than suffer constant comparisons to the original. Much like The Shining or Fight Club – the books were excellent, and the movies based upon them were different, yet still excellent. You don’t say, “That’s not the way it happened!” when watching the movie versions. The books and the movies are two separate, yet equally rewarding experiences. Hopefully, this will be the same with the two Ocean’s 11.
What did I like about Ocean’s 11: 2001? Plenty. I like George Clooney. Especially when he’s playing George Clooney. He’s a handsome man, he looks like a classic leading man, but he doesn’t have a whole lot of range. And that’s just fine with me, frankly. Brad Pitt does a George Clooney impersonation throughout the movie, and, that’s cool too, man. Andy Garcia isn’t a ‘bad guy’ in the movie, but, he’s a jerk, because he doesn’t like Danny Ocean. Julia Roberts plays Supporting Actress Julia Roberts, rather than Melodramatic Romantic Comedy Julia Roberts, and looks good doing it. She’s not strictly eye candy, but she’s not a major player in this flick. I’m not going to do a run-down of each and every character in the flick. That would be boring for you. Just know that I didn’t see a single bad performance.
Cinematically, I loved it. Soderburgh seemed to blend ‘60s cinematography (French New Wave zooms, Kubrick-esque tracking shots and angles,) with a... ummm... It’s too early to say 21st Century style, so I’ll just call it a television sensibility. He knows when a shot should linger, he knows when to use a quick-cut, and he knows when to do a montage. The style never overshadows the story or the characters.
What didn’t I like about this movie? Well, not much. Personally, I think that classics should be left alone, so I guess I didn’t like the fact that this was a remake. I would have liked to have seen more of the planning of the heist, but that probably would have gone against the almost ‘innocent’ tone of the movie.
If you haven’t seen the original, by all means go and see this version. But only if you promise to see the 1960 version. If you have seen the original, use your own best judgement.
