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While this movie might be old, it is in fact a remake of an even older film of the same title which was released back in 1960. However, the fact that it’s a few decades old didn’t prevent director Steven Soderbergh from assembling a stellar cast to play Ocean’s Eleven men this time around. In fact, he’s done a great job with this remake of the movie in my opinion.

While it is indeed a remake, the script has been completely rewritten, but it shares the same premise as the original movie: 11 men plan a highly elaborate attempt to steal large amounts of money. In the original film, the team stole from five casinos at the same time. However, in this film, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) begins his hunt for a specialised team of men to pull of a heist. This once again differs from the original films where the members of the team were all amateurs instead of the professional thieves involved in this film. They plan to rob an underground, high-tech vault which is shared by three casinos, all of which are owned by one Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). It is soon revealed that Danny Ocean has an added incentive to rob Benedict of his money: his lover is actually Danny’s ex wife, Tess (Julia Roberts). From then on, the 11 men then begin planning their highly elaborate heist of around 160 million dollars.

I won’t spoil any more of the plot for you here, especially not the actual plan of their heist. Partly because you really should watch the movie and experience first hand how director Steven Soderbergh decided to reveal the plan bit by bit to the audience; but also partially because I would have no idea how to properly explain the entire heist. The plan itself is so deep and complicated, yet it all fits together just nicely like the cogs of a wheel, because everything just makes sense. By that I mean you could almost imagine 11 similar men pulling off such a heist with exactly the same plan in real life. Midway through the film you’ll begin to wonder what in the world is happening since the movie doesn’t exactly reveal the entire plan to you before they actually attempt the heist, you only get to see bits and pieces of what they put together to prepare for the heist itself, never really knowing what they have planned behind the scenes. Even after they successfully carry the money out of the casino, you’re still scratching your head and wondering how in the world they managed to do it, you might even get frustrated at the movie’s lack of logic at that point in time. However, the movie then begins to show you scenes from the planning stages of their heist, as well as a few more scenes set in the present, that help to explain the entire operation. By the end of those flashback scenes, you’re left applauding the brilliant writers that thought of such an elaborate scheme.

Of course, the wonderfully intricate plot is backed up by a great cast as well. All eleven members of the ensemble cast do a great job of acting out their various roles, especially ShaoBo Qin who plays the part of the Grease Man, Yen (who, while not given many lines, undoubtedly drew quite a bit of laughter from the audience). Brad Pitt and George Clooney perfectly play the roles of mysterious pros who know everything while Matt Damon plays his part as the newbie who is desperately trying to learn the ropes from the others. I don’t have much to say about the acting in this film, since there’s really nothing much to comment or complain about it, everything’s top notch.

All in all, Ocean’s Eleven (2001) has got to be the best film of its genre that I’ve seen thus far, and in those seven years since its release, no other film has come close to this standard in my opinion. This is definitely a must see for almost anyone, though the plot might take awhile to digest and understand. However when you finally realise how elaborate the entire plot of the movie is, you’ll really begin to appreciate it. I promise watching this film won’t be a waste of your time.

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