A stylish remake of a 60's classic

Rating: 8/10 (7 December 2005)

After directing heavy dramas like TRAFFIC (which won him an Oscar) and ERIN BROCKOVICH, Steven Soderbergh decided to lighten up a little with this delightful remake of the 1960 rat pack classic. George Clooney steps into Frank Sinatra's shoes as Danny Ocean, the ex-con who gets together with a large crew of cronies to rob three Las Vegas Casinos owned by a Las Vegas bigwig (Andy Garcia) who is now dating Danny's ex-wife (Julia Roberts). The screenplay is a little on the complex side and sometimes it's a little hard to keep track of what Danny and his crew are doing, but the film is so great to look at and the cast appears to be having so much fun, you really just let little plotting devices slide and just go with it. Clooney has never appeared so smooth and slick on screen and is backed by a great cast including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliott Gould, and in a casting stroke of genius as a veteran con man, comic legend Carl Reiner. A slick and stylish crime caper that looks great and is wonderful mindless fun for a Saturday night movie rental.