Entertaining!

Rating: 7/10 (6 July 2007)

Clooney is Danny Ocean, a thief and conman extraordinary, who is just getting out of jail. Ocean immediately tags up with old buddy Rusty, played by Brad Pitt. He already has a plan for one of the largest heists in history. He wants to rob the vault the houses the cash for Bellagio, The Mirage and MGM Grand in Las Vegas on a fight night when it'll be flush with $160 million or so in cash. Problem is that casinos are tougher to rob than Fort Knox. And the owner of these properties, played by Andy Garcia, is the type of guy who will "kill you, then he'll really go to work on you".
To do the job, they put together a crew of very colorful characters, each with his own specialty such as explosives, electronics, driving, etc... The additional cast members include Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Carl Reiner, Elliot Gould, Bernie Mac and Julia Roberts. What follows is a good old fashioned caper flick.
The story for this movie is pretty predictable, and this film had every opportunity to be a mediocre effort. But the director here is Steven Soderberg of Traffic and Erin Brockovich fame. And he used the all star cast and Vegas backdrop to create a very, very, very entertaining film. There are many funny moments in this movie, however a lot of them are subtle and may not be as funny to someone who has never been to Vegas.
There are a few problems with the movie. First off, with so many characters we really do not get to know any of them other than the principles. And although I won't spoil it, I will say the ending is more than a little weak. But there are some laughs, a really strong cast and the movie is very stylish.
It's a real shame we don't get to see much of Matt Damon in this movie. 7/10