I'd been putting off seeing this movie for a long time, and I don't even know why. It was pretty cool though. Danny Ocean (George Clooney) has just been released from prison, and decides to immediately launch a grandiose and extremely dangerous heist on 3 Vegas casinos owned by the asshole Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who is currently dating the only woman in the movie, Tess (Julia Roberts). He rounds up a huge crew (well, 11 to be specific) with the help of old pal and con artist Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt). They all have different talents involving cons, masquerading, observation, computers, and explosives. I'm not going to list all of the dudes who play into Ocean's scheme but here's the imdb cast list.
Ocean's plan involves sneaking a Chinese contortionist into the vault all three casinos share after conning Benedict into storing a "valuable" briefcase there. The gang spends a few days observing the general flow and machinations of the casinos while their oldest member Saul (Carl Reiner) plays a wealthy weapons dealer who gets friendly with the management. Along with various other mishaps, Ocean's romantic history with Tess threatens to derail the entire heist, but these guys have nothing to lose and a host of tricks up their sleeves. Who knows what kind of daring, crazy antics they'll employ to get their hands on that money!
I haven't seen the original, so I can't speak to its merits as a remake, but I do think this Ocean's Eleven is really fun! It's well-paced and has a lot of great characters coupled with a tremendous cast. You've got a geeky Matt Damon (glasses=geekiness, hello), British Don Cheadle, and of course the witty Clooney-Pitt rapport, so everyone is feeling pretty good. The main detriment to the movie (for me, at least) is Julia Roberts, since I generally find her sort of lame and weird-looking. She doesn't do much here though, except sell art to Andy Garcia and act angry at George Clooney. I guess what else would a woman do in a heist flick?
The dialogue is excellent- sharp and memorable. The plot wasn't particularly special but it was exciting and complex enough to be interesting, with a decent twist at the end. This is definitely one of those shallow big-budget movies you watch with a group of friends for a guaranteed-fun night, which is exactly as it should be. I've been told I can skip Ocean's 12, so I'll check out Ocean's 13 as soon as I can. Ellen Barkin! Yay!
4/5
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
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All this time and you hadn't seen Ocean's? Wow - that's hard to do, as it's on TV every five minutes, I think.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I love it. It's the perfect summer movie. Nothing groundbreaking or disarmingly intellectual, but it's never dumb, either. It's breezy, has a killer soundtrack, a better cast, and does a great job of taking a super simple story and drawing it out into a sleek, perfectly executed film.
And while I know many dislike 12, I've come to appreciate it over multiple viewings. No, it's not as good as the first or the third, but it has its own charms and is different enough from its bookends to stand out. Judge for yourself.
Don't skip oceans 12! If youre gonna watch them, watch all of them..its only 2 hours out of your life and the film is quite fun! Maybe not as great as 11 or 13 but its a part of it!
ReplyDeletePlus I think the characters are amusing enough to watch even with a bad (or not so great) storyline...