My Review of "Ocean's Eleven (2001)"

Ocean's Eleven (2001) is a movie I thought was really cool back when it first came out. I loved this movie and I was worried that my impressions of this movie would change over time. Watching it closer to 25 years later, it is just as great as I remembered it. That kind of shows you how timeless this classic really is.

The movie starts out with the introduction of Danny Ocean. He's the mastermind of everything. The first scene shows him in prison. You can tell from the very beginning this guy is a charmer. Basically he charms himself out of jail by telling the interviewer that he only did his crime because of his infatuation over his ex-wife. This is pretty crucial to the story because there's a ton of twists and turns later on in the movie.

This movie then becomes a bit of a heist movie where Danny starts recruiting criminals into his 11 to pull off his biggest robbery yet. He plans on stealing 160 million dollars from a casino in Las Vegas. This isn't just an ordinary casino. It is owned by one of the most ruthless businessmen in the business, Terry Benedict.

There's this whole romanticism behind the job as well. No one has ever been able to rob a casino. It feels like it's an impossible mission. All of this makes it even more enticing for our ragtag of thieves. In some ways, these men want to steal from the casino not for the money but more for the challenge. There's a cool factor in that. They just want to prove how great they are and go on this grand adventure to prove themselves.

Behind the scenes, it's discovered that Terry's love interest is in fact very close to someone in the crew so that makes us start questioning the motivations for what's going on. There's a lot of cool and fun swerves in here that will have you second guessing what's going on. In addition, they added a few hiccups to keep you on your toes. This has to be challenging or course or else this wouldn't be an interesting movie.

Although the story is fun, a lot of the fun also comes from the cast that bring life to the movie. Even the settings and costume design bring in a huge element in the entertainment of the whole movie. The aesthetics definitely have a good impact in this movie. It's in Las Vegas so I didn't expect any less. There's a very old school vibe to this movie and I know this movie's old but the vibe of this movie predates 2001. I remember seeing this movie when it first came out and it felt old school then. A lot of people watching it today might not catch onto that.

The camera work is also very top notch. Each scene is very creative and meticulous. I could tell that they're drawing my eye to certain things and making me understand the movie through visual cues. It's really quite fascinating while you're watching it. There's a little sense of hypnotization while you're watching it. At no time in this movie was I not glued to my seat. This is a top attention grabber from the start all the way to the end.

Overall, I had a fantastic time with this movie and I'm really glad that it stands the test of time. This movie is just as enjoyable to watch now as it was back in the day and it doesn't feel dated at all. I think anyone today can still watch this and have a smile on their fast from start to finish. I'm going to give this movie an 8 out of 10. I'm going to recommend this movie to everyone and probably watch it again.