Jeremy’s Tophunder №17: Ocean’s 11
I’m a sucker for heist movies.
I love the montages of the leader(s) assembling the team. I love the understory of “one last job.” I love underdogs ripping off the elite.
Depending on how you classify something as a “heist movie,” I have as many as six on my tophunder list. This one is ranked the highest of all of them, narrowly edging out another big budget blockbuster from the same decade. (According to my semi-randomly ordered list, we won’t be getting to that one until almost the very end of the project, so stay tuned.)
It’s the cast that makes a heist movie, and Ocean’s 11 delivers. Obviously it’s a re-make of a Rat Pack movie, so Ocean and Rusty have to be as famous and feel as big of a deal as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin did in 1960. George Clooney and Brad Pitt deliver that 100 percent. Matt Damon as the plucky underdog, the last guy added to the job, was also brilliant casting. Casey Affleck and Scott Caan bickered their way right into my heart within their first 30 seconds on screen.
(A quick few casting what-ifs: Johnny Depp and Mark Wahlberg were considered for Matt Damon’s part, and Luke and Owen Wilson were considered for the Affleck & Caan roles. It seems like they lucked out with Damon — he was perfect for the role and I can’t imagine anyone else playing it. With the brothers, though, as amazing as Affleck and Caan are, I almost want to see the movie — and the subsequent sequels — with Luke and Owen.)
Andy Garcia nails the smarmy casino owner as well as anyone could, Carl Reiner is amazing, and Eddie Jemison as the electronics and tech guru might be the best casting choice of all. The only parts that leave anything to be desired are Don Cheadle (just because of the terrible British accent — just get a British actor or tell him not to do an accent?) and Bernie Mac (but that’s also just kind of an underwritten part, which wasn’t Bernie’s fault — and to his credit, he does well with what he’s given), and as much as I love the movie, Julia Roberts probably wasn’t the right choice. Like, I get it — she was coming off an Oscar for Erin Brockovich, and she was probably the most bankable female movie star on the planet at the time, so in terms of Getting Big Names, she was the right choice. But in terms of getting the right actor for the part, I would have gone in a different direction (Penelope Cruz? Angelina Jolie? Rachel Weisz? Salma Hayek? I don’t know the right answer. I just feel like Roberts ain’t it.)
Anyway, we’re getting off topic here. Here are 11 things I love from Ocean’s 11.
- The music. Always the music. Heist movie music. It’s fantastic.
- The unspoken, even silent chemistry between Clooney and Pitt. Their best shared moments are when neither of them are talking.
- The transitions. Stephen Soderbergh knows how to move a story along with visuals. Check out the pans, cuts, and other visual movement in the “recruiting the team” montage (unfortunately it’s edited down, but you can still see what I’m talking about in the first few minutes of the video).
- Elliot Gould recounting the three most successful robberies in the history of Vegas. Always gets a chuckle out of me. (And the transition that opens the scene!)
- Carl Reiner as a German billionaire, saying “I don’t believe in weakness. It costs too much. I also don’t believe in questions.”
- I said it before but I’ll say it again. Affleck and Caan bickering and bitching at each other. (Whether in service of the heist as misdirection or just at each other’s throats because they’re brothers — I don’t care. I love it.)
- Don Cheadle covering his junk before setting off the Pinch. Is he just paranoid, or is there something more going on there? I’ve always wondered.
- George Clooney forgetting to put batteries in the detonator and Matt Damon saving the day.
- Elliot Gould with a fat stogie in his mouth in just about every scene. Movies need more cigars. Cigarettes are lame but cigars are cool. I’ll go to my grave saying this.
- Topher Grace flaunting a hand of “All Reds” in the intro poker scene.
- I ragged on Julia Roberts earlier but she’s really good in the scene at dinner with George Clooney. Easily her best scene.
- Screw it, I’m not done yet, let’s keep going.
- The game of 20 questions between Affleck and Caan in the van while the rest of the gang steals the EMP. “Am I a man?” Yes. “Am I alive?” Yes. “Evil Knievel.”
- Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, and Andy Garcia in the “Bernie gets fired but Matt steals the codes out of Andy’s pocket” scene. High comedy all the way around.
- More intro poker scene — as they all leave the club, girls mob Topher Grace and the other 90s Teen TV heartthrobs, meanwhile not-Brad Pitt and not-George Clooney stroll out and nobody cares. High comedy.
- Let’s be honest. The heist itself is pretty awesome. Hysterically and unnecessarily convoluted? Sure. But the finished product is sweet. The last 20 minutes really deliver.
- Brad Pitt is eating or drinking in just about every scene he’s in. Sure, he eats a lot in just about every movie he’s in, but it’s -very- prominent here.
- It has to be said — this incredibly fun movie spawned two slightly less fun movies and one slightly less fun spin-off. None of the other three were good enough to make the tophunder list, but they’re still good movies. That moved this one up the list a few spots.
I really like Stephen Soderbergh movies, but this was somehow the only one to make the list. I enjoy his filmmaking style a lot. There were a number of his movies that made the initial cut, but as I trimmed down to just 100, movies like Ocean’s 12 and Ocean’s 13 and The Informant! and Contagion ended up getting left off. But I wanted to be sure to mention how much I like Soderbergh, because I don’t want someone to look over the list once I’m done with it and get the impression that I’m not a big fan. I am, I just didn’t have enough space. I guess I’ll just have to settle for Ocean’s 11 clocking in at №17.
(For a refresher on the project, I introduced it in a Facebook Post on Day 1)
Here’s our progress on the list so far:
17. Ocean’s 11
24. Apollo 13
