Review of
Ocean's 11
Reviewed by Young Il Kim
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: George Clooney,Matt Damon,Brad Pitt,Julia Roberts,Andy Garcia
I can start this off with my usual meandering intro, but I won’t. Ocean’s Eleven is a very fun movie, and, dare I say, one of the best heist movies of all time. So let’s jump to the review, shall we?
Danny Ocean (George Clooney) gets out of the prison system with one goal in mind. To score with Julia Roberts. A noteworthy goal. But to get others to help him in this mission, he came up with an ancillary plan to rob three of the largest casinos in Las Vegas managed by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) who also stole away Danny’s wife (Julia Roberts). So Danny plays the just paroled guy who must exact revenge. But enough about Soderbergh’s Out of Sight.
So along come Rusty (Brad Pitt), Linus (Matt Damon), Virgil (Casey Affleck) and the gang to help Danny Ocean in this endeavor. I think Brad and Julia probably carpooled from the set of The Mexican and came straight here. The first hour is assembling Ocean’s team of 11 cons who must perform their various roles to steal $160 million from Terry. Then there’s lots of “This is why it’s impossible” and “This is how we are gonna do it.”
If you thought the way Tom Cruise penetrated the CIA for the NARC list in Mission: Impossible was cool, be prepared to be blown away. This movie has lots of fun twists. I was thrown for a rollercoaster ride and it was damn fun. Not sure if this is a guy flick since only token chick is Julia who has very little screen time. However, there’s plenty of action to keep the males interested while the women can drool over Clooney, Pitt, Damon, Garcia, and Casey Affleck. Not sure if people think Don Cheadle or Bernie Mac are hot. And I’m pretty sure that Elliot Gould and Carl Reiner aren’t considered sexy.
I enjoyed this movie thoroughly. The intro was a bit slow but it moved very quickly afterwards. From Soderbergh’s perspective, fresh off of his two Oscar vehicles (Traffic and Erin Brockovich), this must have been a fun project. Lemme get this straight, he would say. I get to have four $20 million actors to take a pay cut. We get to party in Vegas. And I get to do whatever I want? What’s the catch?
Well, Steve, if I were a smart reviewer, I’d have a good comeback for that line…
