“Remake me! Remake me!”: 19 films improved by second takes

Frank Sinatra made Ocean’s Eleven at the height of his Rat Pack popularity, and from today’s viewpoint it seems like an excuse for Frank to hang out with Dino and Sammy in Vegas between nightclub gigs. There is a familiar plot to pull off multiple casinos at once, and a wife that got away (Angie Dickinson), along with Shirley MacLaine in a drunken cameo, and a surprisingly bleak twist ending. Still, most pegged the original Ocean’s as somewhat lackluster, although at least not as nonsensical as Robin And The 7 Hoods. Like some of the best remakes, 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven appears to use the original film as inspiration rather than straight-out source material, possibly director Steven Soderbergh’s way of having some fun after prestige pictures like . Polishing up this dusty material for a brand-new century, Soderbergh went for the glossiest of movie stars (George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon), buoyed by some excellent veterans (Bernie Mac, Elliott Gould, Carl Reiner). He added his usual inventive edits, a vibrant nighttime Vegas color scheme, irrepressible caper music, and some valuable meta material, like a bunch of teenage TV stars playing themselves. The result outpaced Sinatra, not an easy feat, followed by two lesser-but-decent sequels. [Gwen Ihnat]