Ultra-stylish and gloriously vacuous heist flick

Rating: Null/10 (10 January 2003)

No-one says you have to choose The Seventh Seal or Citizen Kane every time you sit down to a movie, but even if you want something that won't test your intellect it doesn't mean you need to watch a bad film.
Ocean's Eleven is the perfect antidote to a hard day at the office. It is a story with no moral purpose - you might even say it is immoral (we're supposed to sympathise with a bunch of crims who plan to rip off $160m?) - but in the hands of such an accomplished director as Steven Soderbergh, it becomes a classy piece of cinematic work.
Soderbergh has his critics, and I'm sure many of the criticisms are justified, but he makes films that look gorgeous and slick and ooze class from every frame. It doesn't matter that this is an utterly vacuous film - it is top class entertainment: great script, great cast (give or take Julia Roberts) and a great soundtrack.
The art of film-making for its own sake and nothing else.