Ocean's Eleven

Rating: Null/10 (1 May 2011)

The movie Ocean's Eleven is an exciting yet thrilling movie. This movie begins with George Clooney's character, Danny Ocean, in front of a parole board answering questions that will eventually lead to his release. As soon as he is released he heads out to Las Vegas to put his plan to rob three casinos of $150 million in action. The three casinos are the Bellagio, MGM Grand, and the Mirage. All of these casinos are owned by Terry Benedict, played by Andy Garcia. He first meets up with Bernie Mac's character, Frank Catton and Brad Pitt's character, Rusty Ryan to unveil this unthinkable plan. Eventually Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan recruit a total 11 people to pull of this huge heist. Each person is assigned a specific task to do and they practice thoroughly. Most of this movie shows them preparing and rehearsing. Danny Ocean's ex-wife Tess, played by Julia Roberts, is dating the owner of all three casinos. Danny Ocean is upset and wants his ex-wife back. Rusty Ryan figures out the driving force of this heist is that Danny Ocean wants to rob Terry Benedict to get back at him for dating Tess. Tess reiterates to Danny that the reason that they are no longer together is because he is a liar and a cheat. All of Terry's casinos are monitored with cameras. Terry likes to have his eyes on everything. The day finally arrives and they pull of the heist successfully. Toward the end of the movie, Terry and Danny are discussing the robbery after Terry had his security guards detain Danny to ask him if he had any part in the heist. Danny implies that he might be able to get information from one of his prison buddies. Danny asks Terry if he would want the money or Tess and Terry replied that he wanted the money. This encounter is taped and showed to Tess, so she could see exactly what type of man he is. Danny is thrown back in jail for violating his probation. When Danny is released for the second time Rusty and Tess are there to greet him. I believe that the theme of this film is that people want what they can't have and will go to different extremes to achieve this, no matter what it takes.
I think the transitioning from one scene to the next was exceptionally done. I believe that the movie flowed smoothly. This movie keeps you interested and able to pay attention. I think the director did great job with the plot. Although the end I thought could have been more detailed. I felt like it left out some important details that could help to imagine the ending. I think this ending leaves a few questions.
One film that is comparable to this movie is the Italian Job. In this movie, the thieves plan to pull off the perfect heist by creating the biggest ever traffic jam. Both of these movies share the same theme as The lighting in this movie I believe was natural, but some scenes were dark and gloomy. For Instance at the beginning of the movie when he is in front of the parole board the lighting seems to be dark and gloomy. As he is released from prison you see the natural lighting from the outside. This brightens up this scene. One motif in this film is the dice. The dice represent the gambling in the casinos. This is a perfect example as the heist takes place in a casino.
I believe that this movie was written and directed perfectly. This movie kept you interested and wanted to continue watching to see what happens in the end. I would definitely recommend watching this movie. In this movie these gangsters pull off the perfect heist to steal the money that was not rightfully theirs. They came up with the perfect plan and got away with it.