Just a friendly get together...

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2005)

I have not seen, but probably will soon, the original Ocean's Eleven but I have no doubt it was made for the same reasons, and with the same intent that this remake was done by Steven Soderbergh. The idea for both is this...get the hottest names, the hottest people in Hollywood, pull them together for a fun, caper movie filled with one liners, killer action, and some great twists and let them have a great time for audiences to see. Ocean's 11 the remake certainly accomplishes this goal full throttle. The stories of the off camera antics of the HUGE Hollywood cast are already legendary. Clooney and Pitt's lavish pranks, as well as the gifts the whole cast exchanged. Throw in the setting of the world's hottest night town and you can't lose. I think that Soderbergh understood this much better than Lewis Milestone who directed the original.
Ocean's 11 is about Danny Ocean an ex-con who is released from prison after being sent up for robbery. He wastes no time tracking down his old buddy and hatching the biggest scheme ever in the history of robberies not only to accomplish the biggest score but nail the biggest revenge. Rusty, his partner in crime, agrees that in order to pull this off they are going to need the most elaborate plan the best crew ever to get it done. So they recruit nine of the best of the best, con artists, electronics, brains, thieves, acrobatics...it's the ironic cream of the crop of crime (pulled from the creme of the crop of Hollywood.) Ocean's enemy Terry Benedict is the target as he owns no less than three of the largest Casinos in Vegas.
This film's magic is captured within it's purpose as outlined above. It's all about the Hollywood elite getting together for this on screen party. Clooney, Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia (okay he's not elite but he looks good as the bad guy), Carl Reiner...and some great cameo's from the second string Hollywood Topher Grace, Holly Combs, Joshua Jackson, Wayne Newton, Angie Dickinson (who played Danny Ocean's wife in the original.) They all play themselves in various cameo's throughout. One of the best scenes of the film is when Topher Grace, and Joshua Jackson are leaving the club they are at and they are bombarded by photographers and autograph seekers while Pitt and Clooney walk right by. The film is filled with this little off camera/on camera little tricks and it adds something to the magic.
The actual film is actually quite good as well. For a caper movie it's pretty straight forward, nothing new here, but it's definitely pumped up a few notches. It's far more complex and elaborate because it needs to be to pull it off. Their plans basically go off without a single hitch, even when we as the audience think it's a hitch...it's not...it's all part of their plan. It was brilliant writing that puts the audience at the center of their plans without ever revealing what that plan is so we are still surprised and delighted with their clever little plot. Everything is perfectly organized and I don't just mean the plan...the scenery, the cast, the story, the plot, the crime, everything. It's too perfect and that's what this is all about. It's as cool as it possibly could be. And it still holds a certain amount of old time Hollywood charm in there. I could even stand to watch George Clooney as Danny Ocean and he usually drives me insane. The rest of the cast is well fit to their roles although the only one who really seems to have to act would be Matt Damon playing the introverted Linus.
I am looking forward to seeing the sequel and even though I am sure it will fall short of this one I can completely understand why the cast would want to try and capture some of what they created in the first one so I will be happy to oblige and watch it. Until then, everyone check this movie out, it's worth it and a good time to be had.
8/10