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