Didn't do it for me

Rating: 5/10 (16 December 2001)

I haven't seen the original "Ocean's 11," and I tried to find it at my local video store, but I couldn't. However, so far many people who I've heard from who did see the original think that the remake is much better. And as Richard Roeper said, "The original 'Ocean's 11' was more popular because of what happened behind the camera than what happened on camera." Rarely, do I see a remake that people appraise much more than the original. I have an English teacher who cringed when she found out they were remaking "Great Expectations" with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. Not because of the actors, but because they were remaking such a great story. I like the Rat Pack, both as actors and singers, so I'm still curious about the 1960's version--no matter how campy they say it is.
All I know is I don't think too highly of this remake. It's not bad, but it's dull. And I usually like Stephen Soderbergh's work. I still say his low-budget sleeper "sex, lies and videotape" is his best work up-to-date. "Traffic" is his second best, "Out of Sight" is his third and "Erin Brockovich" is his fourth. I haven't seen "The Limey," but I've heard good things about it, so I'll probably get around to seeing it soon. But so far, I would place "Ocean's 11" on the bottom of the list.

One of Soderbergh's talents is bringing out the richness of his characters. The problem this time around is there are too many damn characters! Some of them just seem thrown in for the hell of it--or better yet, so the movie can be called "Ocean's 11" as opposed to "Ocean's 8." Bernie Mac seems useless, his only purpose being to serve as the "black guy" in the group and blurt out a few "puttin' da black man down" jokes. Scott Caan and Casey Affleck, as the constantly-brawling twin brothers, really seem useless. Their annoying characters serve no purpose whatsoever--other than to help fill the running time of two hours and fifteen minutes. I usually like Brad Pitt, but in this movie he looks as if he's in a coma--he probably knows how the audience feels. Don Cheadle is fairly amusing, and I thought his British accent was convincing--and I'm a stickler for accents. George Clooney is smooth and charismatic, like always, and so is Julia Roberts--though she only appears on screen for about ten minutes. I really wish their relationship subplot could've been developed more. There is a great scene of dialogue where they first meet in a restaurant, after years of separation. The dialogue is delivered with great timing--in the spirit of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in "His Girl Friday." But the relationship is trivialized to Hollywood fluff. Roberts is going out with Andy Garcia, who's rich and powerful, but they never establish any sort of chemistry. So it comes as no surprise that she's going to break up with him and run off with Clooney. But why was she going with Andy in the first place??? No one knows. It's part of a stupid, meaningless formula.
Because of the abundance of characters, they're reduced to caricatures. I just got finished watching "Out of Sight" and it's interesting how these two movies contradict each other. In that movie, I was deeply engaged because of the development of the colorful characters. In this movie, I was dozing off because of the lack of character development.
The story is scant, and the whole movie basically revolves around the planning of the heist. Thin characters and thin story? It's not my fault I couldn't get into the film, occasionally dozing off. In my film class, my professor made a good point: "A good film director doesn't waste a single bit of footage." Soderbergh is generally a good director, who doesn't waste footage, but he struck out this time. Can anyone explain why we needed that stupid card game with all the teen stars from the WB? That's right, you heard me right. Brad Pitt playing cards with Topher Grace, Holly Marie Combs, Barry Watson, Shane West and rest of those young studs who grace the covers of "Teen People." Serves a purpose? I think not. OK, so this movie doesn't take itself seriously, but the humor falls flat. Some good laughs would've helped me overlook the film's shortcomings, but even the great Carl Reiner didn't deliver any laughs. Hey, what can ya do?

My score: 5 (out of 10)