I rented Ocean’s 11 last weekend with my boyfriend Tom (it’s our weekend tradition, renting movies.) I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I never saw the original version with the Rat Pack (hangs head in shame.) The one line that stood out for me in the previews was Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts) saying to Danny Ocean (George Clooney) ’’You’re a liar and a thief.’’ Danny replies in cool and collected tone ’’I only lied about being a thief.’’ That definitely made me laugh.
At the start of the film Danny Ocean is released from prison. He decides concoct a scheme to rob three of Las Vegas’ biggest casinos. With the help of Brad Pitt Ocean decides eleven guys is the magic number (hence the title Oceans 11) The pay off is 150 million dollars. Divided by eleven guys. You do the math.
I do not want to give too much away with my review. There is always that danger in reviewing a film. I hope to avoid that here! I must admit I was not really expecting a lot from the film. I am not the biggest George Clooney fan, however, he really surprised me in the role of Danny Ocean. I think I would have gone along with the robbery too. Who can resist that charm?
I also just saw Ocean’s 11 as just another film about criminals trying to pull off one massive heist together. I could see a large amount of predictability in that. Fortunately I was very wrong. There were a lot of clever moments in the film. The ending just blew me away. It stayed on my mind the rest of the weekend which is why I felt compelled to write about it.
The main bright spots in the film were George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, and Don Cheadle. I would comment on Julia Roberts but she was just not in the movie enough for me to judge her performance. Casey Affleck was hilarious as a bumbling funny man Turk Malloy with his brother Virgil Malloy (played by Scott Caan.) The Golden Rule of Hollywood is that if you have Matt Damon in a movie you also need an Affleck brother or Jude Law in it. That’s the recipe for a Blockbuster right? Well fortunately in this case it certainly was. Ocean’s 11 is one of the best films out to rent today.