Wednesday Minute
No. 99 | May 19, 2010

Six Packs

Our theme this week
Rat Packs, and other “Packs” that made movies

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Holmby Hills Rat Pack
Tuesday         —   Rat Pack

New Rat Pack

 

George Clooney said a wise thing in 2001 when the remake of Ocean’s Eleven was coming out.  “We’re never going to be as cool as those guys.”  On that he was right.  But on the other hand, Clooney and his pack of thieves made a better movie.

Clooney was careful to downplay the parallels between the “eleven” in the remake and the Rat Pack of the original.  But when you make a movie called Ocean’s Eleven, you invite people to make comparisons anyway.  In media shorthand they were the ”new” Rat Pack, even if they steered clear of the label themselves.

The remake was another heist movie, also set in Vegas, with a slick cast featuring some of the hottest names in Hollywood, including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac and Andy Garcia.  Carl Reiner and Eliott Gould lent the production their veteran touch, and Julia Roberts, as Danny Ocean’s ex, added her million-dollar smile.  Steven Soderbergh, in one of his lighter turns, directed the action with finesse.  In short, the film is about movie stars having fun, and as a piece of juiced-up, pure entertainment, it was one of the decade’s more enjoyable pleasures.

Ocean’s Eleven was a hit with audiences, and Soderbergh, Clooney, and the pack made a couple of sequels, Ocean’s Twelve, in 2004, and Ocean’s Thirteen, in 2007.

Among the core team—Clooney, Pitt, Damon, Roberts, and Soderbergh—none is known for his or her singing prowess.  But like the earlier Rat Pack, they are frequent collaborators in the moviemaking business, both onscreen and behind the scenes.  Their work includes many popular and entertaining films from the past decade or more.  Here, some in which at least two were associated:  Out of Sight (1998), Erin Brockovich (2000), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Syriana (2005), The Good German (2006), The Departed (2006), Michael Clayton (2007),  Burn After Reading (2008), and The Informant! (2009).

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Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Steven Soderbergh, director
Trailer

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Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
Steven Soderbergh, director
Vincent Cassell

 

“How did you get by the laser fields in the Great Hall?”
A scene that works in any language.

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Quote of Note
Rusty:  Why do this?
Danny:  Why not do it?  Cause yesterday I walked out of the joint after losing four years of my life and you’re cold-decking Teen Beat cover boys.  Cause the house always wins.  Play long enough, you never change the stakes.  The house takes you.  Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet and you bet big, then you take the house.
Rusty:  Been practicing this speech, haven’t you?
Danny:  Little bit.  Did I rush it?  Felt I rushed it.
Rusty:  No, it was good, I liked it.  The Teen Beat thing was harsh.
—Rusty Ryan (Brit Pitt), Danny Ocean (George Clooney), Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

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