Superdeluxe remake of a Rat Pack lark of 1960: a happy-go-lucky, jolly-good-fellows, high-tech, clean-as-a-whistle casino heist, with a star-studded cast (Clooney, Pitt, Damon, Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia, Carl Reiner, Elliott Gould, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan). There are sellouts, to be sure, and then there are sellouts, and Steven Soderbergh's philosophy apparently holds that if you're going to be one, you might as well be a big one. Bigger than he was in Erin Brockovich, bigger than in Traffic. The biggest. (The original was directed by the man who had made All Quiet on the Western Front and Of Mice and Men, so there's an immediate precedent.) Maybe the stigmatization of a Vegas fat cat — "This guy is as smart as he is ruthless" — makes it easier for Soderbergh to look at himself in the mirror, but it doesn't make it easier to look at the screen. Fat cats are plentiful there. (2001) — Duncan Shepherd
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