In Steven Soderbergh's caper comedy Ocean's Eleven, revenge isn't just sweet, it's incredibly cool.
Ocean's Eleven is inspired by the 1960 Rat Pack movie that starred Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and pals having fun in Las Vegas -- their favourite real and reel life playground.
It's the story of how a dozen friends rob three of the major casinos in the city that never sleeps.
Soderbergh and screenwriter Ted Griffin have retained the title, the spirit and the conceit of the original and then revved them up with the high-tech shenanigans of a Mission Impossible.
Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is a con man just been released from prison who is determined to make up for lost time and lost love.
While he was in prison, Danny's wife Tess (Julia Roberts) divorced him and took up with billionaire casino mogul Harry Benedict (Andy Garcia).
Danny has hatched a plan to rob Benedict of $160 million -- and Tess' affections -- but he needs 11 highly skilled accomplices to realize his impossible dream.
Money from the three casinos is stored in the vault of the Bellagio Hotel, which means Danny's team has to get past armed guards, cameras, security codes, lasers and alarms.
Danny's right-hand man is his best friend Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), a master organizer and a master of deceit.
Together they track down explosives expert Roscoe Means (Don Cheadle), aging confidence man Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner), an electronics hacker (Edward Jemison), pickpocket Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), a contortionist (Shaobo Qin), a blackjack dealer (Bernie Mac) and masters of disguise Virgil (Casey Affleck) and Turk (Scott Caan) Malloy.
All this takes money and that's where Ruben Tischkoff (Elliott Gould) comes in.
Benedict swallowed up Tischkoff's casino empire, so the flamboyant millionaire will spare no expense to see Benedict squirm.
A less confident director than Soderbergh might have rushed the first third of the film, which introduces each member of the team, but Soderbergh relishes the opportunity to drop little hints of what to expect. He drops just as many red herrings, which is even more fun.
Scams within scams
Like Benedict, the audience is about to get conned several times along the way by the slight of hand of both Soderbergh and Griffin.
Like its predecessor, this Ocean's Eleven doesn't pretend to be creating real characters and thrusting them into real situations.
It's Clooney showing how charming he is and Pitt how glib and sexy he can be.
Cheadle has great fun with an outrageous English accent and Gould brings a touch of showmanship to the role of the money man.
Caan and Affleck are hilarious as squabbling brothers who are masters of disguise.
Damon bleeds laughs because he makes Linus seem as confused as most audience members will be by Danny and Dusty's clever twists and their scams within scams.
Chalk it up to the few demands of her character, but Roberts seems completely bored.
Without her trademark big hair, big smile and big laugh, Roberts seems at a loss to develop a character so desirable that she'd have men risking wealth and reputation for her affections.
Ocean's Eleven is a merry romp that delivers laughs in aces and boasts a full house of marquee talent.
If they'd all taken their regular salaries and not done the film as a lark, it would have cost Warner Bros. the full $160 million these thieves set out to steal.
(More on: Ocean's 11).
(This film is rated PG)
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