Away from the pack

Geoff Carter

Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 | 9:24 a.m.

Everyone can relax: It's good. In fact, Steven Soderbergh's remake of "Oceans 11" updates and improves upon the original 1960 film without disrespecting the Rat Pack classic. It's a funny heist film set in Las Vegas, as was the original. Several casinos are robbed by an 11-man crew, just as before. But the similarities pretty much end there, which is all to the good.

George Clooney plays Danny Ocean, not Frank Sinatra. If Clooney can be accused of cribbing from another character, it's one of his own he more or less recreates Foley, the smooth-talking bank robber of "Out of Sight," but with a surfeit of charisma, almost too much. You can imagine him charming his way out of anything with his jazzy lines and thousand-watt grin which is exactly what a movie star is supposed to do, really.

For those expecting a gritty heist film and not a party, Clooney's master-of-ceremonies routine may take the edge off the narrative. Andy Garcia's casino owner Terry Benedict and not coincidentally, the new boyfriend of Oceans ex-wife, Tess (Julia Roberts, just fine in moderation) is menacingly soft-spoken and wears nice suits, but he's plainly no match for Clooney's gold-plated smoothie. It's obvious who's going to get the upper hand even before the cards are dealt.

Every one of Clooney's associates walks away a winner. Brad Pitt is as dryly comic and likeable as he was in "Fight Club." (The scene in which Clooney and Pitt tooling around Los Angeles in a convertible strongly recalls Doug Liman's "Swingers," the last Rat Pack film that wasn't a Rat Pack film.) Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Eliott Gould and Don Cheadle give exactly what is needed. And Carl Reiner gives a career-best performance as a con man coerced out of retirement, away from "a nice lady who works the unmentionables counter at Macys."

The only character that returns from the original film is Vegas itself, still looking cooler than money. Ted Griffins script understands the casino culture better than nearly any other in recent years, right down to the dull, utilitarian paint in employee hallways. ("They say taupe is soothing," Pitt deadpans). Soderbergh takes Griffin's script and fills in the gaps with winks, knowing looks and nearly subliminal details -- if his camera looks at something for even a moment, chances are good it'll figure into the story somehow.

Yet as good as Soderbergh makes Vegas look -- he shoots it under its own light, without embellishment, becoming perhaps the first filmmaker in history to do so -- the score makes it sound better still. Funky-jazz guru David Holmes, so perfect in "Out of Sight," revises a few of the best tracks from his breakthrough album "Let's Get Killed" and complements them with some hip new compositions -- and manages to incorporate "Clair de Lune," which plays quietly under the picture's brilliant last 10 minutes.

Plus, Soderbergh manages to employ an Elvis Presley track, "A Little Less Conversation," that's a bit obscure; I never dreamed such a thing was possible. The song plays over an establishing shot of the Strip that's the only stock element in the picture, though the director manages to end the sequence with a bravura helicopter shot over Bellagio's fountains. The fountains, one of Vegas' most photogenic attractions, finally get the presentation they deserve.

"Ocean's Eleven" is a film for Vegas to be proud of. In the wake of "3000 Miles to Graceland," and other films so abysmally bad I'm amazed no charges were pressed, the easygoing cool of "Ocean's Eleven" redeems not only Vegas as a setting, but heist pictures as a genre. Which begs the question: What's set fire to Steven Soderbergh, and how can a rank-and-file entertainment writer get some of it?

For the past few years the director has made near-flawless pictures, one after the other: "Out of Sight," "The Limey," "Erin Brockovich" and "Traffic." "Ocean's Eleven" caps off a hot streak like none this town as seen, and I'm guessing he's only begun to get on top of his game.

Bartender, I'll have what he's having.