Inception

2010

14 Apr 2026

*rewatch*

Yeah, this one was actually pretty complicated, wasn't it? Wasn't that guy injured? Oh, right, that was a dream.

What to say? Super cool visuals. The gun fights got a little bit tedious? It was weird seeing Elliot Page in a business lady get up.

This is how you do a heist film: set the rules, follow the rules. Throw some surprises in, but don't cheat the audience. Probably my favourite Nolan, out of the ones I have seen.

Ocean's 11

2001

05 Mar 2026

Ocean’s 11 was in the “hat” (it’s a tub actually) for Pigeon’s Lucky Dip DVD night, and it was actually the first time I’d seen it. I will contrast my expectations of this quite famous film with my actual experience, and then we’ll see where we get to.

So my knowledge of the Ocean’s series was actually quite limited. They’re heist films where a bunch of guys led by George Clooney and Brad Pitt rob a casino. The last film was all women, so that’s nice. That’s all I really knew. Here’s what I expect from a heist film. First, you need to set up the challenge: there are guards here, we need a code for this door, what have you. Then, there is a Cunning Plan^TM to deal with these challenges. In the execution of the plan, stuff goes wrong (plan < contact with the enemy) but the heisters pull it over to their side and win in the end. That’s the formula.

Ocean’s 11 deviates from this traditional pattern in two important ways. One, we are not told the plan. We don’t even find out what they’re doing as they are doing it, we are hoodwinked along with the casino owner (Andy Garcia, easily the sexiest in this sexiest man line-up). Which is fine, the cleverness of the plan makes for a good surprise when it is revealed, but it does mean you spend much of the film without any clue as to what’s going on, and whether they are winning or losing. So, upsides and downsides to that decision.

More importantly, the film-makers just don’t play fair. Just to pick on one detail: what would you do if you found a stranger’s burner phone in your pocket? “Answer when it rings” is not top of my list, let me tell you. But the whole plot hinges on that phone call going exactly the way they want.

There’s many of these “but wait a minute” fridge-thought moments that you don’t spot at the time because you’re not clued in to what the plan is, but that leave you feeling robbed when it’s over. A little bit of plot immunity for the heroes is forgivable, but these guys get away with bloody murder. Also, the “winner gets the girl” plot is so last millennium, guys. Do better.

I guess people love Ocean’s not so much for the tight plotting as for the joy of watching a bunch of shiny movie stars swanning it up in Vegas and trading witty dialogue. It does deliver on that. Well done, gentlemen.
*polite applause*