If he plays his cards right (so to speak), he hopes to get away with not only the loot but the lady. He's chosen these specific casinos not just because they share an underground vault, but because they're all owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the stop-at-nothing businessman who is now dating Ocean's ex-wife, Tess (Julia Roberts). As recently paroled con man and ringleader Danny Ocean (a cool-as-dry-ice Clooney) tells his 10 handpicked cohorts, you do the math.īut Danny has more than money in mind. Taking into account the fact that the heist is set to occur on a normally thronged 'Fight Night,' when Nevada Gaming Commission regulations stipulate that casinos must have enough cash on hand to cover every chip in play, the caper offers a likely take of $150 million in scratch. Here, the plan is to rob not five, but an infinitely more difficult three casinos: to wit, the Bellagio, the Mirage and the MGM Grand. (Oh, how far Griffin had to climb out of the hole he dug for himself with his script for 1999's execrable 'Ravenous,' a horror comedy about cannibalism.) While both versions of 'Eleven' have star power to spare - the new cast features George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, just for starters - what the earlier plot lacked in coherence is more than made up for by screenwriter Ted Griffin's lean, witty and intricate update to the story. Inspired by the less-than-great 1960 Rat Pack vehicle about a group of 11 elegant hoodlums and their scheme to knock over five Las Vegas casinos in a single night, this is Soderbergh ('Traffic' and 'Erin Brockovich') at his most engrossing and least cerebral.

It's not exactly as if its pedigree is 'Anna Karenina.' It's a remake of a crime caper (an immensely entertaining, turbocharged, titanium-sheathed remake, but a remake all the same).

Sleek, well-muscled and brisk, director Steven Soderbergh's newest offering delivers just about everything anyone could possibly want from filmed entertainment - except deep thought.

'OCEAN'S ELEVEN' is one thoroughbred of a movie.

Oceans 11 casino owner