Release year: 1960

The players: Director: Lewis Milestone, Writers: Harold Brown, Charles Lederer, Cast: Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop

The plot: Danny Ocean recruits 10 other guys to help him knock over five Las Vegas casinos in one night.

Modern thoughts on a classic movie: There is a very important element missing from the original version of “Ocean’s Eleven,” and it’s called entertainment. The movie is not the least bit exciting. The film is labeled with the genres of comedy and crime, but it lacks any qualities that would recommend it for either of these categories.

The problem is every element of the movie feels severely dated. The humor is bland or cartoonish. It’s not likely much laughter would come from any audience that watches the movie post 1965, at the latest. The “heist” aspect is a joke. The gang’s planning seems quite mundane for the job they are trying to pull off. Then, there never seems to be any element of danger for the gang, no real obstacle. If robbing Vegas casinos was as easy as depicted in the movie, Sin City would go broke. Above all, the movie had no mystery. The guys get together, discuss the plan for all in the audience to hear, follow through with the heist and get their money. Only in the fleeting final moments is there a “surprise” in store for the viewer, but this only leads to the film teaching everyone a lesson in morality - a moment no one, no matter in what decade they are watching the film, wants to have thrown in their face.

The absolutely unforgivable curse of “Ocean’s Eleven” though is that it boils down to nothing more than a 2+ hour advertisement for the Rat Pack’s running Las Vegas shows at the time of its release. Seeing as how all five gents have now passed on, no one in this day and age would be interested in this, unless they just happen to be a delusional die-hard fan of the Rat Pack.

The final word: The 1960 version of “Ocean’s Eleven” is in no way appealing to the modern viewer, who can find a funnier and more exciting execution in the 2001 remake.