Inversion of the convention

Rating: Null/10 (17 February 2002)

The cinematic convention is that the remake of a successful film is rarely as good as the original, but here director Steven Soderbergh has inverted that convention by taking a mediocre movie of 1960 and turning it into an enormously entertaining caper. A lot of it is down to Soderbergh's sheer cinematic verve; some of it is explained by the sharp script from Ted Griffin; but ultimately it works because of the stellar casting.

George Clooney oozes charisma and cool as Danny Ocean, a career criminal who is no sooner out of jail than, like Yul Bryner in `The Magnificent Seven', he's recruiting for a mission impossible. Few shots are fired on this escapade, though, because it all comes down to planning, cunning and sheer bravado.
Along for the fun  and it's clear that the crew really enjoyed themselves  are young stars Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, old timers Elliot Gould and Carl Reiner, and sundry others ranging from a non English-speaking Chinese acrobat to a Cockney-speaking black man. Andy Garcia is the owner of the three casinos whose $150 million is targeted and Julia Roberts is his girlfriend who  at least for Ocean  is as much a target as the money.
The plot is totally fanciful, never more so that in the suggestion that one could take possession and operate a device that would knock out the electricity of Las Vegas without either act attracting the attention of law enforcement let alone special forces. But it is all done with great panache and, as sheer entertainment, this is hard to beat.
Footnote: The movie ends with a beautiful rendition of `Claire de Lune' by Debussy. Question: which other film uses this piece classical music? Answer: the 1991 `Frankie and Johnny'.