Welcome to this week’s edition of the Nerd Review!  Every week the Nerds give you their take on a different classic from the Nerdosphere.  This week Dave and Greg review 2001’s classic Ocean’s Eleven!

The Flick: Ocean’s Eleven

We begin a mini-project here this week by looking at the Oceans trilogy. I was very happy to see us tackling this franchise because, believe it or not, I have not seen these movies much, maybe once or twice each. We begin with Oceans Eleven, a remake of the 1960’s film of the same name. In reality, the name is all the two movies really have in common.

Danny Ocean has just been released from prison and he immediately sets about pulling off the heist of all heists: robbing the vault at the Bellagio. The vault houses the money and valuable assets of three of the biggest Las Vegas Strip casinos: the Bellagio, the MGM Grand, and the Mirage. To say the challenge is immense is a monstrous understatement. Carrying The Ring into Mordor might be less of a challenge.

To pull this off, Danny, with his trusted partner, Rusty, puts together a team of eight individuals, each one with a specific role to play, ranging from a pickpocket, to a tech wizard, to an explosives expert, to everything in between. The whole operation is bankrolled by Reuben, who initially wants nothing to do with the scheme as he feels it is impossible. Once he learns that the target of the heist will be his primary competitor, Terry Benedict, he changes his mind and gets involved. The plan is immensely complex and it gets even more complicated when Rusty learns that Tess, Danny’s ex-wife, is the girlfriend of Mr. Benedict. Rusty has a lot of doubt about proceeding with the mission due to this but Danny insists. The heist is planned for the night of a Heavyweight Championship boxing match, when the amount of money in the vault would exceed $160 million.

(Synopsis courtesy of Dave Ungar!)

The Nerds’ Take on Ocean’s Eleven(2001):

Dave Ungar: The movie works so well because it combines the best elements of some other very popular movies that will be easily recognizable by anyone who watches. The mob is not in your face here like it is in The Godfather or Goodfellas, but there is little doubt that Mr. Benedict has ties to it. There are elements of Casino here. The plot and the tension get very high, similar to movies like The Usual Suspects. The actual multi-layered robbery, and everything that goes into pulling it off, will remind you of Mission Impossible or even Raiders of The Lost Ark. And still, Oceans Eleven is very different from all of these. Its influence on National Treasure will be obvious to anyone who has seen both movies.

What I really enjoy about the movie is that it keeps you on your toes. It is evident early on that Terry Benedict is not an idiot. Overconfident to a fault, sure. But you always get the feeling that he is in control of the situation until it is clear he is not. The movie also does a great job at diversion. You think you have it all figured out how they will pull off the heist only to discover that, like Terry Benedict, you really don’t have a good handle on what is happening until the end. At the end the good guys, who are actually the bad guys, pull it off and Danny gets his wife back, although it is equally clear that Mr. Benedict is actively trying to track down those that have, temporarily, gotten the better of him. This sets the stage for next week’s installment, Oceans Twelve.

The movie has an absolutely amazing cast. Anyone who was anyone in 2001 is seemingly in this including George Clooney as Danny Ocean, Brad Pitt as Rusty, Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict, Julia Roberts as Tess, Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr, Carl Reiner as Saul Bloom, and Matt Damon as Linus Caldwell. The supporting cast is phenomenal as well. Everyone blends together perfectly. The balance between Clooney and Pitt is tremendous as the amount of respect and trust they have for each other is palpable. Garcia plays Terry Benedict flawlessly as he comes across as somewhat arrogant but skeptical of everyone and everything. His performance creates just enough doubt in your mind that the boys can pull this off to keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Matt Damon possibly does not get enough credit for his work in the movie but he is excellent as well.

With an all-star cast, all of them putting in world class performances, it is easy to see why this movie was so successful. It garnered an 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes and was the fifth highest grossing movie of 2001, which is saying something when one considers the highest grossing films above it to be the first Harry Potter, the first Lord of The Rings, Monster’s Inc, and Shrek, powerful company to say the very least. Obviously, it was so good that it spawned two sequels…. but we will get to those over the next couple of weeks. As for Oceans Eleven though, it is a tremendous heist-based film combining magnificent elements of drama, crime, humor, action, intrigue, and suspense. The plot can get a bit too complex for its own good in a few places but it is still a tremendous example of how to do a lighter crime-based film right.

Dave’s Rating: 4.5/5

Greg DeMarco: Let me begin by telling you that I was happy to fill in for Patrick O’Dowd this week, and even happier when Dave wanted to start with Ocean’s Eleven, which happens to be my all-time favorite movie. Ever. Ever ever.

Now Dave does an amazing job detailing the plot above, and I have covered this movie twice on The Chairshot before: here and here. The cast is amazing, the writing is amazing, the cinematography is amazing, and the dialogue is second to none (especially the way they finish each other’s sentences, like all the time). Basically all of that is credit to Steven Soderberg, the writer and director behind the whole project.

I don’t want to be redundant with what Dave said, because he really does say it beautifully, so I will share my personal stories around this movie. For starters, I saw it on the day it was released, and I saw it twice in the theaters—both on that day. It was an outing for my team t work (I didn’t even pick the movie), and I loved it so much that I went home and told my wife we had to go that night and see it. That’s how brilliant this movie is. Over the years that have followed, I have easily seen this movie over 100 times, and most recently introduced it to my son. He focused on the cast (multiple times) and the reveals that take place throughout the movie.

What jumps out at me? Well I mentioned the dialogue, which is absolutely phenomenal. Andy Garcia’s role as Terry Benedict—the bad guy who is really the good guy in all this who did nothing wrong. He didn’t steal his money, he made it legitimately in the casino business. He didn’t steal Tess away from Danny, she left him when he was in prison. But his demeanor coupled with his line of business are enough to play into our own assumptions that he’s a “bad guy” and root for the Oceans Eleven crew. This, in reality, is (to steal from wrestling) heel vs. heel, but Benedict is the Heel Villain with Danny as the Heel Hero.

The other thing that jumps out at me is the performances of the entire crew. Casey Affleck and Scott Caan are perfect as the Mormon twins who need each other, but hate each other. Carl Reiner delivers a performance as Saul Bloom that makes you fall in love with the old guy, and Elliott Gould as Reuben Tishkoff is sympathetic enough to make you decide to hate Terry Benedict. This was also my first real exposure to Don Cheadle, who is perfect as Basher Tarr. Finally of note you have Bernic Mac playing Frank Catton, who plays a much bigger role than you think.

But Brad Pitt’s Rusty Ryan holds the movie together, one part criminal, one part best friend, one part psychiatrist, and one part foodie. He’s had a hell of a career, but (not surprisingly) this is my favorite performance of his.

Funny aside: I have never seen the Rat Pack version of this film, titled “Oceans 11,” (note the subtle difference) starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, and Angie Dickinson. In the original, Sammy Davis Jr doesn’t appear in the credits—and in in the 2001 version, Don Cheadle also doesn’t appear in the credits as a nod to the original.

This is the perfect movie, and much like Reuben says about casino security, cannot be beaten.

Greg’s Rating: 5/5

Nerds’ Rating for Ocean’s Eleven (2001): 4.5/5.0