Review of Ocean's Eleven (2001) by Manicure — 22 Nov 2020

"Ocean's Eleven" is pure popcorn brainless entertainment, but it does its job pretty well thanks to the slick direction and the excellent chemistry of the ensemble cast. They don't take much time to introduce each character, but they are all easy to remember and fall in love with.

Everything that happens in the plan is either contradictory or Avengers movie-level plausible, but I didn't mind as accurate heist movies tend to get long and verbose to the point they spoil the fun. In the following 20 years, heist films surely got bigger and smarter, but it feels like they all owe some influence to "Ocean's Eleven". The biggest letdown here is how clumsy Tess and Danny's relationship is, and the silly shortcut the writers took to get them back together. Tess finds out that her new boyfriend is the ultimate **** by watching a video from the gang, and runs back to her ex-husband's arms ten minutes later. I thought he was the man that ruined her life? She even waits for him to get out of jail. It's like she has to be with either of them or get erased from the plot. Well, I guess (over)thinking doesn't work with this kind of film.