"OCEANS ELEVEN" - DOING THE RAT PACK PROUD (reviewed by OG)

Based on a 1960 film by the same name starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Joey Bishop, this year’s “Ocean’s Eleven” stops the similarities at the original’s basic plot. Danny Ocean (George Clooney), a razor sharp ex-con, sets up gigantic hit just days after being released from prison. With the help of a trusted friend (Brad Pitt, in as many wardrobe changes as you can count), he enlists the aid of eight professionals (including a proud-to-be-Jewish Elliot Gould as the source of funding) to rob three major Las Vegas casinos of over 150 million dollars, a feat that, by today’s standards, seems absolutely impossible to pull off. There’s a twist, though. The casinos are owned by Harry Benedict (Andy Garcia, as an evil, rich bastard…the best kind), who just happens to be dating Ocean’s ex-wife, Tess (Julia Roberts). So is Ocean really in it for the money? Or is he just trying to get his true love back?

The answer is obvious once the first twenty minutes of “Ocean’s Eleven” tick by: You really shouldn’t care. This is a movie so entranced with its own slick and hip aura that your mind should be focused on one thing and one thing only: Just how the hell are these guys going to pull this off? The gang, a motley crue composed of two dueling brothers (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan), an elderly impersonator (an amazing Carl Reiner), a snatch-and-grab thief (Matt Damon), an electrical expert (Don Cheadle, in a cheesy London accent), and others, are the core of what drives the film. Director Stephen Soderbergh , whose Traffic, Out of Sight, The Limey, and Erin Brockovich all won critical acclaim, delivers on the basic notion that if you get enough big-name actors in one room and dress them up in the finest silks available to man, you might just get a decent movie out of the whole deal. In the hands of a less-experienced director, this experiment could have ended up a farcical mess, but under Soderbergh’s careful eye, “Ocean’s Eleven” succeeds in breathing new waves of cool into a remake helmed by the Rat Pack, otherwise known as the originators of said “cool”.

The first half of the film, which involves the assembly of Clooney and Pitt’s team members, moves at a medium pace, only to give way to the hectic free-for-all that kicks in once the daring robbery takes place. It’s the dialogue, however, that truly gives the film its primary adrenalin shot. These characters exist in a world where every quip, comment, and observation is worthy of framing and placing over a mantle. During a heated conversation at a dinner table, Julia Roberts attacks Clooney’s past with a simple “You’re a thief and a liar…”

“I only lied…” is Clooney’s response, “about being a thief.”

The fact that this world of cool male perfection and positively insane coincidences is completely outside of reality is the only fact that may deter audiences from jumping headfirst into its grand finale, but I strongly suggest you ignore that. This one’s definitely an escapist’s film, and one that has a lot of fun getting from point A to point B. Plus, it’s worth it alone just to watch Las Vegas go dark, and to hear George Clooney catch Brad Pitt in a fashion faux pa and call him on it, demanding that Ted Nugent get his shirt back.

“Ocean’s Eleven” may exist in a world that we’d never see outside our own doors, but it’s a world that never fails to amuse and distract, which, as far as history is concerned, is the primary purpose of Hollywood film. In this, the film succeeds, going beyond the call of duty to remind us what the words “cool” and “glamorous” really mean.

(12.7.01)