Oceans Eleven (2001)

Oceans Eleven is probably one of the coolest films ever made. I don't know if they set out to make it that way, the fact that Bruce Willis was set to play Danny Ocean at one point makes me think no. But let's start with the cast. Included in the cast you have George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan and like 100 other cool faces. It's a sort of remake of a Rat Pack film, set in a Casino, Directed by Steven Soderbergh and it's about con men. Seriously, how could this film not be cool.

Without giving too much away the plot follows Danny Ocean (Clooney) who recently released from prison gets a gang of thieves together to pull off the biggest heist is Las Vegas history. There are twists and turns, problems they face, but ultimately they get it done (Not a spoiler because quite frankly it's obvious from the tone that this is a happy film). When you're looking at an ensemble cast like this it's more important that the cast work well together than it is individual players do their parts. Thankfully the cast here all feel like natural friends. I think it helps that many of them are friends off set too, playing pranks on each other at an alarming rate, but the chemistry between pretty much everyone and everyone else just clicks. The only clunker when it comes to acting is Don Cheadle, nothing wrong with his acting at all, except his London accent is probably the worst I've heard since Mary Poppins. It doesn't detract from the film too much as somehow you can ignore it, though I do wonder why he had to be English at all, as besides a joke where he uses Cockney Rhyming slang and confuses the rest of them it's not really important.

Directorial wise it's a very clever film. Soderbergh likes to use close up shots of things happening like someone shuffling cards, reaching for a drink, focusing on their hands as they do so and so on. In a film like this where sleight of hand is key to the events as they unfold it's a very useful tool, and feels completely natural, as we see similar shots during normal scenes also. Some moments, such as the shot above are simply iconic. The film is given a colourful tone too, colours being perhaps exaggerated beyond what they normally would to give the impression of a playful film, whilst they are technically thieves you are rooting for them because you know that it's not real.

Music duties are handled by David Holmes, who has never been better than creating what feels like a completely fresh and original take on the Rat Pack/Vegas themes. It's another just 'cool' thing about the film, finger clicking tracks throughout the film.

Basically everything in this film just works, it's the perfect film to watch to make you happy, it's not too challenging you have to think about what you're watching but by no means braindead entertainment, it's very intelligently shot and very well acted, but it is the type of film that will always get overlooked simply for the reason that it is too 'cool' to be serious.