Steven Soderberg's remake of "Ocean's Eleven" succeeds in one fashion. It faithfully recreates the pointlessness and lack of suspense of the original. Unfortunately, it fails to capture the boyish camaraderie and honor-among-thieves lightness that made such failings in the 1960 Rat Pack film forgivable.
The hopelessly meandering screenplay idles early and never manages to gain momentum. The early part of the film is dedicated to George Clooney and Brad Pitt (playing, pretty much, George Clooney and Brad Pitt) assembling their merry band of thieves, all of whom, despite having no discernable connection to the pair, are more than happy to jump on board what is a completely absurd scheme to rob a vault in Las Vegas. The remainder of the time surrounds the execution of the crime which itself makes very little sense, thus making it impossible to wonder, or care, if it will succeed or fail.
Still, most of these script problems may have been secondary if the director and actors created a sense of fun. As it stands, however, the movie does quite the opposite; somehow managing to remove the glitz and glamour not only from its impressive stable of marquee stars but also from the entire city of Las Vegas. None of the actors bring any more than their names and faces to the effort and the direction gives the feel that Vegas is no more than a single lobby fronting on ten feet of road.
Of course, it could have been worse. At least they cut the musical numbers.
