Oceans Eleven - Brad Pitt as Rusty

Description:

Ocean's Eleven is a 2001 remake of the 1960 Ocean's Eleven, directed by Steven Soderbergh. It stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Elliott Gould, Casey Affleck, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Andy Garcia, and Julia Roberts. Ocean's Twelve is a sequel to this movie.


Plot


In this picture, Daniel Ocean (Clooney) recruits a team of specialists to rob three Las Vegas casinos: the Bellagio, The Mirage and the MGM Grand, all of which store their money in a central, hi-tech vault. All three casinos are owned by Terry Benedict (Garcia), the man currently dating Ocean's ex-wife, Tess (Roberts). The robbers foil the elaborate security mechanisms to get to the vault with the casino's money, and escape by disguising themselves as a SWAT team.

Other than the lead character (Clooney) none of the robbers in the second movie share names with robbers in the first, although they do exhibit some of their personal quirks.


Notes

The Terry Benedict character bears some resemblance to Steve Wynn, the developer behind the Bellagio and the Mirage. One of Andy Garcia's lines in the movie (as Terry Benedict) reads, "If you should be picked up buying a $100,000 sports car in Newport Beach, I'm going to be extremely disappointed." This is a reference to the real-life 1994 kidnapping of Steve Wynn's daughter, Kevyn Wynn. Ray Cuddy, one of the kidnappers, was caught in Newport Beach a week after the incident trying to buy a Ferrari with cash.

The two fighters featured in the boxing match sequence are Wladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis.

At one point, the following actors considered for roles in the film included Mike Myers, Ewan McGregor, Sydney Pollack, Warren Beatty, Dennis Franz, Ralph Fiennes and Michael Douglas. Mark Wahlberg, Danny Glover, Bruce Willis, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson and Alan Arkin were all originally cast in the parts that were soon played by Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Andy Garcia and Carl Reiner.

The original film included in the cast Sammy Davis Jr and Don Cheadle in this version did play Davis himself in the 1998 TV movie The Rat Pack which included a scene of Davis on set for the original movie.

Pictures:

Movie Review:

Are you in or are you out?

Are you prepared to see a very dangerous theft but too fun to be ignored? Are you ready to see some of Hollywood favorite actors playing crooked and unabashed criminals, without any other pretension than to entertain us for two hours? Because Ocean's 11 do not keep any deep moral message; is pure escapism, first class.

We have George Clooney in the role that Frank Sinatra once played, a thief and a liar that doesn't let pass 24 hours after being released on parole when he is already organizing his next job. And what better right hand to orchestrate the operation than Brad Pitt? His Rusty Ryan is an expert con man that curiously is always eating and backs up Ocean in every step.

Together, they gather a team of ex convicts and professional thieves. The target? 150 million dollars safely hide underground the vault of three of the largest casinos in Las Vegas, whose owner is Terry Benedict (Andy García), a multimillionaire that happens to be dating Ocean's wife, Tess (Julia Roberts).

Brilliantly directed and written, Ocean's 11 is a criminal adventure without violence but packed with energy, humor and cleverness. The restless camera of Steven Soderbergh captures Las Vegas' world of extravagances and excesses, the perfect scenery for the plot. So accomplice we become with these lovable con men that we forget, in fact, that they are criminals. We are rooting for the wrong team, for Danny to get the girl, for the boys to fill their pockets.

I'm in. What about you?