What’s at the Movies

By Ian Pugh

‘Ocean’s Eleven’
pumped full of star power

Every good director should occasionally be allowed to kick back after a big accomplishment, and tone down things a bit. If there’s anyone who deserved that in the past year, it’s Steven Soderbergh. He earned a Best Director Oscar for his exemplary work in “Traffic,” and another nomination for “Erin Brockovich.” Now here comes his new “Ocean’s Eleven,” a flick that isn’t going to earn him another nomination, but is definitely a lot of fun.

Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is a criminal released from prison on parole, and while he keeps a good boy face on, he’s planning something big. He gets together with his old friend Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) to help him with a robbery of insane proportions, knocking over three Las Vegas casinos. So they get together nine crooks from all walks of life: a veteran (Carl Reiner), a gymnast (Shaobo Qin), an explosives expert (Don Cheadle), a computer hacker (Eddie Jemison), an inside man (Bernie Mac), an ex-vault designer (Elliot Gould), a pair of bickering brothers (Casey Affleck, Scott Caan) and finally, a rookie pickpocket (Matt Damon). They seem to have a foolproof plan, but Rusty is having second thoughts when it’s revealed that the casinos have a common link: they’re all owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who happens to be dating Ocean’s former wife, Tess (Julia Roberts).

“Ocean’s Eleven” is a something of a film-noir, but despite all the twists and turns in the heist itself, the plot isn’t incredibly complicated. Oh, sure, the screenplay is peppered with some very funny bits, but this is really a movie for all the big names in Hollywood to fool around with. Luckily, they all have the right amount of ability to carry a somewhat unremarkable script. Clooney has the most screen time, and thus he has a scene with just about every single person in the film. He mixes well with the rest of the cast, and makes an excellent leading man. On the other hand, “leading lady” Roberts is fine, but she hardly does enough work to justify her top billing. Pitt, Damon, Cheadle, and all of the other actors here are at top form.

“Ocean’s Eleven” is actually a remake of a 1960 Rat Pack film, with Sinatra in the role of Danny Ocean. Stars like Clooney, Pitt and Damon are about the closest thing anyone can get to a modern Rat Pack, and they exude all the charm of Frankie, Dino and Sammy. On an entertainment scale of one to 10, “Ocean’s Eleven” is an 11.