#36 - Ocean's Eleven (2001)

All right, this is not even close to being among the best/most notorious films of all time, I get it, but I wanted to watch it. I can't really think of a particular reason, but then again, I didn't need to. It's just a fun film to watch. So let's get on with it.


The plot could not be more simple: Danny Ocean, a professional criminal on parole played by George Clooney, assembles a group of eleven people to steal 3 casinos in Las Vegas simultaneously: an estimated amount of 150 million bucks. Among this group you have Danny's partner in crime (Brad Pitt), an ex-casino owner trying to get back at his rival (Elliot Gould), and many others. Andy García plays the owner of the three casinos, and the thing gets even more complicated when Ocean's ex-wife (Julia Roberts) gets involved.


So the two best things about Ocean's Eleven are hands down the all-star cast and the heist itself. While there isn't a lot of room for character development, the excellent script shows a little bit of every character and that is more than enough in most cases. Andy García's character, for instance, is your archetypal rich, greedy and antipathic businessman, but with little effort and lines you get to dislike him. So while the film cleverly introduces its charismatic characters with little screen time, and most of the performances are really good, some things are hard to overlook. Don Cheadle's Cockney accent is very unconvincing and awkward, for instance, and the titular character is somewhat insipid. I mean, he drives the entire operation and we want to see him (and his team) succeed, but I couldn't really root for a guy with so little personality. Sure, he's smirky and classy and all that but there's not much to offer other than that.

      

That or I'm just not a big fan of George Clooney and his huge fucking ego.

The heist, though, is just fantastic. All the members of the team working in unison, the way they trick security to sneak in, and the final reveal; it all works. I really like to see organized heists, and here you have a really big number of people involved, all of them contributing creatively to the theft. Plus, half of the scheme is not revealed to the audience until they finally carry out their plan, so it has the right amount of suspense to keep you interested. But to be honest, I felt that everything went according to plan. I would have liked something to go wrong and to see the team trying to fix it on the go.

      

I wouldn't mind if this had failed. It would make the film more interesting.

So sure, it's not a fantastic film and it has a couple of flaws, but very entertaining nonetheless. The great, ocassionally funny script, the performances and the action scenes all make it a nice film to spend an afternoon watching if you're bored.