RageLite review - Oceans Eleven

What happens when Batman and Jason Bourne try and rob Vincent Mancini with Brad Pitt? Let’s find out with Oceans 11.

Oceans 11 is a remake of a film by the same name released in 1960, it follows a largely similar plot, with the writers of that film credited for the story of this one. Adapting it to the new era is Ted Griffin, who had previously written Ravenous and Best Laid Plans, but might’ve enjoyed writing this as he went onto write another successful Heist Movie, Tower Heist, he also did a rewrite of killers but I can’t imagine even the greatest screenwriters being able to polish that turd.

In the director’s chair is Steven Soderbergh, who the year previously had Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Director for both Erin Brockovich and Traffic, the latter of which marked his return to Box Office success after a series of flops. The film continued that streak, making $450m on its $85m budget and has generally favourable ratings with both critics and audiences.

Oceans 11 follows the story of Danny Ocean (George Clooney), he’s just out of prison and has been planning a big score. With more than money on his mind, he plans to rob $150 million from a chain of casinos owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), outwitting their stellar security and to do it he’ll need a team of the best and craziest crooks around.

With him for the heist are his best friend Robert “Rusty” Ryan (Bradd Pitt), his son who can’t share his name, pickpocket Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), a Casino worker and friend Frank Catton (Bernie Mac) a wealthy former casino owner and rival to Benedict, Ruben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), mechanical experts Virgil and Turk Malloy (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan), an electronics and surveillance expert Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison), explosives expert Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), a con man named Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner) and contortionist “The Amazing” Yen (Qin Shaobo)

Naturally with such a large ensemble, only a few of them are going to stick out. Danny and Rusty are the leads in this and have great chemistry, Bernie Mac turns in a funny performance as Frank, Linus performs the role of the uncomfortable youth, I argue he’s not quite as fun as say, Jack from now you see me though.

Bash is memorable for Don Cheadle’s attempt at a cockney accent, which isn’t very good. Reuben and Saul both get the odd memorable line, Qin Shaobo isn’t much of actor (the Oceans films are his only films, meaning this is his first film) but his talent as an acrobat is well utilised in the film, showcasing his talents. It’s really the Malloy brothers that fall a bit short here, as neither of them carry much personality beyond their initial opening bit. That says nothing for the quality of their acting, as it’s a strong cast all around, lead by the most charismatic actor in Hollywood.

As a story it falls what I consider the classic heist structure. The team are gathered in the first act, spend much of the second doing prep work and reconnaissance leading to a twist near the end that threatens to derail proceeding but ends up being a fakeout to the audience, as it was part of the plan all along. The heist follows and goes off, with something seemingly unexpected also working its way into the plan.

The details of the heist are well thought out for the most part. Though where they found the money and resources to construct a fake vault in a matter of days is beyond me a bit. Not saying Tishkoff being rich doesn’t factor in but it still feels a bit silly. The other thing I find off is the fakeout twist, but it prays into another problem I have

You may notice from my list of actors, all of them are male. Yeah, there’s an alarming lack of a female presence in this film, they try to account for this with Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts) Danny’s ex-wife and his primary motivator. The thing is she comes off as kinda shallow. I perfectly understand her initial hostility towards him, given he was sent to prison and she didn’t even know he was a thief and had to run to avoid his problems.

No, my problem lies with her relationship with Benedict. She finds out that he would give her for $150 million and leaves him for that reason, to go back to Danny, who’s arrested for skipping bail (he had made arrangements to ensure he was unconnected) 3-6 months later. Whilst I think it’s a bit shallow to believe that she’s worth more than $150m, my problem is her going back to Danny, who’s doing the same sh*t he was always doing. Even if they couldn’t prove it, she must know he’s involved and it’s all but confirmed she knows by the time she gets out.

Because the protagonists are essentially thieves, the antagonist needs to be of a certain calibre for you to root for the protagonists. Benedict is somewhat suited to that model, he’s certainly ruthless and there’s an implication that he pulled some, let’s say immoral acts to get his casinos up and running, and there’s also the fact that he runs casinos, the most corrupt business model imaginable, working against him. I feel maybe going one step further and having one of his guys actually kill someone (doesn’t really matter who) might’ve sealed the deal here.

Oceans 11 has a large and talented ensemble cast who share great chemistry on-screen. The plot follows a standard heist film structure but is executed rather well, even if a couple of the large cast don’t get as big a time to shine.

Rating 75/100