Beats wearing
all that doctor's get-up
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How many times
has an all-star cast failed to deliver on the big screen?
Not this time.
Nigel
Bell
While this is a remake (or rather a reinterpretation) of the Frank
Sinatra / Rat Pack movie of the 60s, the new Ocean's Eleven
has 21st century gloss with a 70s sheen.
Like the Vegas
casinos they're trying to rob we're talking class right across the
board.
Director Soderbergh
slips into split-screen/credits whizzing in from different angles
mode to set a quality threshold which never lets up for two hours.
The plot
It's
pure Hollywood. Clooney as Danny Ocean is newly released from prison.
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| Yeah I'm
cool. I know I'm cool |
He has an audacious
plan to rob not one but three Las Vegas casinos in one night.
For this he
needs the support of ten heist experts (together with Clooney you
have the Ocean's Eleven of the title).
They range from
squabbling siblings to ageing impersonators to blast expert Basher
(Don Cheadle) who has a well dodgy but surprisingly catchy cockney
accent.
It gives we
British a little link to the crime of the century and provides great
laughs, not least when he's trying to explain cockney rhyming slang.
"We're in Barney Rubble." "What?" "Trouble!"
The simple prospect
of relieving casino boss Terry Benedict (an excellent underplayed
yet menacing Andy Garcia) of millions is further complicated when
the gang realise Danny's ex-wife Tess is Benedict's new girlfriend.
Is Danny really
in it for the money or the girl? Is the girl the spanner in the
works? These are just a couple of a host of problems faced by our
loveable rogues as they prepare for the heist.
The verdict
There's so much to appreciate in this movie it's difficult to
known where to start.
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| "Who
is this?" "The man who's robbing your casinos."
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The acting is
top drawer throughout - Clooney is cool, Gould bizarre as a hippie
style money man backing the heist.
The honours,
however, go to Brad Pitt. Understated as Clooney's back-up man,
eating in almost every scene yet subtly dominant throughout.
The Las Vegas
setting is superb with the crew being given unheard of access to
the real-life behind the scenes of the Strips casinos.
There's humour.
Near the beginning Pitt is trying to teach a group of kids the art
of poker. He almost pulls his hair out when a student proudly shows
his hand boasting he must have won because "they're all red."
There's a great
soundtrack
mixing modern with old.
Best of all
is the way the film never allows you to think everything will end
happily for the eleven.
There are so
many red herrings throughout which keep you on your toes.
Like a vintage
Mission Impossible, Soderbergh lets you into some of the
gang's plans for the robbery but never the whole deal.
And if only
I looked like Brad Pitt, I'd been dashing to my nearest tailor for
a sharp suit.
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