Almost As Boring As Billy Ocean

Rating: 5/10 (10 December 2001)

Let me start by saying that the idea of remaking a Rat Pack movie is brilliant and I couldn't think of a better director, Steven Soderbergh, or lead actor, George Clooney, to handle the job. Or so I thought...
It's hard to pinpoint specifically why Ocean's Eleven didn't work as good as it should have for me. The performances were uniformly good and each of the characters got their chance to shine. Great portions of the dialogue were snappy, witty and snide and quite funny. The cinematography was great, the movie looked awesome, and the direction was spot on solid.
But in general the movie was boring. That's the only way I can describe it. This was just a regular movie with a regular plot and all of the awesome talent arrayed around it couldn't make it shine like it should've.
Here are two examples, I'm sure I could come up with more, of things that put the kibosh on this film working for me:
One was the motivation of the characters. Hardly any of the characters besides Clooney, Garcia and Roberts' character seemed to be doing, behaving and saying what they should've given the circumstance. All of the supporting characters in the "love story" plot thread (Damon and Pitt) even after finding out Danny's real reason for going to Vegas seemed too accepting. I guess the money and the "brilliant" plan along with the thrill of its execution we're supposed to be their motivators but if that was it then it wasn't conveyed very well.
The second is a logistical thing. I still cannot see, for the life of me, how they got the bags (the ones with the Big White X's on the end) and their contents (the sex flyers) into the vault. The chinese acrobat definitely didn't have them. Clooney and Damon didn't appear to have them. Yet they had everything bagged and waiting for the casino employees to carry out to the first white van. If you can explain it to me I would appreciate it.
As I said these are just two examples. I think a critical film forum could easily come up with many more.
Bottom Line: Do not be enticed by the pedigree of this film. It is not very good.