Without a doubt, the Ocean's Eleven remake is one of THE great movies of the decade. It takes a tired genre, still loaded with potential, shakes it up, and deals out something fresh.
The ensemble are poetry in motion...all memorable individual thieves, criminals and con-men interacting engrossingly as a team. Plus it has a plot that has everything; an intricate, mission impossible style caper, mis-trust in the group, a love story (who will she choose!?!), A-list stars and a cold ruthless villain. It keeps the belly laughs flowing consistantly and presents a heist that you can't quite work out how Danny and the boys will pull off.
Director Steven Soderbergh gives mainstream cinema a shot in the arm of sophistication with this movie. Everything from the sleek set design, glossy, rich photography, artsy european editing and David Holme's jazzy, chillout dance score giving this a classy edge.
The best thing about it isn't the most obvious, but it bleeds into every aspect of the story; that which is left unsaid. Lots of the humour is built on this concept whether it's the one way banter between Clooney and Pitt (Brad doesn't need to say a word yet George, or even Topher Grace, know what he's thinking) or the chinese mutterings of Yen, which in true Chewbacca style, the rest of the crew understand perfectly without ever translating for the audience. Clooney doesn't need to answer the question of what his post-prison plans are (we're here to see a heist movie...we can read his mind) and we never get to find out what Pitt was telling Damon to "never, ever forget..." The whole emotional core of the movie is built on what Ocean left unsaid to his wife during their marraige while the entertainment value of the heist is improved by leaving unsaid how 'exactly' it will be achieved.
The script is tighter than a gap in Seth Rogan's schedule and classier than Charlize Theron's under-garments. Like Back to the Future, the sequels are great fun too, but never managed to recreate the perfection displayed here. Magnifique!
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