Ocean’s Eleven (2001) – Review by Andrea Carnevali

George Clooney and Brad Pitt

Ocean’s Eleven ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Still sharp, still stylish, still witty, still genuinely entertaining in the way only a great popcorn film can be. If you’ve got the chance to watch it again, it’s basically instant therapy

Once a week, I like going back to an older film, with the official excuse to introduce it to my son (but actually, I just love to re-watch good films). And with Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers currently landing in the theatres (see my other review), it felt like there was no better time to revisit Ocean’s Eleven.

People think of it as the first of a long series of sequels (most of them very much inferior, and in some cases bordering on ‘what were they thinking?’), but it’s worth remembering that it is actually a remake of the 1960 Ocean’s Eleven, with Frank Sinatra in the lead.

So it’s basically a heist film with a heist film in its DNA, which somehow makes its confidence even more impressive.

Watching it again 25 years later, what hits you is not just the plot (which, yes, still feels deliciously engineered), but the joy of seeing so many A-listers share the screen all together. Soderbergh wisely leans into that with shots cramming as many of those celebrities as possible and relying on their rapid-fire interactions as they constantly bounce off each other.

So many scenes feel like they’ve been engineered to maximise their chemistry.

Which brings me to Brad Pitt and George Clooney, who seemed to have silently agreed to out-cool each other for the duration of the movie.

There’s that moment early on where Clooney is staring off-camera, talking to Pitt, who clearly isn’t giving him anything back.

And instead of it becoming awkward or flat, it becomes pure comedy gold. It’s this perfect, deadpan, effortless exchange where you can feel the film trusting its stars and its audience.

It’s the kind of character chemistry that makes the heist feel less like a plan and more like a game being played by genuinely charming people.

And because the film is so much fun, it’s easy to underplay the craft, but rewatching it properly reminds you that Ocean’s Eleven is also a masterclass in how to edit a mood into existence.

It has a 60s vibe, not just in the clothes and locations, but in the movement on screen, with those clean, graphic transitions (wipes and quick stylistic cuts) that feel like punctuation marks. The editing keeps changing tempo like a jazz musician swapping rhythm.

And talking about jazz, the pulsating breezy soundtrack underscoring every moment of the film and being ‘on the joke’. It’s not just background. It becomes part of the heist plan.

It’s the kind of presentation that says, ‘This is supposed to look fun,’ and then backs it up by making every beat flow into the next.

The pacing works like a well-oiled con. The plot doesn’t rush to the final ‘reveal’ so much as slowly, patiently, drop pieces onto the table until you realise the whole thing has been building like clockwork.

And sure, if you’ve seen it before, you know where it’s going, but there’s still a real pleasure in watching the joints and seeing how the film lets you enjoy the mechanism without killing the surprise.

Now, apparently, they’re making not one but two more Ocean’s films: a prequel going back to the 1960s (starring Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper), following Ocean’s parents and a heist during the Monaco Grand Prix.

And there’s also a new sequel (Ocean’s Fourteen, presumably), reportedly inspired by the 1970s comedy Going in Style, with the original crew (though whoever the 14th is going to be has not been revealed yet), facing another con while grappling with their older age. Hopefully it’ll be more in keeping with this first one than the terrible Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen.

Either way, it’s hard to beat the original here.

Ocean’s Eleven is still sharp, still stylish, still witty, still genuinely entertaining in the way only a great popcorn film can be. And if you’ve got the chance to watch it again, it’s basically instant therapy.

Andrea Carnevali is a Bafta winning film maker who lives in Chiswick, and a co-creator of the Chiswick In Film festival.

Read more film reviews on The Chiswick Calendar