Good acting, Good Directing, Mediocre Writing

Rating: Null/10 (23 December 2001)

For me Oceans eleven (there is some spoiler info below) epitomizes my reaction to many modern movies with good directing, good acting, but sub par writing. Either the original was inherently difficult to adapt or it was simply poorly done, because the dialogue is sparse and cliche'd at points. At times they sound like a Dr. Evil parody astounded by the possibility for '1 million' dollars. Pitt is good, as is clooney (although he still hasn't achieved his potential with a really good movie), but Andy Garcia is way too one dimensional and it's not believable that julila roberts would date him, even it just for the money & lifestyle. And even the dimension Garcia has ( the nobody's fool anal tough guy) turns out not to be true, as he lets clooney off easy after it should be clear he is implicated in the heist. And speaking of overdone, don't get me started on the chief financer character. Ocean's eleven attempts to ooze coolness like pulp fiction, but the script just doesn't back it up.