Ocean's Eleven Movie Review

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

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Written by: George Clayton Johnson & Jack Golden Russell (1960 story), Harry Brown and Charles Lederer (1960 screenplay), Ted Griffin (screenplay)
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy García, Bernice Mac, Elliot Gould, Casey Affleck, Scott Cann, Carl Reiner
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
Danny Ocean and his ten accomplices plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously.

Verdict
A complicated heist with a colorful criminal crew makes for a lot of fun. We see the setup for the impossible heist, but don't know the plan until it unfolds on screen. This crew is just cool, and every step of this plan is smart and fun. There's no down time, this movie skips along at a great pace with a star studded cast. It's not only completely entertaining from start to stop, but you completely buy in instantly.
Watch It.

Review
This is a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film of the same name. The main similarity is that both include a heist.

Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is fresh out of jail and teams up with old partner Rusty (Brad Pitt) to set up a heist days later. His plan is to rob three casinos. Just to underscore the difficulty, when they ask Ruben (Elliot Gould) to back them, Ruben details the three most successful Vegas heists. One man even got out of the front door for a few seconds.

Brad Pitt, Bernie Mac, George Clooney, Scott Caan, Carl Reiner play Rusty Ryan, Frank Catton, Danny Ocean, Turk Malloy, Saul Bloom

Once Danny talks Ruben into backing them, he puts together a criminal crew for the job. This throws in some jargon just to make it fun as Danny and Rusty talk about what kind of criminals they need. With the crew assembled Danny discusses the issues, and this job seems impossible, beyond impossible. Danny isn't phased and begins recon. With heist movies, the heist is the big play, but this makes even the recon fun as the crew uses tricks and cons to learn the layout and setup of the casinos. There are a lot of characters, eleven just on the crew, but this manages to distinguish them well enough where it's not confusing.

Brad Pitt, Eddie Jemison, Scott Cann, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon play Rusty Ryan Livingston Dell, Turk Malloy, Basher Tarr, Linus Caldwell

Of course complications arise and we discover this isn't just about money for Danny.  The tension is also that eleven people must play their parts perfectly to even get close to pulling this off. It's a bit of a magic trick, and while we see the setup we don't exactly know their plan or everything Danny is doing. Once the heist starts, we get pieces of the plan as it happens. It's fun to see it happen, and not something you could see coming. Sure, they're stealing, but we don't like the guy they're stealing from so it's no big deal.