Throwback Thursday Review: 'Ocean's Eleven' (2001)

Sorry that this review's coming a little late, but last Thursday evening I prioritized writing my Hereditary review because I felt compelled to share my thoughts immediately. Anyways, I'd never seen Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy prior to a few days ago so I went ahead and watched them all before going to see Ocean's Eight yesterday. I won't be reviewing Ocean's Twelve and Thirteen for the time being because I have a lot of reviews to prepare/publish this week before going out of town. This includes publishing Throwback Thursday Reviews of Jurassic Park and The Incredibles in addition to reviewing new releases Ocean's Eight, Hotel Artemis, Tag (2018), and Incredibles 2 and prepping a Throwback Thursday Review for The Lost World: Jurassic Park before I leave. As a result, my review of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will be coming a little later than normal since I won't likely see the film till perhaps next Friday.

'Ocean's Eleven' Review

Ocean's Eleven trails con artist Danny Ocean shortly after he's been let out of jail and put on parole. Ocean assembles a team of ten other accomplices with plans to steal from three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously.

Ocean's Eleven was directed by Steven Soderbergh, featured a screenplay written by Ted Griffin, and functioned as a full-fledged reboot which went on to become a bankable trilogy of capers. With the help of a star-studded cast, Soderbergh assured direction ensures Ocean's Eleven was a heist film dressed to the nines and has got plenty of style to spare from start-to-finish. Soderbergh even served as his own cinematographer under the pseudonym of Peter Andrews (he does this fairly often) so the cinematography is sleek and stimulating under his watchful eye. When combined with the surefire editing and a jazzy score by David Holmes, the film's bravado is absolutely unrivaled.

I also appreciated how the film was fairly unpredictable and kept me on my toes as I tried to guess how the crew would get themselves out of some hairy situations. The twists and turns along the way managed to be quite surprising and satisfying, and I particularly liked that there was an ulterior motive to the heist beyond stealing tons of money. It's always nice when a heist film is really about something greater and a relatable motivation is a solid start to that. 

Other entertaining elements include the heist itself, some sharp dialogue, and the camaraderie amongst the crew. I've also got to say how impressive it is that the script managed to balance the ensemble despite having an abundance of characters. Some get more focus that others, but that's simply the nature of show business. 

Regardless of all that, the all star cast will charm your socks off. George Clooney imbues Ocean with a suave debonair and calm, collected composure while Brad Pitt's Rusty is a reliable right hand man. Filling out the rest of the crew, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Elliott Gould, Don Cheadle, Eddie Jemison, Carl Reiner, Shaobo Qin, Casey Affleck, and Scott Caan are exemplary matches to their respective roles as up-and-coming pickpocket Linus, smooth talking croupier Frank, eccentric munitions expert Basher, flamboyant tycoon Reuben, awkward tech genius Livingston, grouchy old con-man Saul, soft-spoken Chinese acrobat Yen, and two hard headed brothers Virgil and Turk. 

On the flip-side, Andy Garcia goes all in for his cold-hearted portrayal of Terry Benedict and stands out as a formidable foe. Meanwhile, Julia Roberts has little screen time, but makes her mark as a fitting femme fatale of sorts. 

While not all that substantive, Ocean's Eleven is slick, stylish, and an all-around good time. It's been seventeen years, but Ocean's Eleven seems to still be the gold standard for this franchise and the heist genre in general.

Film Assessment: A-

'Money Monster' Review

Money Monster is a suspenseful hostage drama directed by Jodie Foster. The film showcases a hostage situation on the set of a financial television show called "Money Monster." Money Monster, like the recent film The Big Short, focuses on the fallout of a financial crisis. The difference being that Money Monster's financial crisis is fictional and jumps straight into the public reaction rather than showing the real events as they occur. 

Jodie Foster manages to weave it all in quite well and Foster's direction allows the suspenseful thriller aspect of the film to thrive amidst the tense situation taking place. Unfortunately, every time the film cut away from the claustrophobic hostage crisis the pace of the film slowed down. This is large part to the phenomenal performances that engage the audience into the tense atmosphere that's been expertly executed. 

George Clooney nails the personality of the zany wisecracking host of "Money Monster". Clooney gets to fool around a bit in the beginning, but also gets some terrific opportunities to explore more of the earthly vulnerable humanity of Lee Gates as is to be expected in a tense environment. 

Julia Roberts also does quite well as the director of the show, Patty Feen. Roberts' role primarily finds her advising Gates on how to carefully defuse the situation and she handles the "voice of reason" role nicely. 

Jack O'Connell also gets to showcase a wide range of emotion as Kyle Budwell. Budwell is certainly the most relatable character in the film as the everyman. O'Connell's performance is one of the highlights of the film. My favorite aspect of the film was seeing him slowly build a necessary friendship with Gates that allowed for a very emotional scene towards the film's conclusion. Those three performances really elevated the film overall, but weren't able to save the lackluster elements outside the "Money Monster" set.

Giancarlo Esposito is one of my favorite television actors, but really didn't add any depth or intrigue to his character that any other actor wouldn't be able to do and just seemed to do a serviceable job. Really any actor could have played the role of that police captain and it would have been just as effective.

One actor that caught me off guard was Christopher Denham who was the producer of "Money Monster", Ron Sprecher. Denham added a surprising bit of comedic relief that never took away from the seriousness of the situation, making for a nice standout among the supporting cast. On a side note, IMDB is a very reliable source I use when writing a review and I caught something quite hilarious that I had to share with my readers. There are multiple anchormen in the film and instead of crediting them as "Anchorman #1," "Anchorman #2," and so on, they are credited as "An Anchorman," "Another Anchorman," and "Yet Another Anchorman."

Anyways, Money Monster is best looked upon as a performance piece, the technical elements are just fine but the cinematography and editing never really wowed me. The heart of the film is the standout performances and intensity of the hostage situation. I found the financial elements of the film to never be fleshed out as much as they could or should have been. In comparison to The Big Short, Money Monster never quite explained the economic jargon to the audience. The answers to the questions being asked of this financial crisis were a bit cliché, so I feel the film failed itself and the audience in that regard.

Money Monster is a well-acted and well-directed suspenseful experience that's not necessarily best seen in cinemas. If you're interested in the film I would recommend waiting for it's home video release and either rent or buy the film.

Film Assessment: C