User Reviews

The original Ocean's 11 will always remain a classic because of the Rat Pack. It is unfair to compare both Ocean 11's movie because of the different cast, different stories, and completely different endings. Still, looking at both films, you can make a case for both why each is better than the other. Frankie, Dean, Sammy, Peter and Tony are all gone now, making the cast of the original legendary. The remake is more realistic as it answers many if not all the questions that the original failed to answer. Even for a Rat Pack movie, the original turns out to be more campy that the remake. The ending alone is worth discussion. In 1960, how wrong is it to have the criminals get away clean? For 2000, it is not only welcomed but rewarded if the "little guy" can out do or cheat the big system. For 1960, the ending of Ocean's 11 advertises that crime does not pay.

Fifteen years after the end of the Second World War Danny Ocean is getting his old squad back together again; not to reminisce about old times but to go on another mission… this time for themselves. Their target will be the city of Las Vegas where, if all goes according to plan, they will rob millions from five casinos on New Year's Eve. Once they have the money their problems are far from over; law enforcement officers have virtually shut the city so getting the money out without being caught will not be easy.

This will is rather fun even if we don't learn what the group is planning until almost half way through the film… perhaps a good thing if you watch knowing nothing about it as one might wonder what on earth this group of old war buddies are planning. Frank Sinatra and his fellow Rat Pack friends do a good job as Danny Ocean and his buddies… if you didn't know it isn't obvious that they are better known for singing than acting… although Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr do get to sing a song or two. There are plenty of laughs to be had throughout the film even if a few of the gags have dates somewhat. The heist itself doesn't take very long which and while it is going on there is little sense of real danger which was a bit of a pity; I guess the makers wanted to keep the tone light or possibly I'm unfairly comparing it to the remake that concentrates far more on the actual heist. Overall this was fun but I still preferred the remake.

I know it's unfair to judge a historical piece from a modern perspective, but I can't help but throw in some of my own personal bias against this Dino quote: "(If I were elected in public office) I'd repeal the 14th and the 20th; take the vote away from women and make them slaves." That quote was enough to ruin my illusions of the movie. It was hard to believe that even in the 60s it was OK for men to say stuff like this in the mainstream. *Sigh*

Another thing that sucked was the end -- how is it that after all they went through, they didn't get to keep their loot? Once again, I suspect they had to appeal to the (unfortunate) white and self-righteous general public that would've just been up in arms about the thieves getting away with their crimes at the end. It just wasn't satisfying to watch all of these cool cats walk away from Vegas empty-handed. Again, I suppose at the time this film was made, such ending would never have been accepted. (But still!)

However, it's a fun movie and nothing takes away the fact that this is was the "IT" movie - super cool, suave and Rat-Packed! Dino and Sammy Davis, Jr. make this film so smooth with their numbers. It was truly awesome to watch them perform. I wouldn't call it a musical, however, because their numbers were brief and scattered, rather than often and organized. I think that's what made it fun: you never know when they're going to belt it out for the audience.

This is what makes me think that this movie was made primarily to get the Rat Pack together in a film. It was fun to watch all of these debonair gents strut down the Vegas Strip on New Year's Eve, but if watched for anything other than this angle, you may be slightly disappointed. Good thing I'm something of a Dino fan.

The only real pleasure in "Ocean's Eleven" is being let into the Rat Pack circle for a couple of hours... The film stops all too frequently for guest spots and in-jokes, with a slow first hour... Compared to Jules Dassin's 'Rififi,' or to Phil Karlson's 'Five Against the House,' it pales considerably...

'Ocean's Eleven' is a weak heist film with the emphasis firmly on light humor, and few diverting escapades, but nobody cares because the cast includes the biggest stars of the day (Frankie, Dino, Sammy etc...), burning the motion picture into the collective memory of the public as the first to showcase Hollywood's notorious Rat Pack...

'Ocean's Eleven' is a buddy movie made with real buddies, and it's fun... It in't supposed to be very good... It is supposed to be cool... A playground for legendary entertainers, these guys knew how to get the job done, to pause only to knock back innumerable Whisky sodas, wear their tuxedo, hang out in bars, talk the talk, belt out a couple of classy little numbers, and have a great sense of fun together on screen... And this fun filtered off the silver screen and into the audience like a tasty appetizer before the main course...

Old Blue Eyes is the mastermind of the heist... He is carrying out a plan originated by racketeer Spyros Acebos where five gambling casinos (Sahara, Riviera, Desert Inn, The Sand and The Flamingo) will be robbed simultaneously at midnight on New Year's celebration...

During the week before Christmas, the 'special combat team' (all experts in one thing and another) arrive in Las Vegas, for the job-of-a-lifetime... The scheme of the robbery is ingenious, requiring military precision and perfect timing... An electrical tower will be blown up to black out the whole town... The swag will be deposited in garbage cans outside the casinos, and the cans will be collected by a disposal truck...

On New Year's Eve, the hold-up goes off beautifully, exactly as planned... Only one of the men has a heart attack on the street and collapses... The gang cannot get the multi-million loot out of Las Vegas but they manage to hide it in some place, unknown to them, however, that 'someone' was preparing for them all a nice wry outcome...

Dean Martin, the eternal essence of cool, is the entertainer who sings "Ain't That a Kick in the Head,' and Sammy Davis Jr. is the perennial icon of cool who sings "EEO-Eleven.'

Peter Lawford is the playboy with one objective and one mission: To hit Las Vegas, Nevada!

Angie Dickinson is the understanding wife, discreet, feminine and chic... Unfortunately the camera does not especially flatter her looks...

Richard Conte is the master electrician dying of cancer, who needs to leave some cash for his kid's college...

Cesar Romero is coldly menacing and very amusing: 'They shouldn't have done it while I was in town. It's embarrassing!'

George Raft is the mob with the best deal to get the money back...

Akim Tamiroff is hilariously neurotic as the master planner...

Buddy Lester wants to get his wife out of stripping...

Shirley MacLaine is the drunk gal in urge for a little kiss in a critical moment...

Red Skelton is the unlucky player, arguing with the casino cashier how to raise his gambling limit...

"Ocean's Eleven" could never be made again... The new 'Ocean's Eleven,' 2001 is considerably different in the details.. After all, there was only 'one' Rat Pack, and if the Ocean's Eleven of 1960 is anything, it is certainly a Rat Pack movie... So if you still have a strange fascination with this gang of friends, and like to watch essentially a these guys playing around on screen, and to watch Las Vegas as it looked in 1960, well... check out this nostalgic trip back... You'll never see its like again...

This is a bad movie. A bad premise, a bad plot, bad actors, bad script, bad camera work, I bet even the catering was bad. I'm too young to know of the Rat Pack in their "glory" days, but this movie would make a terrible legacy.

Set in the tinny, gilded era of Las Vegas, the members of the Rat Pack conspire and (somehow) rob five of the casinoes on The Strip. With a see-through thin plan, they manage to rob these casinoes of millions. Were it so easy! Obviously the casinoes didn't have the security today's casinoes have, but it stretches my suspension of disbelief much too far to believe that the security was so lax. One of the eleven runs around playing with the wires in all of these casinoes without anyone so much as seeing him, all in broad daylight! If the casinoes were this easy to rob, people would be robbing them by accident!

Another problem with the movie was the motivation of each of the characters to rob these places. The only guy who had any motivation at all was Anthony Bergdorf (Richard Conte), the one who had terminal cancer (who happened to "suddenly" die from it moments after the heist). The rest seemed to be doing fairly well financially, judging by their expensive clothing and their posh digs. I suppose Josh Howard (Sammy Davis, Jr.) had a motivation as well, being a poor black trashman (who owns a pretty expensive suit that he wore to the organizational meetings). But this was at the end of the Fifties, and Howard was barely allowed to hang out with the rest of them, and probably would have gotten screwed out of the money in the end anyway.

The funniest problem was the dialogue. That script used more similies and metaphors than a dog has fleas. At some points in the movie I was never quite sure what the characters were saying because of the archaic euphamisms being used.

All in all, this film was one big throbbing pile of cheese. It's a caricature of the Fifties, the Rat Pack, and of itself. I've heard that these people were playing themselves in this movie. If so, the Rat Pack seems to be a group of self-absorbed, arrogant, greedy, base, immature little boys, riding around in the lap of luxury and bemoaning problems of their own making. If you're still wearing your bobby socks and poodle skirts and are disgustingly in love with this group, I suppose you could suffer through it, otherwise keep your conception of the Fifties and the Rat Pack pure and avoid this horrid movie.

By the end of the 1950s, the group of entertainers known as "The Rat Pack" were at the top of their game and universally recognised for their considerable talents, charisma and ability to attract large audiences. The obvious next step for them was to make a movie and the wisdom of that decision was proven when "Ocean's 11" not only became the first of a series of "Rat Pack" movies but also proved to be the most commercially successful film they ever made together. Its story about a former army sergeant who reunites a group of old wartime buddies to carry out an ambitious heist must have seemed the ideal choice to give Frank Sinatra and his real-life buddies every opportunity to strut their stuff on the silver screen and that's exactly what they proceeded to do.

Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra), who'd been the leader of the 82nd Airborne Division in World War 11, is a man with an addiction to danger and readily takes responsibility for the detailed planning and execution of a robbery that had been masterminded by Beverly Hills "ideas man" Spyros Acebos (Akim Tamiroff). Acebos offers to finance the project but cannot take any direct part in it because he's so well known that his involvement would seriously damage the gang's chances of success.

During the Christmas holiday, Danny assembles the men from his old Division in Las Vegas to discuss their plan to rob five of the city's casinos simultaneously, immediately after midnight on New Year's Eve. With some of the gang taking jobs in the casinos, they make various preparations for the big night and gang-member Josh Howard (Sammy Davis Jr.) is a garbage collector whose responsibility is to collect the loot that will be deposited in the trash cans outside each of the casinos on the night of the heist. Even more vital to the plan however, is the involvement of electrical expert Tony Bergdorf (Richard Conte) who has just been released from San Quentin where he served time for his involvement in an insurance fraud. Initially, he has no appetite for being involved in any caper that could possibly put him back in prison but changes his mind when he discovers that he has a serious medical condition and not long to live. This information makes him see the robbery as an opportunity to leave his share of the proceeds to his estranged wife and son.

The robbery goes ahead without a hitch and despite roadblocks being set up all around the city immediately after, Josh is simply waved through as he makes his way to the local dumpsite. A problem does arise a little while later, however, when Jimmy Foster's (Peter Lawford) stepfather-to-be figures out who might be responsible and embarks on a corrupt scheme to make himself rich by, amongst other things, blackmailing the gang. What follows doesn't play out in a way that anyone planned and eventually provides the story with its nicely twisted conclusion which is accompanied by the words "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away".

"Ocean's 11" has a routine plot that's made more interesting by the complications that follow the crime but overall, it's main purpose is to provide its stars with a platform from which they can deliver the kind of entertainment for which they were best known. As "The Rat Pack", they were known for their sharp suits, their music and indulgences such as smoking, drinking and partying which all played into their image as a group of easygoing playboys who were also ultra-cool. By acting throughout as themselves they certainly achieved what they were trying to do but this also left the movie devoid of any tension especially during the complicated heist which is depicted as nothing more than a walk in the park. Similarly, their consistent coolness is incompatible with the kind of pace, intensity and sense of danger that's so fundamental to heist movies and so "Ocean's 11" only really works as a vehicle for "The Rat Pack" to amuse and entertain their fans.

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop all deliver exactly what their audience would have wanted; Richard Conte provides the best acting performance and the presence of George Raft, Angie Dickinson and Shirley MacLaine in cameo roles all adds to the fun in this movie which because it only works on one level, can't really be regarded as anything more than a qualified success.

I love time capsule movies. Something that takes you back to an actual place and time, that is shot on location, not a studio…so you actual feel your you are experiencing a certain time and place, with authentic clothing, hair styles and hearing the colloquialisms used at the time. "Oceans 11" does 2 things well. It takes you back in time to Las Vegas, 1960, that has little resemblance to today's Vegas of monumental skyscraper resorts, owned by multi-national corporations. 1960 Vegas was only about a decade after Bugsy Siegel had his vision of turning the Flamingo Hotel and consequently the LV strip into a vacation mecca for adults to drink, dine, catch top entertainment and above all legally gamble, in comparatively plush surroundings.

O-11 also lets you in for a look at the dichotomy of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack in 1960, when Sinatra was the king of cool and entertainment and the Pack, the Clan, whatever you want to call them, were at their pinnacle and Vegas was their playground, courtesy of the mob, who knew Frank, Dino and Sammy would bring in the high rollers. Less than a decade earlier Sinatra looked like he was washed up. He was having trouble with his voice, MGM dropped him and he had abandoned his wife and 3 kids for Ava Gardner. Sinatra's voice came back and he made some critically acclaimed albums, plus a number of excellent movie roles, displaying his versatility in musicals, comedy and drama. Dean Martin had gotten tired of being Jerry Lewis' straight man and had made a successful transition to a solo act, as had Sammy Davis who had left the Will Mastin Trio earlier in the decade. Peter Lawford had been a contract player at MGM, usually getting a lead in their college musicals. He was dumped by MGM in the early 50's and probably headed to career oblivion until he married into the Kennedy family in 1954. He was no pal of Sinatra's, having been one of Ava Gardner's many lovers. But "brother-in-Lawford" would allow Frank an access to hang out with JFK, who was about to go out on the biggest stage of all in 1960. Which in turn made Lawford a member in highest standing at the time and he may actually have the largest part in O-11.

Sinatra is Danny Ocean, who was a Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne. As for the rest of his background, we know he likes to gamble and he likes danger, as we are reminded by Angie Dickinson, playing his estranged wife Bea, "There's only one thing you love, Danny: that's danger. Cliffhanging. You could never love a woman like you love danger." O-11 is loaded with plenty of terrible dialogue, similar to this. Lawford is playing a spoiled rich kid, who was an officer in their unit, although he is clearly subservient to Sinatra's Ocean. Dino is a Vegas lounge singer (he knocks out a great version of "Ain't That Kick In the Head") and Sammy is the world's most talented garbage man. As for the rest of the 11, with the exception of Richard Conte, playing an ex-con who just found out he's terminal with lung cancer ("look Doc, give it to me straight-is it the big casino?") their roles aren't really too important. Although Buddy Lester, playing Vince who is now an MC at a strip club does have an entertaining bit. After we see a rather fleshy stripper named Lolita dancing with a boa constrictor, Vince introduces his wife, another dancer named Honeyface. After Frank and Lawford let Vince in on their plan for the heist, he expresses some concern about the feasibility of it. "Think of me dead." To which Sinatra actually replies -"Oh stop talking like a kid." Indeed, even when Dino expresses concern about how sensible it would be to rob casinos run by the mob (in an era when pit bosses would routinely have card counters hands broken) this is ridiculed by Lawford, "some guys grow old without turning chicken."

Of course, eventually everyone is all in on the heist. They pull it off without anyone getting hurt, except for Conte who falls over dead on the strip from a heart attack. And after Frank and Lawford witness this, Frank gives some orders to Lawford, telling him to do this, etc. Peter turns to Dino and says in another bit of unintended bad dialogue "He's taking it very hard."

O-11 also has a good bit by Cesar Romero, as Duke Santos, a reformed mobster who is squiring Lawford's rich divorced mother. Duke gets hired by the casinos to recover their stolen loot. There are also cameos by George Raft (who was a close friend of Siegel) Red Skelton (playing a himself] and Shirley McClaine has a cute bit with Dino as a drunk on the town on NY Eve. As for the Rat Pack, who were also doing their act at night while filming in the daytime, they have one thoroughly unfunny scene standing around a pool table that sounds like a routine from their act. Made a famous photo though. In any case, if you can tolerate the silly dialogue, it is fun to revisit the Rat Pack at their peak an era when tobacco was considered a vegetable and a cocktail went with anything at any time.

Ocean's Eleven is the definitive Rat Pack film. I have not seen the remake, but it's hard to imagine a new crew who could pull off a Las Vegas heist like old Frank, Sammy, Dean, and all the rest. Ocean's 11 represents a period of time when the Rat Pack were at the top of their game. I really liked the simplicity of the film, that snappy and campy Rat Pack humor. The film has a great score by Nelson Riddle and the intro/opening credits of the movie were very imaginative for its day. Watching this movie, I was almost rooting for the guys to pull off the heist and get away with it. The movie also features Angie Dickinson, who plays Sinatra's long-suffering wife, Cesar Romero as a shady character who is engaged to Peter Lawford's mother, and Norman Fell (who went on to play Mr. Roper in Three's Company) as one of the Eleven. Shirley Maclaine also has an uncredited cameo. It's definitely a must for any Rat Pack fan!

Running with the general consensus that the original is better than the remake, I decided to sit down and watch the 1960 'Rat Pack' original version of Oceans 11 and words honestly can't express how disappointed I felt after watching it.

The film starts OK and has a light comedic approach and starts to build its foundations pretty well. I'm prepared to accept that Oceans 11 needs some build up in order to establish the players involved in the heist; whilst it starts out fun, it quickly becomes arduous and generally very tedious to sit through the over-long introduction. Was the soap opera aspect with Danny Ocean and his wife really necessary? Oceans 11 redeems itself slightly in the second half when we finally get to the heist which I'll admit was quite clever and imaginative. Despite this though, the original version of Oceans 11 just seemed to be missing something; it lacked any sort of spark, it lacked fun and any real excitement. It's been a long time since I've seen the remake so I'm not really in a position to give a 'blow by blow' analysis of the two films, but I do remember enjoying the remake much more than I enjoyed this film.

The film throws in a plot twist later involving heads of the 5 Casinos and Duke Santos (who figures out that Oceans gang have stolen the money). The Casino bosses offer Santos 30% of the total money that's stolen if he's successfully able to recover the full amount. This twist perked my interest, but it never went anywhere and seemed pointless when we then learn what direction the film took at the end (I'll admit it was surprising, but not in a good way - I actually found the ending a bit dumb and anti-climactic if I'm being totally honest).

I had high hopes for this film and figured that because I enjoyed the remake that I must surely enjoy the original. However, despite a strong start, the odd bit of light humour and a relatively clever middle section, the film is counter-balanced by an over-long set-up, unnecessary soap opera and for the most part it just lacked fun and excitement. Mediocre and not worth bothering with.