Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

The third installment in the highly successful Ocean's series

Summary

-One of the original crew members, Reuben Tishkoff, was ripped off by casino manager Willy Bank. Now it's time for the crew to plan a third heist as payback

Cast

-George Clooney: Danny Ocean

-Brad Pitt: Rusty Ryan

-Matt Damon: Linus Caldwell / Lenny Pepperidge

-Michael Mantell: Dr. Ryan

-Elliott Gould: Reueb Tishkoff

-Al Pacino: Willy Bank

-Eddie Jemison: Livingston Dell

-Don Cheadle: Basher Tarr

-Shaobo Qin: Yen

-Casey Affleck: Virgil Malloy

-Scott Caan: Turk Malloy

-Bernie Mac: Frank Catton

-Carl Reiner: Saul Bloom

-Eddie Izzard: Roman Nagel

-Ellen Barkin: Abigail Sponder

-Julian Sands: Greco Montgomery

-Don McManus: Neil the Pit Boss

Did You Know?

-The scenes showing Linus walking through the streets of London talking on the phone were shot while Matt Damon was in London filming The Bourne Ultimatum. The production crew of Ocean's Thirteen took advantage of this, as they wanted the character Greco to be British and a former classmate of Roman Nagel

-The phone Abigail Sponder gives Willy Bank is a custom made Gold Samsung, made just for the movie

-The numbers Mr. Weng picks on the roulette wheel, 11, 12, 13, all refer to the films in the Ocean's series

-This was one of Bernie Mac's final roles on screen before his death on August 9, 2008, at the age of 50

-Director Steven Soderbergh had Al Pacino in mind first as the role of Willy Bank. The producer for the film, Jerry Weintraub, is a good friend of Pacino's and convinced him to be in the film

-All of the scenes featuring Al Pacino were shot in 3 weeks

-This film reunited Al Pacino and Andy Garcia after they worked together on The Godfather Pt. III (1990)

-The ringtone on Rusty's phone is The Human League's "Don't You Want Me"

-In the scene where the pit boss is seen leaving a pawn shop, he passes by a sign reading "Griffin". In Las Vegas, The Griffin Agency is responsible for helping casinos spot card counters and cheaters. In this area of town, The Griffin Bar is downtown

-The stuntman who Don Cheadle impersonates uses the stage name "Fender Roads." This is a homonym of "Fender Rhodes", an electric piano made by the Fender Corporation in the 1940s and 1950s, developed by Harold Rhodes

-This film reunites both Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin, both of whom starred in the 1989 film Sea of Love

-Terry Benedicts pretends to show interest in the 'Nuff Said dominoes game. The real Bellagio features a dominoes game called Pai Gow, which originated in China

Ocean's Twelve (2004)

This is the second installment of the highly successful Ocean's series

Summary

-Danny and the crew, plus an additional member, head to Europe to pull off three major heists

Cast

-Brad Pitt: Rusty Ryan

-Catherine Zeta-Jones: Isabel Lahiri

-George Clooney: Danny Ocean

-Julia Roberts: Tess Ocean

-Casey Affleck: Virgil Malloy

-Andy Garcia: Terry Benedict

-Scott Caan: Turk Malloy

-Shaobo Qin: Yen

-Don Cheadle: Basher Tarr

-Matt Damon: Linus Caldwell

-Carl Reiner: Saul Bloom

-Robbie Coltrane: Matsui

Did You Know?

-For the laser dance, Vincent Cassel didn't need a stuntman. He is an expert in the Brazilian martial art known as capoeira. He did the entire dance himself

-While shooting in Rome, Brad Pitt and George Clooney got caught in the rain while jogging. The doorman of their hotel wouldn't let them enter the hotel because he thought they were vagrants

-Sitting on the shores of Lake Como in Italy is the Nigh Fox's mansion. The city overlooking Lake Como is called Bellagio. The city and lake inspired the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, where the site of the original heist was in 2001's Ocean's Eleven

-The necklace that Rusty Ryan wears is a replica of a necklace with the wedding ring that Brad Pitt wore when he was married to Jennifer Aniston

-Despite Europol being a police organization in Europe, they have no executive powers to execute warrants or arrest people like they are shown in the movie. They exist to foster cooperation between the police services in Europe

-Unlike the movie, where it suggests that Europol is in Amsterdam, in real life Europol is located in The Hague, where many war crimes are put on trial. Many of the scenes showing the Europol office were shot in the city hall of The Hague and this location is only 50km south of Amsterdam

-In the scene with the train, Turk is seen wearing a Boston Red Sox cap while Danny is seen wearing a New York Yankees cap. This was to make it seem more realistic to distract the guards on the train. This is because the Yankees and the Red Sox have been rivals for over 100 years and their fans don't get along with each other

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

This is one of the more well known heist films starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney

Summary

-Danny Ocean is a gangster with the ultimate heist in mind. Rob three casinos simultaneously during a popular boxing event. To make this work, he will need a group of associates with specific areas of expertise

Cast

-George Clooney: Danny Ocean

-Bernie Mac: Frank Catton

-Brad Pitt: Rusty Ryan

-Elliott Gould: Reuben Tischoff

-Casey Affleck: Virgil Malloy

-Scott Caan: Turk Malloy

-Shaobo Qin: Yen

-Lori Galinski: Blackjack Dealer

-Matt Damon: Linus

-Andy Garcia: Terry Benedict

-Julia Roberts: Tess Ocean

-James Curatola: Baccarat Dealer

Did You Know?

-The security staff at The Bellagio allowed the crew to tap into their real security system to obtain real surveillance of the casino

-Andy Garcia struggled to do a serious scene with Carl Reiner because Reiner was amusing

-While auditioning with the Peking Acrobats, Shaobo Qin was spotted and asked to audition for the role of Yen

-During off time, the cast gambled. There was a debate about who won the most. George Clooney, it was said, had lost 25 hands of blackjack

-The role Matt Damon plays, Linus Caldwell, was originally supposed to go to Mark Wahlberg. But he turned down this role to star in the 2001 film Planet of the Apes

-Don Cheadle, whose character used a London-based Cockney accent, said it was not great. He wanted to change it, but his agent refused

-Since Shaobo Qin didn't speak much English, and this was his film debut, he had a Chinese translator on set to tell him what to do

-The entire crew of the movie was granted full access to The Bellagio. The reason being that producer Jerry Weintraub was good friends with former owner Steve Wynn. Wynn had sold the casino to Kirk Kerkorian prior to filming, but Weintraub was also friends with him

-The arguments Virgil and Turk have were based on arguments that screenwriter Ted Griffin and his brother had as kids

-The Bellagio had closed their valet parking area for the movie. Even the visiting high rollers had to use the parking garage, just like everyone else

-Bernie Mac improvised a lot of his lines, such as "You want me to get on the table and dance?"

-For the montage of Las Vegas, the Elvis Presley song "A Little Less Conversation" was chosen because it sounded like a Vegas song, rather than "Viva Las Vegas". While being one of Elvis' least known songs, it was given a modern remake thanks to Thomas Holkenborg, who is known as Junkie XL, and it became a hit on the radio

-The boxing match is between boxers Wladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis. While these two have never actually fought each other, on June 1, 2003, Lewis fought Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir's older brother, and won

-Don Cheadle went to London to talk to people to learn how to speak with a Cockney accent for his character Basher Tarr

-The prison Danny Ocean is released from, North Jersey State Prison, is actually the East Jersey State Prison, which was formerly known as the Rahway State Prison. The area where his parole interview was being held was the "Drill Hall", where inmates have their indoor gym / recreation area. The cell block Danny was leaving was "3-Wing", which was a regular and working cell block. The other inmates were either confined to their cells or relocated to other parts of the prison for filming. The "officer" who was escorting Danny was, in real life, a Lieutenant and, at the time of filming, he was the coordinator of the "Scared Straight" program, which would take at-risk youths and show them the reality of prison if they didn't change their ways

-Both Scott Caan and Andy Garcia have a connection to The Godfather series. Scott Caan's father is James Caan, who played Santino "Sonny" Corleone while Andy Garcia played Vincent Mancini, the love child of Sonny and his mistress Lucy Mancini in The Godfather Part III

-When Danny gets released from prison again, Tess makes a comment that goes "We have to get Rusty a girl." Rusty replies "There's a women's prison down the road." In real life, there is a women's prison, the only women's prison in all of New Jersey, roughly an hour away from the "North Jersey State Prison" in Rahway, New Jersey. It's called the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility

-The Malloy twins are played by Scott Caan and Casey Affleck. Their first names are Virgil and Turk. This is a nod to The Godfather, specifically one of the men who gets killed in the restaurant, Virgil "Turk" Sollozzo. Scott Caan's father is James Caan, whose meeting with Sollozzo resulted in an assassination attempt on Don Vito Corleone

-When Bernie Mac's character Frank Catton is shaking hands with a car salesman named Billy Tim Denham, that character is played by Joe La Due. This actor also appeared in the film Casino. He was the one whose hand was smashed by a hammer because he was found to be cheating at blackjack