Something to watch tonight: Wednesday 8 January

Ocean’s Eleven (Soderbergh, 2001)

There’s a little bit of backstory to this recommendation, so bear with me.

A couple of days ago I received a package from Amazon Australia, which was a surprise as I hadn’t ordered anything from them.

Inside was this:

The book is a ‘thank you’ gift from one of our Christmas houseguests (subscriber RC of Surry Hills NSW). It’s very beautiful and I can wait to dive in.

What kind of amazed me, though, was that it arrived on the same day as my JB Hi-Fi Boxing Day sale gift to myself which just happened to include this:

As coincidences go, this is a pretty cool one.

Today’s recommendation, though, isn’t Coppola’s The Conversation but we will come to that in the fullness of time.

It’s another film that was in that JB Hi-Fi self-care package, part of the new Ocean’s Trilogy 4K UHD box set – Ocean’s Eleven, which we watched last night.

My word, what a fun film. It is still pure entertainment from start to finish and a monument to 21st century film stardom. Clooney, Pitt, Roberts, Baby Damon are all brilliant and the film even manages to make Scott Caan look like a movie star. Bernie Mac and Carl Reiner are great, too.

It’s a remake of the Rat Pack hit from 1960 and, while Steven Soderbergh does a magnificent directing job, lots of credit must go to producer Jerry Weintraub who managed to persuade the Bellagio in Las Vegas to not only make their facility available for the shoot but also play itself in a film in which it is a) owned by a tyrannical asshole (Andy Garcia) and b) has $160m stolen from its vault.

Incidentally, in a sign of inflation over the last 25 years, $160m split between eleven people doesn’t sound like all that much.

The 4K remaster is outstanding and, while there is no DolbyVision (HDR10 only) or Atmos, the picture and sound is sensational. Credit must go to cinematographer Peter Andrews (actually Mr. Soderbergh who also operated the camera) for providing such great source material.

I don’t remember much about Twelve and Thirteen but I’m really looking forward to giving them a spin.

What else was in that package, I hear you ask. Quite a few that are going to get a run out in this newsletter, I’ll be bound.

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Where to watch Ocean’s Eleven