Ocean's Eleven (2002, DVD)

Sunday my husband said "I am off tomorrow. You and Trish should go to the movies and see that movie you've been wanting to see". What a great idea!

So, off to see Ocean's 11 Trish (bryrrose) and I went. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting much from this film. I had heard it was decent and basically I wanted to go to see George, Matt, and Brad the story was actually a bonus. The previews looked fairly good to me but I went mainly for the eye candy. LOL.

The Cast
Ocean's 11 has quite the cast list. I beleive it was George Clooney who kind of rounded everyone up to make this film, and in my opinion he did a great job of selecting the actors for this film.

George Clooney (Daniel Ocean)
Matt Damon (Linus Caldwell)
Brad Pitt (Rusty Ryan)
Andy Garcia (Terry Benedict)
Julia Roberts (Tess Ocean)
Casey Affleck (Virgil Malloy)
Scott Caan (Turk Malloy)
Don Cheadle (Basher Tarr)
Elliott Gould (Reuben Tishkoff)
Bernie Mac (Frank Catton)
Carl Reiner (Saul Bloom)
Edward Jemison (Livingston Dell)
Shaobo Qin (Yen)

The Movie
Ocean's 11 is a remake of a Rat Pack movie of the same name. This is definitely updated for the times, as it includes the current Las Vegas big name Casinos, whereas the original takes place in Vegas' Sands Casino.

Danny Ocean has just been released from prison who has obviously been serving his 4 year prison term deciding exactly what to do when he is released. He certainly has no intentions of making a clean start. He heads out to Las Vegas to see Rusty Ryan (Pitt), who currently works in the back room of a casino teaching poker. Danny tells Rusty of his plan to rob the vault that the Bellagio, MGM Grand, and The Mirage all share. Of course Rusty thinks Danny is completely crazy and thinks there is no way to pull this off, however, he agrees to do it.

They contact Reuben Tishkoff (Gould) to help bankroll them. It seems Tishkoff has plenty of reason to despise the casino owner, Terry Benedict (Garcia). Later we learn that Danny also despises him since he is in a current relationship with Danny's ex wife Tess (Roberts).

Danny and Rusty then put together a team of experts to help them accomplish their goal. They sell their idea to the others with the promise of an even split. The plan is to split roughly $160 million evenly between the team if they can pull off the tricky heist. It requires a team of experts to break into the vault since it has top of the line security measures. I think I have given you the basic idea, I wouldn't want to spoil the movie for you.

The Acting
I thought the acting in this movie was great. I enjoyed the performances by all actors. Matt Damon plays Linus Caldwell, he's the rookie of the bunch, the young kid. He does a great job of showing his inexperience throughout the movie.

Of course George Clooney and Brad Pitt give great performances, as does Andy Garcia.

There were a few unknowns to me in this movie. Casy Affleck and Scott Caan, play brothers who are "the getaway" portion of the scam. They do a good job of playing off each other and acting like total dorks to distract the casino employees. I thought their performances were quite funny.

Bernie Mac and Don Cheadle (from The Family Man) also give great performances. I thought these two were pretty funny. Elliott Gould also gives a good performance as the rich financier of the scam. He seems to be unsure that they will be succesful at pulling off this heist and is character seems so smarmy, he does a great job of playing smarmy.

Julia Roberts seems to either be loved or hated. Friends of mine didn't really want to see the movie since she was in it, I personally like Julia Roberts. If your not a big Julia fan, take note, she really doesn't appear in the movie much. She appears rather late in the scheme and really is in a handful of scenes. Disappointing if you are a big fan, but encouraging if you aren't all that big on Julia.

My Thoughts
This movie can best be described as a chick flick, and I don't mean it's a sappy tear jerker. I mean women are going to appreciate the eye candy in this movie. Clooney, Pitt, Garcia, and Damon light up the screen with their great looks. Good thing the storyline was actually good, this way I am guaranteed to get my hubby to rent it so I can see it again.

The storyline progresses at a nice rate. I never felt like things were at a standstill. There is a small amount of action, a tad of violence, no sex or nudity, some swearing. There is a bit of action and suspense, so at least the men will like it a little bit. I thought the storyline was interesting, however I was a tad disappointed in the ending. I felt there were a couple of unanswered questions at the end.

Alright, I gotta mention Brad, just one more time. Throughout the entire movie he seems to be eating in almost every scene. I have yet to figure out exactly what the motive is in this. However, I will tell you, and I am almost embarassed to say, it is quite sexy. He seems to be always be licking his fingers after eating and it is, well, it's entertaining. Again, I have no idea of the significance of this, however it helps keep the sex appeal of the movie up. LOL.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and it was a great way to spend the day on New Years Eve. Hit the matinee because no movie should cost more than $6, LOL.