Monday, June 11, 2007

Ocean's Eleven

The arrival of Ocean’s Eleven was a very pleasant surprise. While it was being trailered it seemed like a mess with all of these major stars squashed into one film, but the final product was great viewing. There was enough chemistry to go around for this who’s who list of a cast. Plus heist flicks will always have a warm and fuzzy place in my heart.

I had been a fan of George Clooney’s previous work like Three Kings and Out of Sight, but then he shows up as Danny Ocean and I had to readjust my opinion of the man. It sure seems like this was the part he was meant to play. It also helped that a majority of his scenes involved him sparring with Brad Pitt to figure out who is the more calm, cool, and collected thief. I may have to give that crown to Pitt just for the fact that he is eating something different in nearly all of his scenes. Sandwiches, shrimp, nachos, chips, etc. it doesn’t matter because the man is hungry. This was topped off with the epilogue where he eats so much that he gives himself indigestion. Great stuff. I definitely do not want to short the rest of the cast. There were no slouches here in fact this was pretty close to an all-star lineup. And Ocean’s Eleven worked because all the names meshed so well. Pitt and Clooney may have been the leaders but Matt Damon, Carl Reiner, Elliott Gould, Don Cheadle, Eddie Jemison, Shaobo Qin, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Bernie Mac, Julia Roberts, and Andy Garcia all warrant a piece of the spotlight. That is just way too much talent bouncing around onscreen. Somehow someway everyone gets just enough time to get themselves over. Each one may be trying to steal every scene that they are in but it never comes at the cost of the movie. I also liked that of all those names, and they are some of the biggest names in Hollywood (I am looking at you Shaobo Qin), Carl Reiner is the emotional pull of the film. Comedic timing does not fade away and neither does the ability to sell the classic storyline of the legend coming back to pull off one last job. The bickering between Caan and Affleck is also so natural that they might as well be brothers in real life. And you gotta love Affleck calling Caan and the casino employee “circus animals”. Plus who isn’t a fan of Bernie Mac? There are not many people that can make the line “whitejack” work. I have tried and failed on numerous occasions. While I’m at it, I want Andy Garcia’s wardrobe, Elliott Gould’s glasses, and Don Cheadle’s accent. That is enough time spent on the cast, let’s move on to the story. Everyone loves a good heist and this one is good enough to stand with the best of them. Ocean’s Eleven is fun because the protagonists (can thieves really be labeled as good guys?) are always in control. I even enjoy having a movie swerve me every once and awhile. All of the misdirections work because Steven Soderbergh’s direction was slick. He is able to build the tension by showing us just enough to understand what is going on but not enough to anticipate the next move. The editing was slick, the cons were fun, and the whole story cruised along without any dry spots.


Ocean’s Eleven was one of those unanticipated great films that pop up from time to time. Soderbergh may have been coming off of one of my favorite movies in Traffic, but I was not expecting a second great flick in a row. Then Danny Ocean’s crew showed up and a franchise was born. Its nice to play around with this much talent.

9 out of 10

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