(rated PG-13, 117 mins)
Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh remakes the original of a Las Vegas heist that stars the eye-candy of Hollywood, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts and Andy Garcia. Danny Ocean (Clooney) is out on parole from a variety of past tricks. Dusty Ryan (Pitt) is a gambling card shark whose philosophy in life is that the first lesson of poker is to leave emotion at the door. Teaming with Ocean, Ryan decides to form the biggest theft in Vegas history robbing the Bellagio, the Mirage and the MGM Grand. They pull together eleven guys that include Virgil (Casey Affleck), Roscoe (Don Cheadle as a dead ringer for Sammy Davis Jr. without being Sammy), Linus (Matt Damon) and the very amusing Carl Reiner as Saul. Equally amusing is Ruben (Elliot Gould), their mentor and friend who knows that they’re pros and they’re the best, but can they make it out the door? In Vegas history, only three have come close. And so the story goes not about succeeding but the act of getting there with hip camera movement, grainy tobacco sepia tones and groovy soundtrack. Ocean is hell bent on “screwing the guy who’s screwing his wife”, Harry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the casino owner. The wife, Tess, is Julia Roberts who holds her own in a male driven cast. Despite a screen full of Oscar caliber stars, its Brad Pitt who stands a constant step cooler than the rest. Soderbergh has chosen to direct a picture that is pure entertainment with little social redeeming value of his past “Erin Brokovich” or “Traffic”. It’s got the rat pack feeling with an attitude of not being the remake of a great movie, but just a fun concept. More or less “The Sting” of this century.
