Ocean's 11 | Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin | The Winner of Best Original/Worst Remake Ever goes to ....

Ocean's 11 | Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin | Ocean's 11

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Ocean's 11

	Ocean's 11 Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin Warner Home Video, 1995 average customer review:based on 73 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Leave it to the Chairman of the Board to rope in a great director for the first Rat Pack movie. Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front) indeed directed this 1960 caper movie starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop; but the results now seem like more of a historical artifact than a good time. The tone of the film is curiously serious--one somehow expected that the Rat Pack would have made a more buoyant first picture. But it is something to see these guys together, if largely for nostalgia reasons. --Tom Keogh

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The Winner of Best Original/Worst Remake Ever goes to ....

The envelope please. Yes, it's Ocean's Eleven. It was a unanimous vote wow!

Why?
Stars -
Original:

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, georgous Angie Dickenson and a very young and hot Shirley Maclain(age has not been kind to you has it).

Remake:

Matt Damon (ok not too bad), George Clooney (Oh God, I'm soo bored making this movie), and Julia Roberts ( Why won't this woman take acting lessons, please for God's sake. I'm ready to start a fund?) and a bunch of other lesser knowns.

Believability -
Original:
The plot of the original seems very simple. Just cross the wires and the cages automatically open. Ok, maybe a little simplistic, but way more believable than the remake. How they get the money out of the casino's is also very clever.

Remake:
The chinese acrobat who happens to be a crook cmon. The fake cops at the end, who rush in and take away the money, cmon? The fact that the Mirage and Bellagio are connected by a common tunnel, cmon anybody ever heard of Ceasar's Palace being between these two properties? There are so many holes in the plot of the remake that you can drive a garbage truck through it.

Likeability - You actually like the characters in the original. Their stories are way more believable and reasons for pulling off the heist are way more noble. In the remake, they try to create some dramatic tension between the Julia Roberts character and Clooney, and the Steve Wynn (Casion Owner) character, but the acting and writing is so bad it works in revese. You actually end up rooting for the Casino and Steve Wynn!

Pacing -
Original:
Several reviewers have criticized this movie as moving way too slow. To me it makes the picture more believable. Think about it. It's 15 years after the end of WWII. There is no internet. You have to find the 11 guys spread out across the US, and convince them to join you. It is going to take time. You'd be lucky to find all of them in 1960. The details of the heist are not important, plot and character development is.

Remake:
There just happens to be 11 career criminals who happen to have instant contact with each other. (What are they listed in the phone book, cmon?) They are way too slick. In the remake you could predict everything that was going happen right down to the fake cops at the end.

Depths of Characters -
Original:
You believe the characters. Sammy, "There isn't much use for a one eyed shortstop in Mobile Alabama so you have to follow the trash any way you can" on why he became a garbageman.

Vince , "I don't want to have my wife ever face those bums" as his beautiful stripper wife is on stage as his motivation for joining the gang.

The Electrician, who went to prison for trying to buy his wife a fur coat and ends up losing his kid in the process. He finds out he's going to the "Big Casino" and wants to provide for his kid.

Peter Lawford as the spoiled rich kid, "Money is a hard habit to break." , on why he's joining the gang.

Remake:
Virtually no believable character development, plus the unitentionally hysterical love triangle between Wynn, Roberts and Clooney already mentioned.

Women:
Original: Angie Dickenson and Shirley MaClaine -
Angie is absolutely beautiful as Danny Ocean's wife. You can see why President Kennedy was "interested" in her. Her acting is wonderful too. On the DVD edition she provides wonderful commentary along with Frank Sinatra JR. Shirley Maclaine also appears in an uncredited cameo. In 1960 she was stunning. Unfortunately age has not been kind to her, maybe that's why she's into all that crazy stuff.

Remake: Julia Roberts - Why do people continue to hire this woman? She's not even that good looking, let alone her lack of acting ability. In the remake Danny Ocean actually loses the battle and wins this doozy. Again unitentional hillarity as the Casino Owner gains by losing the girl.

Ending - Don't worry I won't spoil it for you.
Original: A great ending, with probobly one of the most famous ending shots of all time in a movie.

Remake: - Why in all modern movies do the bad guys have to get away with the crime? The movie is just too slick. You knew the cops at the end were fake, you just knew they'd get away with the caper, but at the end you just wish they wouldn't have.

Extra's -
Original:
Watch the garbage truck as it travels down the strip. There are no casino's on the west side of the strip! (save the Dunes, which wasn't included in the movie) You also see what a small town Vegas was back then.

Several people have criticized the movie for some of the racial jokes. Ok, but remember it was Frank who was on the forefront of integrating Vegas. He was the one who went to the casino owners and told them, you have to come into the 20th century.

Summation -
Original:

A wonderful time piece. A movie with beautiful music, suprisingly good writing, and just fun to watch.

Remake:
If you want to waste 2 hours of your life go ahead. Oh God, they've just released Ocean's 13. How much more torture must we endure??

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Ocean's 11

Excellent. The recent remakes are not as good as this one. The plot is better, the acting is better, the gags are funnier.

In memory of Frankie

The great Lewis Milestone, the supreme filmmaker of the well reminded " All quite on the Western front" undertook this fanciful and dynamic heist on form of comedy around to rob five casinos simultaneously. The Rat pack in action is plenty enough to maintain us in constant vigil from start to finish.

Better the Second Time 'Round

Usually when movies are re-makes they can't match up to the greatness of the first. In this case, the re-make of Ocean's 11 was better than the original. The original Ocean's 11 was slow and not nearly as dramatic. It lacked the technical info. that helped to make Ocean's 11 with George Clooney et al really great. Granted, technology during the Rat Pack's day was no where near the technology of today but the original Ocean's 11 lacked technology that would have been current at that time.

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