I am going to come right out of the gate and ask this question – is Ocean’s Eleven the coolest movie ever made? Obviously the word ‘cool’ is a subjective thing, what is cool to me, probably won’t be cool to you, and vice versa. However when we contextually apply the word to talk about the people in the movie, what they look like, what they wear, how they act, how they talk, the aesthetic choices of the movie, the sounds, the script, and so on, then I really do find it hard to think of a movie that is cooler. 

For around two hours we get to live in a cool world, in which George Clooney (Danny Ocean), and Brad Pitt (Rusty Ryan), can walk out of a club without being bothered by the press outside the front door. We get to inhabit a world in which criminals wear slick, perfectly fitting suits, they are suave and go about their deeds without any bad consequences. Sure Ocean comes and goes out of prison, but at no point do we see his experiences in jail. The movie paints a very idealistic picture of what a criminal is and how cool they can be. Obviously I am not a criminal but I would hazard a guess that the criminal world is never this light-hearted but does that detract from the movie? Not one bit. 

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We get Clooney at full Clooneyness, Pitt at full Pittness, Julia Roberts (Tess) looking elegant and yet tears up the screen in a couple of scenes. We get to spend two hours with some of the coolest and best-looking people in cinema, in Las Vegas. Watching this for possibly the 50th time I thought to myself, Ocean’s Eleven is kind of a symbol of why Hollywood exists, to create and show off movie stars on the big screen. Made in 2001, arguably no movie does this better and this kind of movie may not exist anymore because movie stars now get locked into annoying superhero movies and franchises. I should say that it could’ve been easy to hate this film because essentially it is a collection of super-privileged people having a great time on screen, as well as off it if the stories are to be believed. But it works because we like these people and we also like this version of Las Vegas, which seems like a truly horrible place otherwise.

Ocean’s Eleven does not attempt to be anything other than cool. It does not take on subjects that are weighty, instead it just chooses to be as entertaining as possible, which therefore makes it incredibly rewatchable. For me the chief reason for this is the dialogue. There is so much humour, wit, sarcasm and sharpness to it that if you only see the movie once, you miss some of the jokes and funny lines. As I mentioned before, I have seen this movie many, many times and I notice a new joke every single time. The score is slick, sophisticated and as cool as the people in the movie. Also it helps the movie pretty much ends with one of my favourite pieces of music, Clair de Lune. 

Overall because of the combination of things I mentioned above, the overall tone of the movie is what makes it so enjoyable. The man responsible for this was director Steven Soderbergh. Coming off a run of Out of Sight, The Limey, Traffic and Erin Brokovich (ridiculous right?) Soderbergh understands the tone of the script and importantly knows exactly what makes all the people in the movie so cool and why we want to hang out with them. He knows the sheer presence of many of the actors, and their charisma, is enough to be entertaining. 

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Greatest Heist Movie?

No, I don’t think it is but I would be remiss not to ask the question. There are different types of heist movies of course but as good as this is, I prefer others which get the blood pumping and raise the tension more. At no point in the movie did I think they weren’t going to pull off the heist and Ocean get the girl, therefore I prefer films like Heat, The Town, Den of Thieves, Inside Man, The Sting, and so on. (Seriously I could list so many here). The main word I would use to describe Ocean’s Eleven is, you guessed it, cool. As great as the movies I listed above are, cool is not the first word I’d use to describe them. Well, maybe Newman and Redford in The Sting… 

Best Quote – “You guys are pros. The best. I’m sure you can make it out of the casino. Of course lest we forget, once you’re out the front door, you’re still in the middle of the fucking desert!”

Honourable mentions here go to Virgil and Turk Malloy who are always funny, Tess who is an absolute wrecking ball in her scenes, and the comedy between Pitt and Clooney. But the character with the most funny lines is Reuben played by Elliott Gould. When I rewatched the movie I tried to go for a more profound or interesting line but this made me laugh the most. 

Best Scene – Card Game

Picking one scene in this movie is actually difficult. The heist takes up a lot of the movie and therefore it kind of flows together like one big scene, whilst the putting together of the crew is a collection of smaller ones too. 

But the scene I always remember fondly, and often comes to my mind first is the card game in which Ryan is teaching young actors how to play cards, and Ocean turns up. It is our first introduction to Ryan who is clearly bored out of his mind teaching these kids to play, and first introduction to the chemistry and bromance of Clooney and Pitt. I recently listened to Chris Ryan of The Ringer talk about this five minutes and he said it is a scene in which we the audience are in on the joke but the people in the scene actually aren’t. For example when Ryan emerges into the room you hear Ocean ask one of the actors, ‘is it hard, crossing over from television to film?’ The comedic element here is that Clooney did crossover very successfully by becoming a movie star after his time on ER. Or when the young actors walk out of the club and are swamped by cameras and fans, whilst Clooney and Pitt just walk right by. It is absurd and funny when you notice it. 

Also forgive me for what may seem like a boring comment, but the camera shots are sharp and flow together to show the quick-witted nature of the dialogue.

(Honourable mentions go to Reuben’s introduction and explaining the three Vegas heists, and near the ending for the fountain Clair de Lune scene)

Best Performance – Brad Pitt

I think Pitt from a performance perspective stands head and shoulders above everyone else in this movie. He is the raw, magnetic personality we want to see on the screen as much as possible. You want to watch him, know what he is doing, why he is doing it, what he is eating (which is a lot in this movie), what he is thinking and so on. You are drawn to him whenever he is in a scene.

Clooney as Danny Ocean is very cool, but I think even in the scenes with Pitt, he gets overshadowed. Whilst I do think Clooney is the anchor of the movie because he starts off the idea, helps move the movie along, and we are invested in his relationship with Roberts, Pitt is the beating heart of the film. He perfectly encapsulates the look, tone and feel of the movie and I should also mention the chemistry between he and Clooney is excellent, and so is the comedic timing. 

The scene below shows this…

Stupidest Part of the Movie

Okay the biggest nit-pick here is around the heist itself. Clearly what is depicted in the film is not how casinos actually work otherwise they wouldn’t have been allowed to do all that filming in Las Vegas. Also given how much surveillance goes on in Vegas, I find it amazing that the eleven were able to get a plot of land and build a vault replica so close to the strip. 

To be honest neither of those bother me too much, but Don Cheadle’s accent as Basher is flat out weird, totally unnecessary, and stupid.

Things You Didn’t Know

It is actually a remake of the 1969 Rat Pack movie of the same name – it starred Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. 

Soderbergh considered shooting the movie in black and white. 

Cheadle is uncredited in the movie because of a billing dispute.

There are lots of stories on alternative castings for this movie – 

  • Luke and Owen Wilson as the Malloy brothers
  • Mark Wahlberg and Johnny Depp as Linus Caldwell
  • Bruce Willis as Danny Ocean
  • Ralph Feinnes and Michael Douglas as Terry Benedict