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HTF REVIEW: "Ocean's 11" (2001) (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

Lewis Besze

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 28, 1999
Messages
3,134
Ron as usual I disagree with your opinion on this movie,and I leave it at that.

Reagarding the sound,it's a Soderbergh movie,and rarely any of his efforts were "audio demoes" or even close.I guess that's not his forte?

Check out the Limey,Out Of Sight,and Traffic,and you'll find the same thing.
 

Julian Lalor

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 5, 1999
Messages
975
FWIW, Don Cheadle's character spoke Cockney English. He had a linguist teach him this accent and for those few who know what Cockney English sounds like, he was pretty convincing.
Quite a few people know what Cockney English sounds like, and Cheadle's accent sounds nothing like it. It is terrible, deliberate or otherwise. I understand that his accent may have been a parody of the first film, but as relatively few people have seen the original in comparison to the remake, I think that would have been lost on most. I wasn't offended by the take, it was simply very jarring and unnatural sounding and did detract from my enjoyment of a film I otherwise liked a great deal. I spent the first 45 minutes sure that Cheadle was deliberately faking the accent as some sort of joke and that, at some point, his real American accent would come through. It didn't.
 

Matthew_S

Second Unit
Joined
Jan 11, 2001
Messages
359
You've got to be kidding me: you "highly recommend" Hearts in Atlantis and Behind Enemy Lines, and call Captain Corelli's Mandolin "very entertaining" and The Fast and the Furious "absolutely entertaining" -- but have a problem with this film?
 

Tom Foley

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 24, 2001
Messages
72
Since the opinions seemed to go both ways here, I thought I'd just throw in my two cents. I just previewed this last night (the wonders of newsgroups!) and hope that those who are still wavering on this one hold on to their money.
The movie was just an awful mess. Plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. MAJOR actors who are getting paid BIG money who are basically sleepwalking through their lines. Scenarios that are just too unbelievable even for a popcorn flick. The movie just rested on its laurels knowing that with the list of stars on the roster, that enough fans of Access Entertainment Daily or whatever tabloid shows would waste their time going.
What hurt even more is I LOVED Out Of Sight , and Traffic and Erin Brockovitch were also excellent movies. But this was such a half-wit effort from Soderbergh that even Hollywood should be ashamed for hyping this thing as much as it did.
Some things did work: the photography, the GQ costume design, the pacing. But here are just a few things that demonstrate why the movie fails so badly (I'll spoiler them just in case, but really, does it matter if all you're looking for is to be entertained?):
Carl Reiner's character asks the very important question of "Are we just going to WALK out of the casino with $150 million," to which Clooney replies "Yes," with no further explanation? Is that what defines cool?

Or this humdinger:
After realizing they have to figure a new way to knock out the power in Vegas, Cheadle's character remembers the "pinch" bomb, which they immediately go to steal. Yes, I suppose that you can practically just walk into a building and steal a device that knocks out the power in a major city WITHOUT ENCOUNTERING ANY SECURITY WHATSOEVER!?!

Look, I'm all for entertainment, but there's no need to insult your audience's intelligence.
So save you're money for the theater this summer, and if you have to see Oceans 11, make it a rental or better yet, wait for HBO Saturday night.
 

DarrenA

Second Unit
Joined
Aug 30, 2000
Messages
311
Posted by Tom Foley...
Carl Reiner's character asks the very important question of "Are we just going to WALK out of the casino with $150 million," to which Clooney replies "Yes," with no further explanation? Is that what defines cool?
Answered by Darren...
So, it would have been better if Clooney just explained exactly how they were going to pull of the heist, thus ruining the nice twist at the end when they "did" walk out of casino with $150 million.:rolleyes
 

Dean DeMass

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
1,826
Darren,
You beat me to the punch. ;)
I watched this for the 1st time yesterday and I was very entertained by it. I was expecting a stylish comedy about a big casino heist with big stars, and that is what I got. Were ther big plot holes? Probably, but I was so busy being entertained I didn't notice. I also was not distracted at all by the accent. The film was so over the top anyway, why should the accent not be over the top as well?
IMHO, Clooney and Pitt worked really well together and I would love to see those two do another film together.
I give the film :star: :star: :star: out of :star: :star: :star: :star: .
I had no problem with the Audio or Video of the disc. The jazzy music score sounded fantastic and as another person already mentioned, Soderbergh's soundtracks are never demo material. I am looking forward to listening to the commentaries, especially the Pitt, Damon, and Garcia one.
Oh, Andy Garcia was robbed of a Best Supporting Actor nod. ;)
-Dean-
 

EvanB

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jun 13, 2000
Messages
87
hey guys....i enjoyed this movie quite a bit. i was in vegas and at the bellagio right before production began, and i saw brad pitt, george clooney and julia roberts among others lingering around the gambling tables. quite a site, no one was bothering them at all. i had to do more than a few double takes to make sure it was them! luckily i was with the hotel manager so she pointed them out. and on another note, a lot of people bashed soderbergh for making this, and while i agree he is better at making "art" films like brokovich and traffic, this movie would have been not even close to as good if someone lesser was directing. just my two cents....
 

David James

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 25, 1999
Messages
194
I enjoyed it in the movies and again on a plane a few weeks back and I'll probably rent it this weekend. While it didn't ruin the picture for me, I agree with Tom that the acquisition of the pinch bomb was a bit "underdeveloped" :)
 

Sam Davatchi

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 15, 1999
Messages
3,150
Real Name
SamD
Just saw it today for the first time. I like the original very much. It was one of my childhood movies! This new remake didn’t do anything to me. It wasn’t even fun to me. What a waste of talent... Soderbergh’s.
 

FrankT

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Feb 5, 2002
Messages
107
I have to agree with Ron, he pretty much nailed how I feel about this movie.

I liked seeing the people on the screen, and a lot of the time it was fun, but you could just feel that something was missing.

I think this review is right on target. An entertaining renter.
 

JasonKrol

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 19, 2001
Messages
505
just rented this last night. I rather enjoyed it. thats it, not a buyer by any means..but was entertaining.

the only thing that really really bothered me was the whole part with:

the little chinese guys hand getting stuck in "something"? and the bad batteries etc.


what was up with that scene?? i found the humor in the second part..but didnt find any relevance in the first part (parts of the spoiler I mention above that is)

all in all though, this was a cool movie. But, Heist movie meets GQ is a perfect summary.

Great Review Ron, once again!! One question though, I may have missed this already stated somewhere else, so please someone answer me if they know....how the hell do you take those pictures so perfectly?!?! Do you have like a super duper digital camera setup with the perfect conditions. They look awesome!! Nice work!!!
 

Rob Tomlin

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2000
Messages
4,506
I saw this last night (rented via Netflix).
I am very surprised that so many people here at HTF enjoyed this movie! Aye carumba!
If anything, Ron's review was quite kind!
Most of the actors (except Garcia) seemed to be sleepwalking through this movie. Parody or no parody, this movie didn't work for me.
:thumbsdown:
 

Jussi Tarvainen

Second Unit
Joined
May 10, 2001
Messages
382
I can accept Ron's opinion of the film, but I don't appreciate the final comment of his review:
However, you'll ultimately have no doubt that Director Steven Soderbergh should have studied his blueprints a little more carefully before attempting to pull off a remake like this.
I really don't like to be told how I should and apparently do feel after seeing a film. Ocean's Eleven was one of the most entertaining Hollywood films I've seen in a long time and Soderbergh absolutely pulled it off nicely. That's my opinion, I'm not saying everybody will definitely feel that way after watching the film.
 
M

MaxY

Bjoern,
Just a few notes about the transfer of this one.
It looks much much better then the screen shots do. I watched it the other night and for the most part I thought the transfer was pretty damn good, and I can get picky.
One thing that must be kept in mind that I have not seen mentioned in this thread about the transfer though....
It is a Soderbergh film. One of things you will notice in many of his films (IE Traffic) is that he loves to use hues to represent certain things. This sometimes tends to make things look a little oversaturated.
One thing you will notice from this movie is the Casinos are hue in gold. :) and the Vault tends to be a sterile blue hue.
Seriously thought I thought the transfer was top notch.
As viewed with a Sony 9000 ES DVD player using better cable Silver Serpent to connect it o a decently calibrated Mits 73907. :)
Max
 

Bjoern Roy

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 15, 1998
Messages
315
Thanks for thinking of me, Max! I already have the DVD and the picture is excellent. I know and love Soderbergh's style and cinematography in Traffix on O11.

The reason Ron's pictures looked a tad too dark and saturated where technical ones. Ron and I sorted it out, his screenshots should be dead on delineation-wise from now on.
 

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