Ocean's Eleven - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Ocean's Eleven



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Heist movies have been around since the dawn of film, and played a large role in crafting a myriad of adventure films ranging from The Great Train Robbery, to well...Ocean’s 11. And while most remakes of classic films tend to fail more often than succeed, Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven managed to be probably the single best heist film of the last 30 years, and one of my favorite heist films of all time. It was snappy, witty, and used just enough misdirection to keep you guessing till the very end (even if you know MOST of the events happening). Not to mention starring an ensemble cast of everyone who was anybody in Hollywood around the turn of the century.

Danny Ocean (George Clooney) Is fresh out of jail for a con job that he actually get caught for (the parole hearing lightly jokes at him being implicated in a dozen more jobs, but never charged) and instead of turning over a new leaf is looking at pulling off the biggest heist in criminal history. Instead of rolling over a few banks or some rich widows, Danny has his eyes set on a massive prize, but one shrouded in risk. Knocking over not one, not two, but THREE Vegas casinos run by one Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia).

To do the job right he needs a team of 10 crooks, thieves and swindlers to pull off such a massive endeavor. Which means he needs his right hand man Rusty (Brad Pitt), Smart mouthed Casino expert Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), a pair of wheelman brothers by the name of Turk and Virgil (Scott Caan and Casey Affleck), old timer Saul (Carl Reiner), Security expert Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison), a Chinese contortionist named Yen (Shaobo Qin), and rookie pick pocket Linus (Matt Damon). However, the job itself is FAAAAR from easy. The Casinos are lorded over by Terry Benedict himself, and Mr. Benedict went ALLL out with the security measures. Which means the plan has to be bold, meticulous, and well timed to fool a million cameras, a paranoid business owner, and of course their own dumb luck.

Soderbergh was absolutely on fire with Ocean’s Eleven. The film is fast paced, the dialog is fantastic between the cast, and everything moves at such a quick pace it’s hard to let the more unrealistic portions of the film really sink home. Sure, the idea is crazy, and the idea that a plan like this can go off without a hitch is pretty ridiculous, but the film simply oozes cool and suave debonair to the point that you don’t really CARE about those silly little details. Plus when you throw in Julia Roberts as the little mid film twist things get really interesting.

Simply put, Ocean’s Eleven is a text book example of a high stakes heist movie done correctly. The Cast, the crew, the plot, and visuals just WORK. You want loathe Terry Benedict so much that you’re cheering for Danny and the boys to pull this off, and even though you KNOW for a fact that it’s going to turn out the way you think it will, the audience is still invested in seeing just HOW it’s all done.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for some language and sexual content




4K Video:

It’s been a loooooooooooooooooong time coming, but we finally have a new video encode for the Ocean’s trilogy. Originally released back in 2008 during the format war, Warner was forced to compress their Blu-ray down with an aging master and onto a 25 gigabyte disc to accommodate HD-DVD’s lower file size capabilities. As such its video and audio scores were NOT that great. However, this is an entirely different beast altogether, as Warner has gone back for a new master, and finally given the film the treatment it deserves.

Unlike James Cameron, Steven Soderbergh’s recently released trilogy is unmolested and given an absolutely STUNNING new transfer (much like Contagion was a few weeks back) that is crisp, clean and vibrant in 2160p. Right off the bat comparing the opening scenes to the Blu-ray is like watching DVD to Blu-ray in terms of the quality leap. Gone is the smeared details, colors are warm and vibrant, and I was shocked to see just how big of an improvement this new master (and of course the higher resolution and HDR...no Dolby Vision) provides. Soderbergh films are always at least slightly stylized, and no matter how good you get as mastering, there will always be that orange, yellow and lightly green hues that Steven applies to many of his films. However, it’s more judicious and toned down in the Ocean’s trilogy thanks to Soderbergh wanting the film to look more mainstream. Fine details inside and outside the casino are absolutely stunning, and the HDR application really adds depth and pop to the ambers and maroon’s inside said casino. Black levels are awesome, especially when the gang breaks into the vault with neon green NODS flickering. There is some natural softness to certain scenes that isn’t going away, but that is very typical of Soderbergh and his grading, so I’d rack that more up to stylistic choices rather than a bad encode. Artifacting is near nonexistent, and at the end of the day this is a MASSIVE upgrade over the 2008 Blu-ray that we’ve suffered with for 16 years.








Audio:

Right along for the ride is an upgrade over the aging 5.1 Dolby Digital Lossy track that the HD-DVD and original Blu-ray foisted on us a decade and a half ago. Comparing the two side by side you get a distinct boost in both volume and depth, as the sound stage feels thick and “full” for once. The thinness of the lossy Dolby Digital track is gone, and I noticed that I could actually pick up more surround details, and the jazzy score really fills out a good bit. Dialog is spot on and crystal clear, but I did notice that the film doesn’t have as much bass as I would have liked. To be fair, the Blu-ray, the DVD and (to my aging memory) the theatrical experience wasn’t massively bassy either. Most of the film it simply adds some mild weight to the score, but on certain occasions (such as the vault doors being blown, the casino being demolished, or gunshots as the van tires are being blown) do definitely jump out at you. Part of me wanted to give the audio a 4.5/5 as well, but the fact that the film’s sound design sort of skimped on the bass (there were scenes such as the twins car race, or the rumbling of the swat van that really felt like there should have been some bass when it wasn’t really there) made me knock off half a star to 4/5 (although it’s certainly a heap better than the lossy Blu-ray track).







Extras:

• Audio Commentary with director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Ted Griffin
• Audio Commentary with actors Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, and Brad Pitt
• Are You In or Out?: The Making of Ocean's Eleven (
• Pros and Cons: Inside Ocean's Outfit
• The Style of Steal
• The Look of the Con
• Original Ocean's, Original Cool

Final Score: ​

Ocean’s Eleven is a blast even 23 years later. Honestly, this is probably in my top 10 all time favorite Heist movies, so it was a bit disappointing to have the aging Blu-ray hang around without any remastered variations until now. But luckily this 4K UHD has gone above and beyond souping up the video and audio to near demo worthy. There are a few VERY minor extras missing from the Ocean’s Trilogy Blu-ray set from a few years back, but all of the major ones are present and accounted for. Highly recommended for those who have or do not have the old Blu-ray. Great film, great package

As a heads up, I have linked to the Steelbook edition (which is also used as the top poster) due to the fact that I have reviewed the Disc from the 4K Trilogy set and the only way to get the single is via the steelbook (discs are identical, packaging is the only difference).



Technical Specifications:

Starring: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Written by: George Clayton Johnson, Jack Golden Russell, Harry Brown
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French (Canadian), French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Czech, Japanese DD 5.1, Spanish (Latin) DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Japanese, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 117 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: April 30th, 2024

Recommendation: Great Buy

 

[VJM]

Love this movie, can't wait to check out the 4k!

 

[Michael Scott]

Love this movie, can't wait to check out the 4k!

it shows probably the best IMPROVEMENT from Blu-ray to 4K, but they all look fantastic. Very organic and natural looking (well, besides Soderbergh's heavy color grading he's famous for.)

 

[Todd Anderson]

I’m all over this!

 

[Sonnie]

Shucks... no bundle deal on Kaleidescape.

 

[VJM]

Shucks... no bundle deal on Kaleidescape.

Not yet, they are new releases, if you wait, there will be one at some point in the future.

 

[Aburguy]

Im going to pick this up for sure

 

[NBPK402]

I love the movie too!