Ocean's Eleven (2001) Review

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Ocean’s Eleven follows Danny Ocean, a recent ex-con, who, with the help of his 10 accomplices, devises a scheme to rob the Bellagio Hotel & Casino of 160 million dollars on the biggest night of the year. 

In this remake of the Rat Pack’s 1960 heist film, Ocean’s Eleven assembles quite the star studded cast to pull off the most daring heist Las Vegas has ever known; 11 men, 3 casinos, 160 million dollars, and 1 chance to pull it off. There’s a slick, illogical cleverness to the film, that appears wonderfully cunning, but is, of course, highly unlikely, as the amount of things that have to go juuust right is a hefty stretch, especially for a plot to rob three un-robbable casinos, that was l planned out in window of 2 weeks. It’s only real fault lies in the romantic subplot between Danny and Tess, and while it never feels like a high enough risk for Danny, we never linger on it too long, so as to take away from the meat of the film. 

As for the job itself, despite being completely implausible, it holds up quite well, feeling incredibly slick in the way they plot and carry out the plan, cleverly never revealing it to us in full, allowing for a wonderful bit of immersion as we watch it all play out in real time. There’s so many twists and turns, and just when you think they’ve hit a dead end, it’s been planned for, even eventually looping Terry Benedict in on him being robbed, causing another intricate layer to unfold in their getaway. 

Eleven boasts nothing short of an incredible cast as well, starring Eddie Jemison, Qin Shaobo, Elliot Gould, Julia Roberts, Carl Reiner, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, and George Clooney. Normally, with an ensemble cast this large, actors performances get lost in translation, but that isn’t the case here. Clooney and Pitt share the spotlight well, as cunning, smooth, and collected as ever, while Garcia plays the hate-able bad guy all too well. Smaller, more comedic performances from Caan, Affleck, Mac, and Cheadle also stand out nicely to round out the movie. 

Ocean’s Eleven, directed by Steven Soderbergh, is no doubt a wildly implausible romp, but a fun one nonetheless, giving us an exciting heist film that dares to risk it all, in intelligent fashion no less. 

8.4/10