10 Movie Remakes Better Than The Original
3. Ocean's Eleven
Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven isn't just much better known than Lewis Milestone's Ocean's 11; it's simply much better, period.
The 1960 original was a fun vehicle for the Rat Pack, with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr et al essentially playing slight twists on their already well-known personas. The story is similar - Danny Ocean recruits a crack team to rob a bunch of Las Vegas casinos - but, while there's a certain 1960s cool to the flick, the script is overly contrived, and the performances themselves don't amount to much despite the star-billing.
Enter Soderbergh in 2001, who turns in an equally starry cast - George Clooney! Brad Pitt! Matt Damon! - but crucially a whip-smart, razor-sharp script that absolutely crackles with energy. The whole team bring a huge amount of energy and charm, bouncing off each other in the way such ensembles often promise and often fail to deliver. That's backed by the clever writing and direction from Soderbergh, who turns this into a thrilling flick that's an absolute blast to watch from start to finish. It's undeniably cool, slick, and not just a remake that's better than the original, but a perfect example of the heist genre too.
[James Hunt]