The caper is complex and depends on split second timing. There are moments of comedy interspersed with scenes of nail biting tension. What if one thing goes wrong? Hell, what if everything goes wrong?
Today's Cinema Saturday post takes a look at one such movie, Ocean's Eleven from 2001, directed by Steven Soderbergh and featuring an ensemble cast of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy García, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliott Gould, Bernie Mac, and Carl Reiner.
Following his release from prison, Danny Ocean (Clooney) violates his parole (he must stay in New Jersey) by traveling west to meet up with Rusty Ryan (Pitt) to propose a heist. The two go to Las Vegas to pitch the plan to wealthy friend and former casino owner Reuben Tishkoff.
The plan is NOT to rob A casino.
The plan is to rob THREE casinos: the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand, all owned by Terry Benedict.
Reuben's not on board at first. Robbing ONE casino is damn near impossible but THREE? But Terry Benedict fucked Reuben over but hard and here's a chance to get even with that son of a bitch. Reuben agrees to bankroll the operation. (It takes money to steal money.)
Danny and Rusty recruit eight former colleagues and criminal specialists:
- con men Frank Catton and Saul Bloom
- auto specialists Virgil and Turk Malloy
- explosives expert Basher Tarr
- electronic surveillance technician Livingston Dell
- acrobat "The Amazing" Yen
- pickpocket Linus Caldwell
There is a lot of work to be done.
- Reconnaissance to learn about the security, the routines, the behaviors of the casino staff, and the building itself.
- Building a replica of the vault to practice maneuvering through it's security systems.
The plan is to pull off the heist on the night of a major boxing match at the triple casino where Terry Benedict's super duper vault will be flushed with even more cash than usual.
It turns out it's not just Reuben who has beef with Terry Benedict. Danny's ex-wife, Tess (Julia Roberts), is Benedict's girlfriend. Rusty worried that Danny's judgement might be compromised where Tess is concerned but Danny insists he has no problem following the plan no matter what.
On the night of the fight, the plan is put into motion.
Rusty calls Benedict on a cell phone Danny dropped in Tess's coat earlier and tells him that unless he lets them have half of the money in the vault, they will blow up the vault and Benedict loses ALL the money.
Benedict sees video footage confirming Rusty's claim. Benedict complies, having his bodyguards take loaded duffel bags to a waiting van.
Benedict has called in a SWAT team that leads to a shootout that sets off the explosives and incinerates the remaining cash.
Afterwards, the SWAT team collects their gear and departs.
As Benedict's men stop the van, finding it was driven by remote control and the bags were only loaded with flyers for prostitutes.
Benedict the realizes the the video footage he saw was not HIS vault but...
Well, you can guess what he was looking at.
I don't want to blow all the details but basically by the time Terry Benedict knew there was a robbery taking place, he had already been robbed.
And Tess leaves Terry to return to Danny.
Except not quite right away.
Every one in the operation gets away except for Danny Ocean who is arrested for violating his parole by leaving New Jersey.
When Danny is released after serving time for his parole violation, he is met by Rusty and Tess. They drive off, closely followed by Benedict's bodyguards.
We've reached the end of the movie but this ain't over yet.
The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department
- Elliott Gould (Reuben Tishkoff) was Ross and Monica's dad on Friends.
- Don Cheadle (Basher Tarr) is Rhodey, Tony Stark's friend and "War Machine" in the MCU.
Side Note: Oceans's Eleven is a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film and let me take a moment about that. You will not see one of my movie posts about that one. I have tried to watch it and I just can't get past the racist jokes at Sammy Davis Jr's expense and the outright misogynistic comments about women. I try to put the original Ocean's Eleven in the context of the times but I can't help think that even in 1960, some of the comments relating to race and sex were woefully outdated and just not funny.
Meanwhile....
The Ocean's Eleven from 2001 is fast-paced, witty and funny. Is there any doubt our gang will succeed? Not really but watching how the con comes together and marveling at all the moving parts is all part of the charm.
Coming up over the next 3 months, I will post about the subsequent sequels.
Tomorrow on Cinema Sunday, the con is on as we welcome back Carole Lombard to the blog for a classic caper film from 1936.
Next week on Cinema Saturday, we're gonna post about a porn movie... kind of.
No comments:
Post a Comment