NOBODY REALLY WANTED an Ocean’s 11 remake. The original 1960 film, about a group of World War II veterans who plan a New Year’s Eve heist on five Las Vegas casinos, was better remembered for its cast than its quality, its chief reason for existing mainly so that the ‘Rat Pack’ —entertainers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop —could hang out, gamble and get drunk.
Watched with today’s eyes, it’s a rather cheesy, dated, best-forgotten crime comedy. “The truth is,” George Clooney later said, “most people never saw the original Ocean’s 11. They just think they have. Because those guys were the coolest.”
Somehow, its legacy and memory endured. For one thing, the 1960 film transformed Las Vegas’ reputation and status, playing a significant role in turning this once sparsely populated, dusty desert town —previously best known for nuclear testing —into the epitome of cool and sophistication. (Its impact can still be literally seen in the town; Sinatra, Martin and Davis Jr have Vegas streets named after them.) More importantly, it laid the groundwork for that hottest of hands: the remake that surpasses the original.