A lifeless cash cow that could have been great

Rating: 4/10 (20 December 2001)

Ocean's Eleven is a boring, smug, lifeless film. The real shame is that it could have been oh so much better. All the elements of a great film are there: intriguing premise, incredible cast, and an Oscar winning, stylistic director. So what went wrong? The premise really is never interesting as it seems. The heist goes off so smoothly that the film never builds any tension whatsoever. The bad guys are never as bad as they are made out to be and stealing from Vegas seems to be as easy as taking candy from a baby. The cast is all star, however they have all been better elsewhere or they aren't given much to do. Clooney has played this role before in Out of Sight (a much better Soderberg film). Brad Pitt is cool but he never adds much to the film other than a handsome set piece. Andy Garcia is the much feared baddie who does nothing but turn the other cheek when his fortune is being robbed. Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Carl Reiner, and Elliot Gould are woefully misused as set dressing rather than full fledged characters. The film would have been much better had it focused on these characters rather than Clooney and Pitt. Julia Roberts' skeleton has a mere cameo role and really adds nothing to the picture. That said, Ocean's Eleven is not a bad film. It has a few moments of genuine cleverness and a couple of chuckles. But it could have been so much better. Mamet's Heist, Richie's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and Soderberg's own Out of Sight are much better at the robbery game. I really hope this is a minor stumble in the career of Soderberg and it isn't the Oscar curse that is overtaking him. We shall see.