"Ocean's Eleven"

Title: "Ocean's Eleven"
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Producers: Jerry Weintraub
Editing: Stephen Mirrione
Composer: David Holmes
Starring:
- George Clooney as Danny Ocean
- Bernie Mac as Frank Catton
- Brad Pitt as Rusty Ryan
- Elliott Gould as Reuben Tishkoff
- Casey Affleck as Virgil Malloy
- Scott Caan as Turk Malloy
- Eddie Jemison as Livingston Dell
- Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr
- Shaobo Qin as "The Amazing" Yen
- Carl Reiner as Saul Bloom
- Matt Damon as Linus Caldwell
- Andy García as Terry Benedict
- Julia Roberts as Tess Ocean

Plot and Critical Review: After being released from prison Danny Ocean breaks parole and travels to Los Angeles to meet up with his former partner in crime Rusty Ryan. Ocean proposes a new scheme he has in mind. The two go to Las Vegas to pitch the plan to wealthy friend and former casino owner Reuben Tishkoff. The plan consists of robbing one massive vault which holds a large amount of money from the Bellagio, The Mirage, and the MGM Grand casinos. Tishkoff's familiarity with casino security makes him very reluctant to get involved, but when he begins to think of it as a good way to get back at his rival, Terry Benedict, who owns the three casinos, Tishkoff agrees to finance the operation. Because the casinos are required by the Nevada Gaming Commission to have enough cash on hand to cover all their patrons' bets, the three predict that, on the upcoming night of a highly anticipated boxing match, the mega-vault (located inside the Bellagio) will contain more than $150 million.

Ocean and Ryan recruit eight former colleagues and criminal specialists, including Linus Caldwell, a young and talented pick-pocket thief. Several of the team members carry out reconnaissance at the Bellagio to learn as much as possible about casino security, the routines and behaviors of the casino staff, and the building itself. Others create a precise replica of the vault with which to practice maneuvering through its formidable security systems. During this planning phase the team discovers that Ocean's ex-wife, Tess, is dating Terry Benedict. Rusty confronts Danny and urges him to give up on the plan, believing Ocean incapable of sound judgement while Tess is involved. Ocean refuses and the plan remains in motion.

When the night of the robbert arrives, Ocean goes to the Bellagio in order to be seen by Benedict, who, as expected, has him locked in a storeroom to be beaten by a bouncer called Bruiser. Ocean, however, knows Bruiser, and arranges to gain access to a ventilation shaft to meet up with his team in the vault. Linus poses as a gaming commission agent and confronts Benedict on hiring Frank Catton as an ex-con. In the process he lifts the security code to the vault from Benedict. Caldwell and Catton staged a confrontation to allow Linus to slip away into the vault after the incident. Yen is smuggled into the vault by the Malloy brothers, to assist in triggering the explosive from the inside. Saul Bloom sneaks explosive into the casino vault by posing as an international arms dealer needing especially secure safekeeping for his valuables, and then stages a heart attack that was treated by Ryan posing as a doctor.

The team activates a stolen "pinch" (a device which released an electro-magnetic pulse over a large area) to temporarily disrupt the casino's electrical power, allowing them to breach the vault undetected. As Benedict attempts to restore order following the power outage, Rusty anonymously calls him on a cell phone that Ocean had earlier planted in Tess's coat. Rusty tells him that the vaults are being raided and that all the money will be destroyed if Benedict does not cooperate in loading half the money into a van waiting outside. Benedict observes video footage of the vault that confirms Rusty's claims, and begrudgingly complies in moving the money, but orders his men to follow the van after it departs and calls a S.W.A.T. team to secure the vault. The S.W.A.T. team's arrival results in a shootout which causes the incineration of the half of the money left in the vault. After assuring Benedict that the casino is secure, the officers depart.

Terry realizes that the vault video feed was faked when he notices that the floors shown in the video lacked the Bellagio logo which had only very recently been installed in the vault itself. The men following the van discover that it is being driven remotely and that, instead of money, it contains duffel bags full of flyers advertising prostitutes. A flashback reveals that Ocean had used the vault replica to create the fake video Benedict had seen; the rest of the team posed as S.W.A.T. officers and took all of the money out of the vault when responding to Benedict's call for help. Benedict then returns to the room where he left Ocean and finds him being beaten up by Bruiser, leaving him no way to connect Ocean to the theft. Ocean offers to assist Benedict in finding the money on the condition that he give up Tess, to which Benedict agrees. It is then revealed that his team had routed live footage of this conversation to Tess's suite. Angry at being used by Benedict, she leaves him and runs to Danny. Benedict tips off the police who arrest Ocean for violating parole, and Ocean spends a short amount of time in prison. When he is released he's picked up by Rusty and Tess. The three drive off, but are shown being followed by Benedict's bodyguards.

Films which depend on star-power alone walk on thin ice. For a while it seemed that this remake of the 1960 classic was going to be such a film; a movie with a half-decent plot/premise that was going to rely heavily on faces and names for success. One of the more enjoyable elements of ensemble-heavy films is the chance to see actors in roles which they might otherwise avoid. I'm thinking especially of Don Cheadle who had been primarily known for his roles in action/adventure films. Few anticipated it would do so well, especially in the same year when the first installments of the "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" franchised were hitting the screens. But "Ocean's Eleven" did manage to hang in there with the goblins and wizards, rounding out 2001 as the 5th highest grossing film of the year. It beat out "Pearl Harbor" by about $1 million.

My Rating: 6.5/10

Content to Caution:
V-2 - Some violence, but the conn artists are slick enough to do the deed without having to use bullets.
L-2.5 - Mild cursing, but it comes and goes and rests mostly in moments of tension.
DU-3 - Smoking and drinking throughout.
RT-1.5 - Linus and Frank stage an argument in which they fight over potential racial profiling. While done in jest this "bit" could irk some viewers.
H/S-1 - No comment.
CH-1.5 - No comment.
S/N-1 - No comment.

The "Reel Revelation": "Being A Team Player - Pt. 1"

I don't normally care for sports and thus don't spend much time watching them on television or in person. But I do tune in for the finals when competition is at it's best; when the very best players in any particular sport compete for victory and glory. Aside from the super-charged excitement found in such events, you get a real sense of how crucial teamwork is when you watch the world's best teams compete at championship levels. If a team can't work as a single unit and strive to accomplish that one objective, victory, they'll never even get close to the finals. Having a star-player or two (or three or four!) simply isn't enough; if a team can't work together, their fate is sealed.

"Ocean's Eleven" tests the concept of teamwork on a cinematic level. Can a cast of such highly-recognized and praised actors really work together for the common goal of making an enjoyable motion picture? While it was being shot some critics took aim at the project, saying that it wouldn't amount to anything more than an expensive George Clooney films which happened to feature really pretty "back-up singers" placed in the script to make Clooney look all the better. They ended up being quite wrong, but we can see how close they were to being quite right!

Being a team player makes all the difference, and if we can see that difference in sports teams and Hollywood casts, how much more of a difference will it make when we consider God's "team" on Earth, the Body of Christ? We will find it makes a great difference, indeed, and we'll thus spend the next three reviews reflecting on the following:

- Finding our place on the team. - (Pt. 1)

- Finding peace with our position. - (Pt. 2)

- Pressing on toward the Prize. - (Pt. 3)

During the early days of the Christian Church, St. Paul spent a considerable amount of time tending and writing to the believers who lived in the city of Corinth. When he arrived there, Ancient Corinth was a marvelous Roman city, a true cosmopolitan destination of the ancient world. We can safely compare it to modern-day New York City or London; full of industry, energy, idea, and invention. While most of our modern-day metropolises are noted for their diversity, Corinth was a city almost entirely devoted to Roman paganism, and those who lived in Corinth practiced a devout form of paganism which stood in the way of the development of the Christian Church. It was to this end that St. Paul wrote of the "Body of Christ", and that each person who believed in Jesus belonged to a single "Body".

"For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired." (1 Cor. 12:12-18)

This flew in the face of ancient paganism which, at it's core, was a religion based on the relationship between believer and deity. Not only did converts face the reality of coming to know a Living God (not a "mute idol" (Vs. 2) ), they also found themselves to be members of a living and breathing Body; a family of faith and devotion to Christ and His purposes on Earth. And not only were they members, but they soon discovered that they each had a very specific role and place within the Body, "just as (God) desired." Have you found your place?

Just like those pagan converts, God calls out to us and summons us to the fellowship of the Body, leading us away from the one-on-one relationship we can easily slip into. While God abides with us on a personal level and speaks to and cares for us individually, we must come out of our "prayer closets" and join in the work of the entire Body. No matter his skill, Michael Jordan could not have won all those championships by himself.

In my work with young people I've often heard the phrase, "I just don't know what I can offer to God. What do I have to contribute?" Most of the time I can't answer that question, just as I won't presume to try and answer it for you here. But the answer is not far, for God has already placed within you the gifts He desires you to use for the building up of the Body and the extension of His Kingdom. If it were not so, St. Paul would never have written:

"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons." (1 Cor. 12: 4-6)

No matter what your gifts may be, know that there is a place for them. No matter what your passion might be, know there is a ministry that has yet to benefit from your energy and excitement. Take time for reflection and prayer this Lenten season and ask God to renew His vision within you, that you might follow His will more closely and become even more a part of the Body of Christ.

"Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it." (1 Cor. 12:27)

See you tomorrow- E.T.