20 Great Movie Remakes With One Miscast Role
8. Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr - Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Ted Griffin gave us the heist film of the 21st century just one year in. Ocean’s Eleven has all the star power of the Rat Pack original, but makes the action and dialogue pacier, the sets and suits more stylish, and the team so expansive that it’s got just about everyone who was anyone at the time in it.
George Clooney is Danny Ocean, a hustler and thief who is just out of the joint and looking to put a crew together to knock over Vegas’ Bellagio, Mirage, and MGM Grand all in one night, for $160 million. On board for the job are his old pal Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), wealthy financier Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), pickpocket Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), and a whole host of other bit-players, including demolitions expert Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle).
Beginning to end, the direction and cinematography are slick and seamless, and the cast play their parts to perfection, each bringing something unique to the ensemble, whether that’s charm, wit, neurosis, humour, or a terrible, terrible, god-awful mockney accent.
Perplexingly, Cheadle’s character is a working-class Londoner. Except he’s not. Nothing about his bluster, affectations or accent suggests authenticity, and in a film where everything is smooth as a jazz quartet, each ‘tosser’ and ‘bladdy 'ell’ sticks out like a bashed thumb.