*** Official OCEAN'S ELEVEN Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Edwin Pereyra]

It's not mandatory for casinos to hold certain amounts of cash, but casinos do, do that. Especially for holidays, and 'special events'

That is true. In addition, as a courtesy, casinos notify their respective banks as to the amount of cash they will be needing on holidays and special events. This is to ensure that banks are in a position to fulfill that casino's cash requirements. They cannot just surprise a bank on a regular day and ask for a huge withdrawal, which the bank is unable to fulfill.

~Edwin

 

[David Oliver]

Honestly, I don't think the details about Casino security and such are really that important. The movie set up a heist with a given set of obstacles to overcome. As long as the movie maintains an internal consistency and can hang together on those merits I think it is fine. I think Ocean's 11 did that, more or less. I was very much entertained watching this gang try to solve the riddle the movie presented.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

I enjoyed the movie until the end, which I thought was just a little to "Hollywood".

Did Soderbergh use Super35?

It looks to me like he did. A shot of a cars headlight coming right at the camera did not have any of the visual distortions assoicated with anamorphic lenses.

Neil

 

[AndyDL]

Well, I went into this film after watching a snippet of the Behind the Scenes program on E!. Julia Roberts said to not expect any "deep messages" in the film. So, I didn't... and..
I enjoyed it very much.
At the beginning of the movie, I thought, there is no way Steven Soderbergh will be able to get this audience to believe these guys can rob a Vegas casino.
But he did. With very little "hokey-ness."
The only part I thought was a bit silly was:
When the bomb goes off in the van, and the power for the entire city goes out. Yeah right.

Other than that, I found this movie very fun and very enjoyable.
I wasn't expecting much of a performance out of George Clooney, but he did very well. However, Andy Garcia has my vote for the best actor in the film. He had that character nailed.
:star: :star: :star:
Nice flick.
Andy

 

[JonZ]

I was gonna see Ocean 11 this coming weekend. I think Ill go see Vanilla Sky instead and wait and rent Ocean 11.

 

[Allen Hirsch]

Just saw on CNN that Ocean's 11 did $39M+ this weekend at the box office, to unseat Harry Potter as #1.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Well definitely not in the same class as other Soderbergh works. Having said that, it was an enjoyable winter popcorn flick with more than a few good chuckles.

 

[Ryan Peter]

JonZ: It's your choice, but if you do see this flick, I would recommend it be on the big screen. This is definitely a *big screen* movie.

 

[MathewM]

I can't decide if I really liked this film. I'm a Soderbergh fan, and even like the much maligned Kafka, however Ocean's 11 is a little weak. Plot holes aside (I'll accept an alloted amount in a Heist film) the movie lacks charm. It's supposed to be fun, but the first 2/3 of it, the setup if you will, is flat, lacking any dramatic tension. Clooney and company wink and grin at the camera and each other without letting the audience in on the joke. It's a distant cool, that would of worked if the characters actually had some on screen chemistry with each other. George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez sparked in Out of Sight, here Clooney and Roberts sulk. Speaking of the stars, was it just me or did everyone in the film look rather drab. Besides the film's golden hue no one radiated. Maybe too much drinking and partying on the set.
Negatives aside, I felt Soderbergh pulled off the actual heist rather well. Unlike the rest of the film, it's paced well and entertaining. However that's only the last 1/3 of the film which doesn't make the sum of it's parts all that good. And about the ending (3 or 4 months later). It sucked. It felt so tacked on. Did they do reshoots because of poor test screenings?
Anyway :star: :star: 1/2

 

[Tom-G]

Wow! I've learned some interesting tidbits about casinos. Thanks for that, Edwin.

I saw this film tonight and I liked it. It is not a great film by any stretch, nor is it Soderbergh's best work, but the film is enjoyable. The set-up of the characters didn't have an interesting development, but the mix of the characters and the way they went about robbing the casions was fun to watch, even if it was implausible.

Andy Garcia's character was an uninteresting bad guy and lacked any kind of intrique or emotion that a villain needs to be effective. This could be attributable to a lack of screen time, but with so many characters and multiple subplots, it possibly precluded any kind of development of his character.

After seeing "The Score" and "Heist" I realize that there is no shortage of fun heist films even if the previous two were done better.

 

[Joel Mack]

re: the inaccuracies in the film:
How enthused would the Las Vegas casinos be if a mainstream motion picture REALLY showed Joe Public how to rip them off?

 

[Christopher Bosley]

Loved the flick, good Soderbergh as usual.

Um, I'm no physicist but I think the reason that they had to go to the California lab was to get a device capable of generating an EMP big enough to take out all of Vegas. Guess you have to accept that such a thing exists.

But the thing that's been bugging the crap out of me is what was the heist movie that used the same surveillance video substition trick
that the crew used here? Not "Heat," cuz there they just had them turned off by computer
. I KNOW that there was a film that used it before because I kinda figured out what they had done before the ending was fully revealed.

Anyone remember?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Chris,

The film "The Score" has some of those camera tricks.

Crawdaddy

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Speaking of the Bellagio, they have one of the best free shows in Las Vegas. It was prominently featured in the film and I presume during that tracking shot of the individual faces of the cast in the final moments of the film, that this is what they were watching - the dancing water fountains in front of the Bellagio.

If you are ever there, try seeing this at night with your significant other. When my wife and I were there, they played Time To Say Goodbye with Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman synchronized to the fountains. It was just simply spectacular.

~Edwin

 

[Seth Paxton]

Edwin, that was Sarah's favorite fountain song. Personally I enjoyed "Luck be a Lady". Maybe it wasn't arranged with the fountains any better, but that song in Vegas is just perfect.
Having just come back from Vegas over Thanksgiving, Sarah and I were really enjoying seeing the scenes. Especially since we stayed across the street at Paris and had those same views of Bellagio most of the time.
Joel, I was thinking the same thing. No way you get permission to film in a casino if you ACCURATELY depict a method for ripping them off.
"Can we film here and could you show us every weak point in your security. Don't worry no one will get any ideas. Just look at Heat, no one ever tried to copy that...errr, uh, nevermind."
I have not see Heist but I have seen the security camera loop trick done MANY times in films. Kinda a standard plot device really. I wish I could think of some other examples right now but I can't.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

I have not see Heist but I have seen the security camera loop trick done MANY times in films. Kinda a standard plot device really. I wish I could think of some other examples right now but I can't.

Speed
***SPOILERS***
But I think it was better executed in that film as I wasn't expecting it to happen instead of in Ocean's Eleven where they pratically gave it away early on that it was going to happen.
~Edwin

 

[Seth Paxton]

There ya go. I knew there was a popular one for sure.

I thought the double-switch was a twist though. Didn't quite understand what was up when they first turned the cameras back "on". Took me a second to think "oh, they are faking this feed too".

 

[Ken Chan]

I'd guess the only way to get the casinos to participate (as it seemed they did) was to portray the robbery in a way that seems plausible to the lay person, but actually has no chance of succeeding in real life. So it bothers those that really know, but how many of you are out there? (Contrast that with how computers are portrayed )
Having the stable of WB stars at the poker game was pretty funny, including the line (to/from Clooney) about how difficult it was to cross over from TV to film.
Anyone notice the end credits, which said, "and introducing Julia Roberts as Tess"? What's up with the introducing?
Overall, an enjoyable diversion.
//Ken

 

[Brian Perry]

I liked Ocean's Eleven quite a bit. It wasn't overly long, and the pacing never got bogged down.

 

[Allen Hirsch]

I figured the Julia Roberts end credit was a joke/prank Soderbergh & Clooney played on their "buddy", the biggest female star on the planet (probably a jokester "thank you" for taking a fraction of her usual fee, and being part (almost a bit part, even) of an ensemble cast.)