Review by Calvin Trager

November 30, 2001

Hollywood has churned out several heist movies this year, including 3000 Miles to Graceland, The Score, and, well, Heist. The genre is fairly straightforward: Get a group of (usually exclusively) men together, set up a target, watch them plan and then execute the job. The suspense comes in watching them figure out how to circumvent the complex security installed to protect the money, and then seeing if it actually works.

These heist movies can be a lot of fun, so it's promising that with Ocean's 11, we have one of the hottest directors around with a huge cast, both in number and star power. That makes it doubly disappointing that the movie is fairly flat and lifeless, and that it winds up being a completely average example of the genre, rather than transcending it somehow.

Ocean's 11 begins as Daniel Ocean (George Clooney) is released from prison and is placed on parole. He immediately embarks on putting into motion an elaborate plan to rob three casinos owned by Harry Benedict (Andy Garcia.) He first visits his right-hand man, Dusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), whom we meet in Hollywood teaching young stars how to play poker in a sequence that seems to be trying too hard to be hip and funny, demonstrating the major problem with the film early on. Then it's a matter of finding a money-man to finance the job and putting together a team of con men, computer experts, explosives experts, thieves, and acrobats. From there, the movie moves through the planning and execution of the heist in a very workmanlike manner.

There's no doubting that Ocean's 11 is the work of a talented director and cast, but what's missing is the spark of energy that would liven up the movie and allow the viewer to really get into and enjoy the film. Part of the problem is that everyone seems to be trying so hard to be cool that they wind up coming off cold. It also precludes any chemistry between any of the characters; for instance, the comic exchanges between Clooney and Pitt tend to go way past deadpan into just plain dead. You're probably more likely to understand why certain moments are supposed to be funny than to actually laugh at them.

This take on the film is probably coming off a bit harsher than intended. In the end, Ocean's 11 is a perfectly adequate film, not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination. It has its moments and does display a certain style, but it's tough not to judge the film by the expectations placed on it by the talent involved. It seems like all involved took the time and their current status to get together and make a movie that they all could have fun making. It's unfortunate that they didn't do a better job at letting the audience in on the fun.