style over professionalism

Ocean's 11 (1960)
2 Stars
Starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Angie Dickinson, Shirley MacLaine

An uninspired, unfocused caper, akin to an extended Saturday Night Live skit. MacLaine puts in a mere cameo, while Dickinson teases, but no more. Even the plot's too simple, considering this is supposed to be a crime picture. The Soderbergh remake is much better (yet still pretty lightweight).


Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
3 Stars
Directed by Guy Ritchie

Ostensibly a caper movie, this is really about English as a foreign language. The device is cute, to some extent, but the need to rewind to understand the dialogue ultimately detracts from the movie. And without the cockney-tude of the exercise, it's a funny, but unexceptional, heist movie.