Category: Action / Adventure - Drama - Feature Film-action/Adventure - Movie
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DVD Ocean's Eleven (Widescreen Edition)
Ocean's Eleven improves on 1960's Rat Pack original with supernova casting, a slickly updated plot, and Steven Soderbergh's graceful touch behind the camera. Soderbergh reportedly relished the opportunity "to make a movie that has no desire except to give pleasure from beginning to end," and he succeeds on those terms, blessed by the casting of George Clooney as Danny Ocean, the title role originated by Frank Sinatra. Fresh out of jail, Ocean masterminds a plot to steal $163 million from the seemingly impervious vault of Las Vegas's Bellagio casino, not just for the money but to win his ex-wife (Julia Roberts) back from the casino's ruthless owner (Andy Garcia). Soderbergh doesn't scrimp on the caper's comically intricate strategy, but he finds greater joy in assembling a stellar team (including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and Carl Reiner) and indulging their strengths as actors. The result is a film that's as smooth as a silk suit and just as stylish. --Jeff Shannon
Review(s): DVD Ocean's Eleven (Widescreen Edition)
Smarty planed out
Elevan people plan out to take over the biggest place.
I found the movie worth seeing.
Quick Paced Caper
I enjoyed this movie. It started with an interesting premise, a guy by the name of Danny Ocean gets out of prison with a plan to rob 3 casinos in Las Vegas. Instead over worrying too much about parole, he immediately begins assembling his crew of eleven people to do the job. Brad Pitt as Rusty Ryan, his second in command, Matt Damon as the pickpocket to get the codes from the casino boss, Carl Reiner as the high roller to help get some tools into the vault, Don Cheadle as the explosives expert to knock out the power briefly, a Chinese acrobat/contortionist to get smuggled into the vault in a cash cannister, Bernie Mac as the Blackjack dealer on the inside, a technical guy and couple of drivers round out the team.
The target: The vault at the Belaggio which is also shared by the Mirage and the MGM Grand, all owned by the same man Terry Benedict played by Andy Garcia.
The twist: Casino Boss Benedict's girlfriend is none other than Tess Ocean, Danny's ex-wife played by Julia Roberts.
All in all, this was an entertaining, fast-paced movie expertly put together by director Steven Soderbergh. The editing of this movie was absolutely excellent. From the beginning scene of Danny Ocean in front of his parole board to the scene on the train where he's watching Matt Damon's character in action, to the complicated scenes of the heist itself, the editing really makes his movie. They did an outstanding job of making a picture worth a thousand words. A perfect example is the scene where they are blowing up the old casino to make room for a new Benedict mega-casino and the entire crowd except for Danny Ocean turns around to watch the building come down. Ocean's eyes stay fixed on the stage where his ex-wife stands next to Terry Benedict as he depresses the plunger to start the explosion. In that instant, you know that Ocean is motivated more by his ex-wife than anything else including the money. And they told you all that in a flash of a scene, just amazing.
But the editing has to be first rate in a movie like this. You have to be able to see things unfold, especially in a scheme as complex as this. And they do a fantastic job of it in this movie, I had no trouble keeping up with what was going on. And was just as fooled in the end as Benedict and his men were. Just great!
On to the acting, which is where I thought the movie was a little deficient. Where the movie stumbles is in it's overabundance of camera hogs. There's just too much star power and not enough feet of film to satisfy them all. Clooney, Pitt, Damon and Bernie Mac end up battling each other into mediocrity in their scenes. Cheadle is downright irritating, and a piece of furniture would have brought more to the role of Tess Ocean than Julia Roberts did. The rest of the team is totally faceless, they could have been played by anyone. The two actors that really stand out are Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict, the casino owner and Carl Reiner as the aging con man Saul. Garcia's portrayal of the casino boss is chillingly perfect, the ever gracious host with just the right hint of a threat of violence below the surface if you don't play by the rules. And Carl Reiner is totally cool playing a character within a character and pulls off Lerner Zerga, the wealthy east European arms dealer with aplomb.
My only other gripe about the movie is the stupid plot idea of the "pinch" something that supposedly simulates the elctro-magnetic pulse of a nuclear bomb. First of all, there is no such thing, certainly not one you could load into the back of a van. Secondly if there was such a thing, you couldn't steal it. And thirdly if you did set it off in a large city like Las Vegas, the power wouldn't come back on after two minutes, it would take more like five years to completely rewire the city. But the "pinch" is a typically lazy Hollywood plot device that gets around the problem of howintheheck are these guys going to cut out all power, even emergency power, to the heavily protected and secured vault for two minutes.
If you can ignore that and some of the sub-par acting, this is a great movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'll have to check out both the original and the sequel sometime soon.
Remake Misses Originality of First Version
"Ocean's Eleven" is only an average movie. It hardly excels in either the Frank Sinatra version, or in this remake, the George Clooney version.
The story: Can Danny Ocean bring together a hodge-podge of characters to pull off a great heist in Las Vegas? The rest, like seen in later movies like "The Dirty Dozen," involves the preparation of the attempt, with a dramatic crescendo as they attempt the impossible.
As a collection of stars goes, "Ocean's Eleven" is second only to the Academy Awards in bringing together the best known faces in Hollywood. However, the screen is too crowded to give each their due. Their personalities aren't exposed as much, and rely on quips and face shots to get the point across that the movie is supposed to be cool. As a result, it isn't as cool.
What is the difference? Why is the original better than the remake? Sammy Davis, Jr. could be one reason. He had it all, like Frank, plus he could dance. Dean Martin is another reason. These guys were all multitalented stars, where as in this version, all we have are pretty boys with a modicum of acting ability.
Don Cheadle is loaded with talent - just see "Hotel Rwanda", and all of that is wasted here. Brad Pitt is basically a less masculine Matt Damon. There is not enough distinction, and neither has a chance to stretch their skills that made them stand out in the first place. This is not "Meet Joe Black," or "Good Will Hunting."
The movie is entertaining, but not because they go for the biggest game or a strong cast fills the ranks. It is tightly directed and edited, with great production. Everything looks perfect, and they take an average story and milk it well.
Like its predecessor Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve is a piffle of a caper, a preposterous plot given juice and vitality by a combination of movie star glamour and the exuberant filmmaking skill of director Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight, The Limey). The heist hijinks of the first film come to roost for a team of eleven thieves (including the glossy mugs of Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, and Don Cheadle), who find themselves pursued not only by the guy they robbed (silky Andy Garcia), but also by a top-notch detective (plush Catherine Zeta-Jones) and a jealous master thief (well-oiled Vincent Cassel) who wants to prove that team leader Danny Ocean (dapper George Clooney) isn't the best in the field. As if all that star power weren't enough--and the... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Steven Soderbergh DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Though it bears little resemblance to the original 1969 thriller starring Michael Caine, the 2003 remake of The Italian Job stands on its own as a caper comedy that's well above average. The title's a misnomer--this time it's actually a Los Angeles job--but the action's just as exciting as it propels a breezy tale of honor and dishonor among competing thieves. Inheriting Caine's role as ace heist-planner Charlie Croker, Mark Wahlberg plays straight-man to a well-cast team of accomplices, including Mos Def, Jason Statham, and scene-stealer Seth Green in a variation of the role originally played by Noel Coward. As the daughter of Croker's ill-fated mentor (Donald Sutherland), Charlize Theron is recruited to double-cross a double-crosser (Edward Norton in oily villain mode), and once... More Info about this DVD Director(s): F. Gary Gray DVD Release Date: Released the 07 October 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Freely adapted from Robert Ludlum's 1980 bestseller, The Bourne Identity starts fast and never slows down. The twisting plot revs up in Zurich, where amnesiac CIA assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), with no memory of his name, profession, or recent activities, recruits a penniless German traveler (Run Lola Run's Franka Potente) to assist in solving the puzzle of his missing identity. While his CIA superior (Chris Cooper) dispatches assassins to kill Bourne and thus cover up his failed mission, Bourne exercises his lethal training to leave a trail of bodies from Switzerland to Paris. Director Doug Liman (Go) infuses Ludlum's intricate plotting with a maverick's eye for character detail, matching breathtaking action with the humorous, thrill-seeking chemistry of Damon... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Doug Liman DVD Release Date: Released the 13 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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When we met our hero, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) in THE BOURNE IDENTITY,
he was trying not to remember what happened last time and ends up
in a beachhouse. This film, as great as the first one has Bourne
trying to escape the beachhouse when the CIA (led by Joan Allen)
wants him dead, killing his girlfriend (Franka Potente) and taking
harmless Nicky (Julia Stiles) as hostage, leading Bourne many places
(incvluding India, Germany, Moscow, and more). Breathtaking,
entertaining sequel has as much car chases as THE ITALIAN JOB
and still the suspense of Robert Ludlum's book. A sequel
is expected next year, just for your imformation. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Greengrass DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 6 to 11 days
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Released amidst rumors of romance between costars Angelina Jolie and soon-to-be-divorced Brad Pitt, Mr. and Mrs. Smith offers automatic weapons and high explosives as the cure for marital boredom. The premise of this exhausting action-comedy (no relation to the 1941 Alfred Hitchcock comedy starring Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery) is that the unhappily married Smiths (Pitt and Jolie) will improve their relationship once they discover their mutually-hidden identities as world-class assassins, but things get complicated when their secret-agency bosses order them to rub each other out. There's plenty of amusing banter in the otherwise disposable screenplay by Simon Kinberg (xXx: State of the Union, Fantastic Four), and director Doug Liman (The Bourne... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Doug Liman DVD Release Date: Released the 06 June 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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