Stars:
George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck,
Scott Caan, Elliott Gould, Bernie Mac, and Carl Reiner
Writer:
Ted Griffin
Director:
Steven Soderbergh
Feature
length: 117 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Audio Commentary By Director Steven Soderbergh and Screenwriter
Ted Griffin, Feature Length Audio Commentary With Stars Matt Damon, Andy Garcia,
and Brad Pitt, HBO First Look: The Making Of Ocean’s Eleven, The Look Of The
Con, Theatrical Trailers, Web Links
Languages:
English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 and English Dolby Surround 2.0
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Subtitles
Packaging:
Snap Case
Chapter
Stops: 35
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2001/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA
Rating: PG-13
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
After
winning the Oscar® for Best Director last year for “Traffic,” Steven
Soderbergh decided to make something light and less edgy. Looking for something
that comes from an era more elegant, he chose to remake “Ocean’s Eleven”
starring an ensemble cast that includes in alphabetical order George Clooney,
Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan,
Elliott Gould, Bernie Mac, and Carl Reiner. The film is well directed with lots
of steady camera movement and inventive setups as well as good sportsmanship
among the talents so everyone has a moment to shine on screen. Bernie Mac is a
standout in his supporting role adding great humor as well as charisma with only
a simple eye movement while remaining completely straight faced throughout the
film. It’s also great to see Elliott Gould and Carl Reiner on the big screen
again or in this case, DVD.
Warner
Home Video is releasing a widescreen and full screen
version separately with
identical extra features. I finally got a hold of the widescreen version, which
presents the film in a (2.35:1) aspect ratio enhanced for 16 by 9 televisions
and preserving the way in which the film was presented theatrically. The image
quality is reference quality with no grain or anomalies visible at all. A
well-mixed English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is included along with
a French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack as well as an English
Dolby Surround Soundtrack. English Captions and Closed Captions and French, and
Spanish Language Subtitles are also encoded on to the dual layered DVD as
options.
Director
Steven Soderbergh and Writer Ted Griffin give a good articulate screen specific
audio commentary track that is complimented from a less formal feature length
audio commentary with Stars Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, and Brad Pitt. The
Actor’s commentary sounds like it was mixed from two different sessions with
Damon and Pitt referring to each other while they are on screen as if they were
not present during the recording. Sometimes the actors repeat themselves and
break into silences, but overall the commentary is a nice touch that reveals
behind-the-scenes elements from a different perspective.
The
HBO First Look Special and a Production Design Special entitled “The Look Of
The Con” as well as two teaser trailers and a (1.85:1) theatrical trailer and
web links wrap up the extra features on this DVD.
“Ocean’s
Eleven” Widescreen and Full Screen Edition will debut separately on DVD-Video
on Tuesday, May 7, 2002 from Warner Home Video.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.