Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Rated: M15+
STEVEN Soderbergh is emerging as the director of mainstream film-making in Hollywood.
With Sex, Lies and Videotape, Traffic and Erin Brockovich to his credit, he now turns to the gangster genre.
In his latest film, Ocean’s Eleven, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is released from jail and gathers 11 disciples to join him in a heist on the vault of three Las Vegas casinos.
These gaming venues are owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) who is living with Tess (Julia Roberts), Ocean’s former wife.
All of Soderbergh’s film-making traits are on display here – clever camera angles, stylish editing, split scenes, the fusion of varying film grades and exposures, swipe edits, a good pace to the story, cynical wit, and understated dialogue.
The story is the weak link but Clooney, Roberts, Garcia, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon make the very best of an utterly predictable tale.
The subtitle of Ocean’s Eleven is “Are you in or out?” Given the fun the director, cast and crew had making this heist fantasy, count me in!
