"Ocean's Eleven" 2001

“Ocean’s Eleven”

This is a movie that came out during football season. I see a lot of movies during football season. My husband will start watching the pre-game show as I get ready to leave. Luckily he doesn’t have a favorite NFL team so if there is a really good movie he will sometimes join me.

This one I went to alone. It was a remake of a Frank Sinatra/Rat Pack movie. I have never seen more than a few minutes of the original, so I can’t compare them. It had that Technicolor sixties look and didn’t grab me in the first fifteen minutes. George Clooney’s version was a different story. It is great.

It is a classic caper. There is so much going on that it takes a few watchings to catch all the bits and pieces and how perfectly they come together.

George Clooney is Danny Ocean. He has spent a few years in prison and has a plan to rob some casinos and get his wife back.

Parole Board Member #1: Mr Ocean, the purpose of this hearing is to determine, whether, if released, you are likely to break the law again. While this was your first conviction, you have been implicated, though never charged, in over a dozen other confidence tricks and frauds. What can you tell us about those?
Danny: As you say, ma'am, I was never charged.
Parole Board Member #2: Mr Ocean, what we're trying to find out is was there a reason you chose to commit this crime, or was there a reason you simply got caught this time.
Danny: My wife left me. I was upset. I fell into a self-destructive pattern.
Parole Board Member #3: If released, is it likely you'd fall back into a similar pattern?
Danny: She already left me once. I don't think she'd do it again just for kicks.

Brad Pitt is Rusty Ryan. He is Danny’s best friend and isn’t afraid to tell him the truth. I also love that he is eating in every scene he’s in. He knows everyone and can think up a plan on the fly.

Rusty: You'd need at least a dozen guys doing a combination of cons.
Danny: Like what, do you think?
Rusty: Off the top of my head, I'd say you're looking at a Boeski, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever.

The rest of the cast is amazing. We meet them one by one and each is better than the last.

Carl Reiner is Saul. He has gotten out of the game but is convinced to return.

Rusty:Saul, you're the best there is. You're in Cooperstown. What do you want?
Saul: Nothing. I've got a duplex now, wall-to-wall, goldfish. I'm seeing a nice lady who works the "Unmentionables" counter at Macy's. I've changed.
Rusty: Guys like us don't change, Saul. We either stay sharp or we get sloppy, we don't change.

Matt Damon is Linus. He has lived under the shadow of his father who is a famous con man.

Danny: [holds up a black wallet] Hello Linus. Whose is this?
Linus: Who are you?
Danny: A friend of Bobby Caldwell's.
[produces a plane ticket]
Danny: You're either in or you're out. Right now.
Linus: What is it?
Danny: It's a plane ticket. A job offer.
Linus: You're pretty trusting pretty fast.
Danny: Well Bobby has a lot of faith in you.
Linus: Fathers are like that.

Bernie Mac is Frank. He’s dealing blackjack and trying to go straight, but doesn’t take a lot of convincing. He has interesting negotiation skills as well.

Frank: You have lovely hands. Do you moisturize?
Billy Tim Denham: I'm Sorry?
Frank: [as he slowly crushes Denham's hand in his grip] You know, I've tried all sorts of moisturizers. I even went fragrance free for a whole year. Now my sister, she uses some kind of uh... uh... uh... uh... aloe vera with a little sunscreen in it, and ideally, we should all wear gloves when going to bed, but I found out that that creates a kind of an interference with my... social agenda, you know what I mean.

Don Cheadle is Basher. He is the go to guy for blowing things up. But he is tired of working with amateurs.

[masquerading as an A.T.F. agent, Rusty shoves Basher against a police car, pretending to search him]
Rusty: [under his breath] Hey, Bash.
Basher: Hey, Russ.
Rusty: How fast can you put something together from what I just slipped you?
Basher: It's done.
[Rusty lifts up Basher, and they slowly leave the crime scene]
Basher: Hey, is Danny about?
Rusty: Yeah, he's waiting around the corner.
Basher: Oh, that's terrific! It will be nice working with proper villains again.
Rusty: [turns and shouts] Everybody down, now!
[they break into a run as explosions rock the crime scene]
Basher: Ha-ha-ha! They weren't expecting that shit!
Rusty: Nice work.
Basher: Oh, thank you.

Scott Caan and Casey Affleck are the Malloy brothers. They are in a constant rivalry even when playing twenty questions.

Virgil Malloy: Are you a man?
Turk Malloy: Yes, nineteen.
Virgil Malloy: Are you alive?
Turk Malloy: Yes, eighteen.
Virgil Malloy: Evel Knievel.
Turk Malloy: …$hit.

Elliot Gould is Reuben. He is old Vegas, right down to his clothes. And he knows the history of Vegas capers.

Danny: It's never been tried.
Reuben: Ho, ho... "It's never been tried." It's been tried. A few guys even came close. You know the three most successful robberies in the history of Vegas?
[flashback - the gaming room at the Horseshow, in black-and-white]
Reuben: [voiceover] Number three, the Bronze Medal - pencil-neck grabs a lockbox at the Horseshoe...
[a man grabs a lockbox out of a guard's hand and runs for the door, and six guards instantly tackle him to the floor]
Reuben: He got two steps closer to the door than any living soul before him.
[cut to the present]
Reuben: Second most successful robbery...
[flashback - the gaming room at the Flamingo, in grainy color. A long-haired man is running for the door, clutching a bag]
Reuben: The Flamingo in '71. This guy actually tasted fresh oxygen before they grabbed him.
[the man gets within a few feet of the door, before a guard smashes him across the face with a nightstick]
Reuben: Of course, he was breathing out of a hose for the next three weeks. Goddamn hippy.
[back to the present]
Reuben: And the *closest* any man has ever come to robbing a Las Vegas casino...
[flashback - outside Caesar's Palace, in color. A man runs out, hunched over an armful of cash, followed by three security guards]
Reuben: Was outside of Caesar's in '87. He came, he grabbed...
[the three guards shoot the thief in the back]
Reuben: They conquered.

There is Livingston and Yen rounding out the eleven.

Andy Garcia is Terry Benedict. He is ruthless about running his casinos.

Terry: All right. Now I have complied with your every request, would you agree?
Rusty: I would.
Terry: Good, 'cause now I have one of my own. Run and hide, a$$hole. Run and hide. If you should be picked up next week buying a hundred-thousand dollar sports car in Newport Beach, I am going to be supremely disappointed. Because I want my people to find you, and when they do, rest assured we are not going to hand you over to the police. So my advice to you again is this: run and hide. That is all that I ask.

In the end Danny gets the money and the girl played with her usual luminosity by Julia Roberts.

[Danny has just got out of jail]
Danny: Hi!
Tess: Hi. We need to get Rusty a girl.
Rusty: There's a women's prison down the road.
Danny: [noticing Tess is wearing her wedding ring] You said that you sold this.
Tess: I said that.
Danny: Liar.
Tess: Thief.
[they kiss]

I came home from this movie and told my husband he needed to see it. When it came out on DVD we watched it and watched it again. It is now a safety movie whenever it’s on television. Great movie.