Ocean's 11

Director Steven Soderbergh and a winning ensemble cast, headlined by George Clooney and Brad Pitt, roll the remake dice on Ocean's Eleven and come up with entertainment snake eyes. Aside from a lack of character development that is compensated by the chemistry of the cast, Soderbergh and company have made a movie that wants to do nothing more than entertain, which it does with great ease.

The film opens with the prison release of Danny Ocean (George Clooney). No less than 24 hours after his release, the gentlemanly thief is already at work on his next plan: to rob an underground vault that houses the earnings of the MGM Grand, Bellagio and Mirage casinos in Las Vegas. Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), a rather ruthless entrepreneur, owns these casinos. He also happens to be seeing Tess (Julia Roberts), Danny's ex-wife. Is this a coincidence or motive? Only Danny really knows for sure.

One thing that is known for sure is that the heist will not be easy and Ocean will not be able to pull it off alone. With the help of his right-hand man, Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), Ocean assembles a team of eleven professional criminals to carry off the near-impossible plan.

The crew consists of Linus (Matt Damon), an ace pickpocket; British explosives expert Basher (Don Cheadle), a surveillance expert named Livingston (Eddie Jemison), a professional con artist named Saul (Carl Reiner), Frank (Bernie Mac), who can deal cards and still keep a skilled eye on the floor; the Malloy Brothers (Scott Caan and Casey Affleck), who are adept at rigging automobiles; a Chinese acrobat (Shaobo Qin) and Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), an ex-casino owner who is funding the job.

You might be hard pressed to find characters or story with much depth in movies nowadays. What you will find in Ocean's Eleven is a serviceable, straightforward tale that doesn't overstay its welcome and a lot of funny, smart dialogue for Steven Soderbergh and his talented cast to work with. He wisely does not jazz up this remake with gratuitous violence, profanity and wall-to-wall action. Instead, Soderbergh gives us a cool, easygoing ride that is free of violence and gore, has only the mildest of profanity and gets far more mileage out of characters acting cool than he would a car chase or shootout.

The big draw to Ocean's Eleven isn't the story or the director. It is the cast of big-name stars looking to carry on the legacy of the Rat Pack. While