The Malloy Brothers (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan) handle the cars and other menial tasks that make sure the caper goes off without a hitch. The Amazing Yen (Shaobo Qin) is the “grease man ” the acrobat. Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle) is the explosives expert. He stares at screens all day after hacking the security cameras to make the guards see what he wants them to see. Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison) is the surveillance expert. Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), and Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner) are con men. And the crew is filled with a cast of incredible character actors and stars (Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Elliot Gould, Scott Caan, etc.) They all have their specialties that are equivalent to crew positions on a film. The producer has to assemble the crew with input from the director. The most important aspect of making a movie is the crew. robbing Las Vegas casinos is boring the cure to insomnia. I don’t understand how a movie starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr. singing Eee-o Eleven and the final shot where the eleven lose their money and roam the streets in despair. The only good thing to come out of that movie is Sammy Davis, Jr. The Rat Pack was the living embodiment of cool. Danny Ocean and his war buddies decide to rob Las Vegas casinos. The original stars Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean and the rest of the Rat Pack as the rest of the eleven. Honestly, that’s about it, counting Ocean’s Eleven.

But every once in a while there are remakes that are just as good or better than the original: John Carpenter’s The Thing, Scarface, and the remake of Suspiria to name a few. Usually, they are the exact same movie with nothing new to say. The trilogy is Steven Soderbergh’s thesis on making movies, and by extension, Hollywood itself. But despite what everyone thinks, these aren’t just breezy caper movies. It has everything: Movie stars, glamour, suspense, laughs, and fun. Ocean’s Eleven is the first installment in one of the most famous trilogies in American movies. After winning an Oscar for a thought-provoking documentary-style ensemble film about the illegal drug trade, he does what any director would do: Make a heist film with the biggest movie stars at the time. One of the people he beat for the Oscar, was himself. And he beat Steven Soderbergh for Erin Brockovich.

He beat Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It’s also the film that’s responsible for Mexico looking yellow in every single American-made crime thriller that takes place there (Looking at you, Breaking Bad). Steven Soderbergh had just won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film, Traffic.

Casino robbed in ocean's 11