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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

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Released 4-Jun-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Caper Main Menu Introduction
Main Menu Audio & Animation
Dolby Digital Trailer-Egypt
Filmographies-Cast & Crew
Audio Commentary
Audio Commentary
Featurette-Behind The Scenes
Featurette-The Look Of The Con
Theatrical Trailer
Teaser Trailer-2
DVD-ROM Extras
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2001
Running Time 111:47
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (59:20) Cast & Crew
Start Up Ads Then Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Steven Soderbergh
Studio
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring George Clooney
Matt Damon
Brad Pitt
Andy Garcia
Julia Roberts
Elliott Gould
Carl Reiner
Casey Affleck
Scott Cann
Eddie Jemison
Bernie Mac
Don Cheadle
Shaobo Qin
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $39.95 Music David Holmes


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Ocean's Eleven is a remake of a film with the same name from 1960 which starred the members of the "Rat Pack", that is, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. The original was released on DVD earlier this year and you can read our review of that DVD here.

    The plot is fairly simple and centres around Danny Ocean (George Clooney) who, having just been released from prison on parole, puts together a team of eleven assorted criminals, con-artists and others to rob the extremely secure vault that is used to hold the funds of three Las Vegas casinos. To ensure that they maximise the proceeds from this heist, they plan to carry out the operation on fight night when the vault is expected to hold more than $150,000,000. While this movie is a remake and the basic plot premise is the same as the original, the story is quite different in the details. So if you've seen the original, don't think that you've also seen this movie as the characters and what happens to them while preparing and carrying out the heist are quite different.

    Steven Soderbergh has done a nice job of taking this story and updating it. I was waiting to see at least one visual reference to the original movie, as so often happens in remakes, but was somewhat surprised to find none. In the commentary, Ted Griffin explains that he intentionally tried to exclude references to the original Rat Pack from his script and although not explicitly discussed, it seems that excluding reference to the original film and its stars was also the intention of the director.

    Without being a brilliant film, this is still an excellent effort and a more than satisfactory way to while away a couple of hours.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This is one beautiful transfer, with almost flawless video. It looks just as good on DVD as it did when I saw this film in the local cinema.

    The transfer is presented in its correct theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is perfectly sharp at all times and displays very good shadow detail and solid blacks. This is no evidence of low level noise. There is some very very minor edge enhancement to be seen but this is very infrequent and you do have to look very very hard to spot it.

    This movie is full of perfectly saturated vivid colours. There are some very striking deep greens, reds, yellows and blues. Skin tones tend to look just slightly reddish in the interior shots but this is as I remember it when I saw this movie theatrically. Overall, the image is a feast for the eyes and this is one of the best-looking transfers I have seen for a while.

    There aren't many artefacts of any type to be seen in this transfer. I spotted just one small film artefact, which is as it should in a film of such recent vintage. There was a touch of aliasing to be seen on a couple of occasions but this was very minor. The worst example occurred at 52:26 on the old casino building. This is very good considering there were plenty of opportunities for aliasing to appear.

    English subtitles are the only subtitle option available on this disc. I sampled about 10 minutes and found that there were some differences between the text and the dialogue but nothing that would affect your ability to follow the story. The subtitles are presented in white text at the bottom of the screen and are easy to read.

    This is an RSDL disc  with the layer change placed between Chapters 18 and 19 at 59:20. The change occurs at the beginning of a shot of closed elevator doors, where the picture freezes momentarily and then starts up again with the doors opening. It is perfectly placed and very unlikely to disturb your enjoyment of the movie.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Although this movie doesn't have an overly dramatic audio design, there is no doubt that most viewers will be very pleased with the quality of the audio on offer.

     I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack as well as the two Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio commentary tracks. In total, there are four audio tracks, the fourth being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded track.

    There were no problems with the dialogue quality which is good because there is some pretty witty stuff here that you wouldn't want to miss. My personal favourite is the interchange between George Clooney and Julia Roberts after they meet for the first time after he gets out of prison; "They tell me I paid my debt to society" "Funny, I never got a cheque". You will have to listen quite hard to the Basher (Don Cheadle) character due to his prolific use of rhyming slang and his accent.

    I wasn't aware of any problems with the audio sync.

    The music, which has a jazzy feel to it, is nicely integrated into the overall audio, and is never overpowering. I found that the music subtly enhanced the visual experience, adding to my overall enjoyment of this movie.

    For the most part, the surrounds are used subtly to support the music and to provide necessary ambience, for example, in the casino crowd scenes. For most of the movie, the audio is concentrated in the front three channels.

    The subwoofer is used to support both the music and the effects and has been nicely integrated into the overall soundfield. It becomes very active when needed, particularly to support the various explosions and clanging of vault doors opening and closing.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    You want extras, you got extras. Village Roadshow, in their usual style have laid on a nice selection including not one but two audio commentaries.

Menu

    The main menu features both animation and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded audio. Before the main menu appears and while switching from one menu to another there is short animation sequence. The introductory sequence and the menus are displayed in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 16x9 enhancement.

Dolby Digital Trailer-Egypt

Filmographies-Cast & Crew

    A list of the main cast members together with the names of the characters that they play. Additionally, there are filmographies for George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.

Audio Commentary

    Director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Ted Griffin talk about the development of the script, how the film was edited, techniques that were used during filming and to create the various special effects, and generally offer up lots of details about what was trying to be achieved in each scene. If your interest is to understand in considerable detail how this film was made then you'll get a lot out of this commentary.

Audio Commentary

    Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Brad Pitt provide some insight into their characters and the making of the film. What comes across most strongly from this commentary is that all the cast members developed a strong camaraderie and very obviously enjoyed working together making this movie. Brad Pitt has lots of fun taking the mickey out of George Clooney at every possible opportunity.

Featurette-Behind The Scenes (15:04)

    This is a fairly standard promotional piece in which we see the actors talking about the film, their characters and the story, cut together with clips from the movie. This featurette has Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded audio and is displayed in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is therefore without 16x9 enhancement.

Featurette-The Look Of The Con (9:42)

    Costume designer Jeffrey Kurland and Director Steven Soderbergh talk about the style and the look they wanted to create for the film, and the individual characters, through the costume designs.

Theatrical Trailer (2:07)

    A typical trailer. The aspect ratio is 1.85:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded.

Teaser Trailer-2 (0:32 & 2:08)

    Again these two trailers are typical. The first is displayed in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with 16x9 enhancement. The second trailer is the longer of the two, this time in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 16x9 enhancement. The audio for both trailers is Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded.

DVD-ROM Extras

     The first thing this disc does when you insert it in your DVD-ROM drive is to try and install the Interactual Player 2.0. I don't know about you but I find such things very annoying. I've got a perfectly good software DVD player already installed thank you very much. However, if you want to access the DVD-ROM features then using the Interactual Player may be the easiest way to do it. If you're more computer literate then just find the default.htm file on the disc and open it with the browser of your choice

    As far as the DVD-ROM features are concerned there's the "In or Out Challenge" which asks you a few questions about the movie and then gives you a chance to play some Blackjack. There's also a link to the Ocean's Eleven website where you can find posters, screensavers, wallpaper, trailers, information on the movie and the stars, information on other Warner Brothers movies and DVDs. If this isn't enough there's a "Crack The Vault" game which might win you a $5000 trip to Las Vegas.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    Except for the addition of one extra trailer, a French Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track and French and Spanish subtitles on the Region 1 disc, both regions have identical features. On this basis I would select the Region 4 disc to take advantage of the superior PAL picture.

    Oh, by the way, if you're one of those strange people who like to watch movies with the sides cut off then you can also buy a fullscreen version in Region 1.

Summary

    Ocean's Eleven is a good movie rather than a great movie and it will definitely provide you with an entertaining couple of hours. As remakes go I would say this is one of the better efforts to come out of Hollywood. It takes the basic premise of the original and updates it without turning it into a complete piece of trash as so often happens with remakes.

    The video quality is superb, and is of reference quality.

    The audio quality is also superb but would have benefited from a bit more use of the surrounds.

    The extras are very satisfactory and more than enough to keep you busy for a few more hours, especially if you listen to both audio commentaries.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Peter Cole (Surely you've got something better to do than read my bio)
Monday, May 27, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-515, using S-Video output
DisplaySony VPL-VW11HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (254cm). Calibrated with AVIA Guide To Home Theatre. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationYamaha RXV-995
SpeakersFront L&R - B&W DM603, Centre - B&W LCR6, Rear L&R - B&W DM602, Sub - Yamaha YST-SW300

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