ocean's 11

The subject of this week's review may come as something of a surprise, as Ocean's 11 is one of those films that 'surely everyone has seen'. I mean, it's pretty old and has been on regular telly loads of time, right?

Well, yes, but I've never really gotten around to watching it. I am aware that it received pretty good reviews and did well enough at the box office to spawn two sequels, so it's not like it passed under my radar or anything. I just never really got around to watching it until now.

Generally speaking I think I'd have to agree with the consensus. It's a good, fun, entertaining movie. I've no experience of the original Rat Pack Ocean's 11 film it's a remake of, so I can't comment on that, but this film works pretty well.

I've no idea of whether it was coincidental or whatever, but I think The Hustle TV series was probably inspired by the film, but because I'd seen that first, in my head I kept thinking 'this is like the Hustle', rather than the reverse.

It's a scam/caper type movie and it takes the route of being a very Hollywood pop-corn version of crime, where the thieves are actually on some level 'honest' (eh?) and because the target is Vegas, it's all okay. I dunno, it's that old Robin Hood/A-Team thing where they're criminals, but they're almost righting wrongs.

There's also a few nice little twists in it, but not to the extent of that being the point of the film. and generally as a heist it sort of holds up. I did have a few questions as to why they were doing certain things, some of which were clearly more to do with making it visually entertaining that anything that 'makes sense'.

A few of these, though, were a little off. The most noticeable is to do with the money, which I won't detail to avoid spoilers, but it's what I believe is labelled a "fridge door moment". A fridge door moment is the question or illogicality that strikes you several hours after seeing the film when you're looking into the fridge for a snack.

"Hang on - how did they....?" That sort of thing.

And there are actually a few of these, but only a couple really spoil the integrity of the con. Some you can sort of think up possible explanations for, even though there's nothing on-screen to back it up. Movie logic is another phrase for it - it works there while you're watching the film, but not upon later inspection.

Anyway, these don't really spoil the film and overall it works. There were only two things I wasn't sure about.

Firstly, there's a section towards the end which is weirdly heavy on the pathos. I mean, it's a beautiful scene, but it's odd - it's like they stopped the fun caper movie and insert this poignant sentimental section before then going back to the film proper.

The other thing was the end, which is weirdly open-ended. Not in a really bad way, but it makes the film feel like it doesn't quite end when the credits roll.

I was reminded actually of that bit in Jurassic park where the can of shaving foam with the embryos in it is filmed sliding down the hill in the rain, almost as if it was meant to be the source of a sequel or it was meant to come up later. But then it didn't