MovieFone - What happens in Vegas ... sometimes never stops happening. It has been exactly 10 years since 'Ocean's 11' opened (on December 7, 2001), but the movie remains ubiquitous on TV, as do its two smash sequels. Plus, there's no getting away from its all-star cast -- including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and Matt Damon -- or from director Steven Soderbergh, whose ongoing career successes (as with this year's 'Contagion,' starring Damon) make us skeptical of his threats to retire from filmmaking.
Ensemble dramas aren’t the easiest types of movies to film. Too many diverse dynamics between big personalities could go very wrong. But if the cast shares sizzling chemistry, the movie becomes a joyride instead.
Everyone likes a good heist movie. When audience flocked the theaters as far back as 1903, they were paying money to see films like The Great Train Robbery. We seem to take an almost pathological delight in seeing people take other people’s hard-earned cash. Over one hundred years after audiences got their kicks out of seeing trains get robbed, the tradition continues, with the last few decades seeing a marked increase in heist films. The more complicated and elaborate the plan, the better.
With the current cultural moment so seeped with financial discontent, with the growing gap between the have and the have nots ever widening, I wouldn’t be surprised if this upswing continues. Here are a few films from the past twenty years that feature people stealing other people’s property.
Associatedcontent: You can't go a month without some unoriginal, knock off film being sent to the movies and making bank off of someone else's idea. Let's face it: new special effects doesn't always add up to a better movie viewing experience.
