What to Watch - Warner Bros. Film Club Picks 2025
January Film Club - Ocean's Eleven
This month's Film Club is showcasing a stylish classic. We are celebrating Ocean's Eleven, a heist sensation. Are you ready to revisit this clever scheme? Test your knowledge with our quiz and see how well you know Danny Ocean and his crew!
About Ocean's Eleven
George Clooney - playing suave, high class, thief Danny Ocean - has just been released from a New Jersey prison. His parole conditions? Don’t leave the state, and don’t go to a casino. So naturally, he gets the next flight to Vegas, and heads to the nearest blackjack table.
What follows is a pitch perfect series of character introductions, set to composer David Holmes’s funky jazz drum music. Just like almost every aspect of Steven Soderbergh’s loose remake of Ocean’s 11 (1960), the music is slick, stylish, and effortlessly cool. Danny Ocean is putting together a crew to rob not one, not two, but three Las Vegas casinos; Don Cheadle plays the demolition expert, Casey Affleck plays the driver, and Matt Damon plays the fresh faced new guy eager to prove himself. All eleven members of the crew - forming the titular Ocean’s Eleven - have their own important role in the heist. Clooney plays the leader and Brad Pitt plays his number two, Rusty Ryan, and it’s this dynamic that forms the heart and soul of the film.
Clooney and Pitt bounce off each other in an electric on screen pairing. Finishing each other's sentences, knowing each other’s thoughts, and covering each other’s backs. We’re not told anything about their backstories, we don’t know when they meet or what jobs they’ve done before, but because of their chemistry we don’t need to. We instantly understand their dynamic the moment they share a scene. These two guys are professionals, at the top of their game, working to steal over a hundred million dollars while barely breaking a sweat. Exuding confidence and charisma - while dressed in perfect early 2000s suits - it’s as if their roles were grown in a lab specifically designed to be played by Clooney and Pitt. This impressive cast is rounded off by Julia Roberts - playing Danny’s ex wife - and Andy Garcia - playing Roberts’ new partner, and owner of the three casinos the crew intends to rob.
Just like any rom com has the meet cute, and any action film has the training montage, any heist film has the planning scene. All the crew are gathered together, Clooney stands at the front and does most of the talking, explaining the plan and what role each crew member will play. Damon’s character will impersonate a gaming commission agent and pick pocket the security codes. Don Cheadle’s character handles the demolitions, and needs to cut off power to the whole of Las Vegas for a few moments. Just long enough to hack into the security system and move without being detected. This planning scene is staged expertly, visually explaining the team dynamic to us. Clooney is the leader, standing upright at the front. Pitt is his number two, leaning against a wall off the side. Damon is the new guy wanting to make a name for himself, standing at the back and asking questions. The rest of the crew are sat down, the camera cutting to necessary character when their role in the heist is explained.
Each crew member has a vital role to play, forming part of an intricate puzzle that clicks into place at the exact right moment. It’s a large cast with no shortage of big name actors, but everyone gets their chance to shine. Soderbergh - alongside writers George Clayton Johnson, Jack Russell and Harry Brown - performs an impressive balancing act between all these characters, with everyone staying relevant to the very last scene.
The flow of information to the audience is tightly controlled. We know just enough to keep us interested, but not enough to make it predictable. And of course, not everything goes exactly to plan, at least that's what they want us to think. So book your next ticket to Vegas, and relish in Soderbergh’s stylish tour de force, and watch Ocean’s Eleven today.