'Ocean's 11' is where my love of heist movies started

 Story

After getting out of prison, Danny Ocean and his 11 accomplices plan to rob 3 Vegas casinos simultaneously.

As far as heist movies go, this one is pretty complex because it isn't just one heist but 3 at the same time. It has all the elements I would expect from this kind of heist movie, comedy, suspense and a little drama. I wouldn't call it a dramedy but that's the genre it fits in best.  IMDB categorized this as a Thriller and I can see where that tag would fit but it's not very thrilling. I guess I would call it a crime dramedy with thrilling elements.

This is a remake of the 1960 movie of the same name starring the Ratpac but the story here was updated and streamlined to make it more coherent and somewhat relatable.

Acting

It stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, Bernie Mac and Casey Affleck. Usually, I'm not a fan of the term 'a colourful cast of characters' but that's the best way to describe the cast in this movie. Not all of them would work individually but they all have such tangible chemistry and because if that they bounce off each other and keep the movie flowing.

Saying George Clooney was charismatic and likeable is like saying "the sky is blue". Danny Ocean is everything you would expect a master thief to be, smart, charming and likeable. That being said, George Clooney is also playing himself in this movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing, due to the fact that you really gravitate towards Danny.

Brad Pitt plays Rusty Ryan, Danny's right- hand man. He may not be as charismatic as Danny but he's likeable in his own way. The two of them work well together because they balance each other out. Rusty is the more logical and level-headed of the pair. He's also incredibly witty and that makes for

Matt Damon plays Linus Caldwell, who also happens to be the audience surrogate. Matt Damon usually plays characters who are sure of themselves and this is a nice departure from that. Linus isn't the smartest person in the room and has come to prove himself, and show that he can be trusted.

Bernie Mac was hilarious as always. He's one of the most likeable characters in the movie and I missed him when he wasn't on screen.

Julia Roberts isn't in the movie much, which is kind of a waste. She doesn't do much and is one of the characters who isn't witty. Her character is one that hasn't aged very well as she's more of an add-on than an actual character.

Every time I watch this movie I cringe at  Don Cheadle's terrible cockney accent. It's very distracting and sounds odd and forced. His performance isn't bad by any stretch, he does have good comedic timing and funny delivery but the bad accent makes it very hard to focus on what he's doing. 

Writing/Direction

This film is very sleek and heavily stylised. From the shot compositions to the way it is edited. The best way to describe this charismatic (not the best adjective to describe a film but for this one, it just works) This movie is also very smart. at the end when you find out how the heist was pulled off you can't help but smile because everything was executed perfectly.

There's quite a bit of exposition by way of dialogue, something I'm not a huge fan of but it wasn't something that took me out of the film and I forgive the movie because it's usually par for the course with a movie like this.

When the cast of a film is this large it's very hard to give each character personality and appropriate screentime but Steven Soderberg manages to do that. The beauty of a heist movie is that everyone is important and is given something to do.

However, none of the characters have any depth to them, apart from Danny you don't know why they do what they do or how they tick, and I'm completely fine with that. This movie is more story-driven than character driven and it makes sense. You want to focus on what is being done rather than who is doing it.

This movie is incredibly easy to watch and that's down to Soderberg's direction. He perfectly balances all the themes in this movie. It also has great pacing, the movie feels short even though it runs at 117 minutes. The closer you get to the heist, the more invested in the story you get.

Set Design 

This is one of the few times where I don't have much to say about the set design. The movie was filmed on locations in Las Vegas and it does make me want to go there and rob a casino (I may or may not be joking), but other than that there isn't much to add.

Score/Soundtrack 

David Holmes did a great job of creating a distinct sound for this movie, it sounds the same way the movie feels, slick and very reminiscent of the Rat Pack.

Overall Thoughts

I can't tell you how many times I've seen this movie. Whenever I'm asked what my favourite movies are, this one is always on the list. It's funny, dramatic and tense when it needs to be.  This movie is the reason I love heist movies. You get to live vicariously through these characters and I spent a while (longer than I should) wondering what I would do with that kind of money.

There is incredible chemistry between the cast and because of that, the movie is engaging. This is the definition of a feel-good movie and never ceases to keep me entertained even though I've seen it multiple times. It never tries to be more than it is, and because of that, it carves out its own niche. For a film released almost 20 years ago, it's aged very very well.