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Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is a good-looking smooth operator who has figured in a dozen
investigations but has never been charged.
Fresh out of prison he plans a heist that would dry up the vault shared by three Las Vegas casinos. He contacts an old and equally handsome sidekick, Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) and ten other experts in order to steal upwards of $160 million. Apart from his plan to steal from the casinos, Ocean has a hidden agendum: to steal his ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts) from her current lover, casino owner Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia).
Ocean's 11, a remake of the 1960 Frank Sinatra caper, must have been created just for fun by
Steven Soderbergh, a serious director who usually aims higher. Slick and armed with excellently delivered dialogue, the technically smooth movie entertains-no doubt
about that-with the highlight being the execution of the plan with a split-second timing. And from the way the story runs from beginning to end, it seems the director,
the filmmakers, the writers and the actors themselves had real fun doing the movie.
Fun is fun and entertainment is entertainment, sure, but is anybody worrying at all about the
effect of such playful entertainment on impressionable minds? Like all entertainment, this one carries a message, a dangerous message since it glorifies the criminal
lifestyle.
It's like poison marketed as a harmless chocolate-flavored drink; would you allow your children to ingest Baygon that looks and tastes like Milo? The movie's heroes are unrepentant criminals-they may be handsome, competent and charming, but they're nonetheless criminals, nonchalantly violating at least three of the ten commandments ("Thou shalt not lie
steal
covet thy neighbors' goods
") and getting away with it. Crime movies are peppered with ingeniously fashioned gadgets and gizmos which could render viewers forgetful of the damaging values they slip into their heads. Perhaps Soderbergh was only playing when he made Ocean's 11, but one man's play could be another man's peril. Don't let this cool, fun movie blind you to its essential message: Crime does pay, especially if you look like Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
(Date reviewed: January 25, 2002)
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