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Ocean's Eleven (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (61 - 63 of 80 Reviews)

a pleasant souffle of a film
Steven Soderbergh's remake of "Ocean's Eleven" is a stylish heist picture featuring some of the brightest stars in moviemaking today. The cast includes George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and Matt Damon from the A-list, as well as such established veterans as Andy Garcia, Elliot Gould and Carl Reiner in there playing along with them. Coming right off the heels of two highly acclaimed, award-laden serious dramas ("Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich"), it's understandable that Soderbergh might have been in the mood for something a little lighter in tone right about now. Well, he has certainly found it with this property, which sails along smoothly like a well-oiled machine, with no angst-filled messages or heavy-handed themes to gum up the works.

Taking the basic premise from the original 1960 film (which featured a who's-who of Hollywood stars of its own day), Soderbergh has updated it to reflect the advanced technological realities of the 21st Century. In this film, recently paroled Daniel Ocean (Clooney) has decided to mastermind the robbing of not one but three major Las Vegas casinos all owned by the nefarious Terry Benedict (Garcia). The rub is that Benedict has also recently added Ocean's ex-wife, Tess (Roberts), to his list of assets, which gives Ocean additional incentive to take Benedict for everything he's got. One of the amazing things is that the filmmakers use an actual casino as their target (the Bellagio) rather than devising a fictional one for their story's purpose. One might think it could give certain audience members the wrong ideas. Be that as it may, the director does a fine job exploiting the Vegas setting, taking us right into the heart of casino operations.

A film like "Ocean's Eleven" stands or falls on the charisma of its stars, the intricacy of its plotting and the plausibility of its actions. Luckily for the audience, the film pretty much succeeds on all three counts. Scenarist Ted Griffin does a fine job gathering together the men who will participate in the heist, allowing each a moment or two to define his character and to become part of the team. The details of the plan itself are explained in very clear terms so that we rarely feel as if we are not able to follow the action. There is even an inspired use of "Clair de Lune" near the end of the picture to lend an air of romanticism to the accomplishment, for who would deny that such large-scale thievery has often carried with it a certain element of idealism and romance? After all, look how many books and films have featured robbers as heroes. It perhaps explains why Tess can go from being a principled, law-abiding citizen at the beginning of the film to being an accomplice in crime at the end, all for the love of a man - and we cheer her for it.

Unlike in Soderbergh's other films, we do not find hidden depths lurking beneath the shining handsome surface of this movie, and we certainly carry no nutritious food for thought away with us from this film as we did from the others. In fact, "Ocean's Eleven" is all ABOUT shining handsome surface and it makes no pretension of being about anything else. It's cinematic junk food of the highest order, but, then, since when has junk food not been satisfying?

Terrific Cast makes this film fun to watch.
A Professional Thief by the name of Danny Ocean (George Clooney), who just got release from Prison but he`s planning to do another crime with a foolproof plan, it`s never been done before. So Danny and his best friend (Brad Pitt) need nine different professionals (Oscar-Winner:Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Elliot Gould, Carl Reiner, Casey Affleck, Scott Cann, Don Cheadle, Ediie Jemison & Shaobo Qin) to masterminding a Major Las Vegas Heist to pull it off. But Danny`s Plan is to Rob a ruthless Casino Mogal (Andy Garcia), who`s keeping company with Danny`s Ex-Wife (Oscar-Winner:Julia Roberts).

Directed by Oscar-Winner:Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Full Frontal, Traffic) made a entertaining light comedy caper. This Cast is Terrific (Especially`s Reiner Role), this is in-name only of the 1960 movie of that the Original Rat Pack (Even Angie Dickinson & Herny Silva, who appear in the Original film, which they make a Cameo Apperences). DVD has a sharp anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer (also sharp in the Pan & Scan transfer) and a terrific Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD has a Commentary Track by the Director and the Screenwriter. Another Commentary Track is by the Stars:Damon, Garcia and Pitt. DVD also has Documentaires, Theatrical Trailers and DVD-Rom Extras. This is Cleverly Written by Ted Griffin (Ravenous), which it has Plenty of Plot Twists & Surprises but at times-the film does have moments slow going. But it`s the skill of Soderbergh`s style & direction makes this film One of the Biggest Blockbusters Hits of 2001 a Winner. Topher Grace, Barry Watson, Brian Green Bush, Holly Marie Combs, Joshua Jackson & Producer:Jerry Weintraub appears in Cameos. Cheadle`s supporting role is Unbilled. Super 35. Grade:A-.

Stylish, smart and cool - just don't think about it too hard
"Ocean's Eleven" is a Ferrari of a movie: cool, stylish, and classy. And if, like a Ferrari, it doesn't always work, that's OK - who will complain when it's so stylish?

The premise is lifted right out of the 1960 Rat Pack original: Danny Ocean (George Clooney, suave as hell) is released from prison, and plots to steal over $163 million from the vault of a Las Vegas casino during a heavyweight fight. He recruits his old buddy Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), and they put together a dream team of crooks, each of whom has a specialty. There's a computer geek, a demolition expert, a con man, a pickpocket, and so on.

And, of course, there's Danny's ex-wife, Tess (Julia Roberts), who's now involved with the manager (Andy Garcia) of the casino Danny intends to rob. So, Danny's not only after money - he wants his girl back as well. But she's having nothing of it, as evidenced by this neat dialogue piece:

Danny: "I've paid my debt to society."

Tess: "Funny, I haven't gotten my check yet."

Dialogue like that is one of the great pleasures of this movie; watching it delivered by the likes of Clooney, Roberts, Pitt and the stellar supporting cast (Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Carl Reiner, Elliott Gould, et al) is the other.

And, in fairness, it's a good thing that the dialogue and acting is so good, because as a pure caper flick, "Ocean's Eleven" is, to be charitable, a little thin. In the best caper movies ("The Heist" comes to mind), the theft itself is the star of the movie - the intracicies, the backup plans, the intrigue. In "Ocean's Eleven," we're expected to believe that a casino with over $150 million in its vault wouldn't have a backup power generator, or that the vault's security system wouldn't have a motion sensor.

But criticisms like that are akin to nitpicking that red Ferrari 575 because it has a small trunk - the point isn't realism, it's style, and like a Ferrari, "Ocean's Eleven" has it in droves.

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