Looking back at the original Ocean's 11, it seems like an ideal candidate to be remade because it's such a piece of its time; like a snapshot of that "other 60's" that was in power before the Beatles and the counterculture movement gave us the flower-power period most people think about. Nope, in the Kennedy era, it was a time of Sinatraand cocktails; a time when cocky guys in their 40's (aka Rat Pack) were firmly in control of just about everything, including movies. That the original is so tied to its time means this film can take the central plot elements, dump just about everything else, and then come out with an all-new movie... which is what the best remakes are all about!

I'll wrap up this commentary by noting how great it is that this movie is being helmed by Steven Soderbergh, who is becoming one of the most noteworthy directors of late, with his Out of Sight (with Clooney) hailed as one of the best films of 1998, and Erin Brockovich (with Roberts) likewise being hailed. Including The Limey, a trend that Soderbergh seems to be following is to give each film an unique visual style that reminds you of an earlier age of cinema (The Limey seemed very late 1960's; Out of Sight had a 70's feel), so we might guess that he could (or could not) pay homage to the early 60's again with this film.