Ocean’s 11

This is what happens when everybody brings their ‘A’ game

Ocean’s 11 (2001)

Streaming; 5/5

When I grow up, I want to be a high-class thief. So I can wear great suits and cool jazz can play whenever I walk into a room. Not the lame public domain jazz on the NPR bumper rotation. I mean really slick jazz. And if you don’t want that after watching this movie, you have no imagination. A remake of a rat pack original, you might feel like it would be hard to out-cool Sinatra and his homies. You would be wrong. Everything about this movie is cool. Las Vegas lends itself to that kind of fantasy world coolness where only the nighttime matters and impossibly good looking people in impossibly well-cut clothing live impossibly cool lives perpetrating impossibly cool crimes. 

This kind of ultra glamorous A-list vehicle is what Hollywood was once all about and occasionally rediscovers, and when it does we all benefit. Real life is lame. We all live in it every day, and movies that wallow in verite misery might be Very Important or something, but come on. Great suits and cool jazz, man. A huge cast of very talented people having an absolute blast making a movie about robbing a casino. Everybody’s on point, everything’s laid in just right, and the movie just flows, cool as the back side of the pillow. 

The sequels aren’t as good, but they almost never are. Take them or leave them as your taste dictates. Just sit back with your popcorn and let this one take you on a trip. You won’t regret it. 

5 stars of 5: It’s one of my favorites.