Casinoes, cons and compulsive eating - Ocean's Eleven Reviews

Get some of the most high profile actors in Hollywood together for a crime caper and what do you get? Generally you get something rather enjoyable, but fairly forgetable. Ocean's though is a movie that has higher ambitions than that and follows through on most of them. Premise: Danny Ocean is fresh out of jail and hankering to knock over some casinoes, namely three owned by Terry Benedict who has stolen something that Danny can't bring himself to lose, his ex-wife. Danny gets together a crew of the strangest bunch of con artists on the face of the earth and plans to pull off the biggest hiest in Las Vegas history, not only the cash, but his ex-wife as well. What Was Good: The cast is somehow able to pull off their dialogue perfectly and really do play a likable, albeit rather quirky, bunch. Clooney is slick and dapper as Danny Ocean. He could charm the paint off the walls and does everything with an effortless dash of charm. Brad Pitt is thoroughly likable as the card sharp Rusty Ryan. He's Danny's righthand man and probably about as dashing as Danny is in a more laid back manner. Subtly sarcastic dialogue rolls off Pitt's tongue effortlessly as he pulls off his part in the cons without a misstep. He also has a habit of being eating in almost every scene of the movie, which starts to get a little amusing as his character downs nachoes, shrimp, and anything else edible as he casually gives instructions. The rest of the cast is just as quirky and endearing. The dialogue is fast and witty without being forced. It's more in the delivery than the actual lines and the actors deliver. What Didn't Work: There isn't much of this movie that's hard to swallow save Julia Roberts. Maybe she's just not in it enough to explain her rapid change of heart or why she ended up with the rather menacing Benedict in the first place. Who knows. Thankfully the rest of the movie distracts from that part. Conclusion: I normally don't really enjoy crime capers, but this one is an exception that's fun to watch and truly enjoyable. They're criminals, they're wiseguys, but you can't take your eyes off of them.