Ocean's Eleven (2001)

**My favorite movie of all time! A must-see!**
Ocean's Eleven greatest strength is its emersion of the audience into the midst of a story already in motion. The pacing isn't weighed down by exposition; instead, the viewer discovers important history and surprises simultaneously as the characters on screen. The absolutely brilliant cast is effortlessly charming, whose antics and charisma fuel the movie to be a wonderful ride from start to finish. You can't help but feel welcomed into Danny Ocean's crew. With amazing acting, storytelling, clever twists, and exceptional directing, Ocean's Eleven is a must-see and my favorite movie of all time. As a young teen who stood firmly in the grunge camp of wearing ripped jeans and rock 'n' roll t-shirts, Ocean's Eleven convinced me that every now and then... suits are cool too.

Really good watch, would watch again, and can recommend.
As far as heist movies go, it's excellent, but I think I'm very picky when it comes to heist movies. In order to get me behind the criminal protagonist, it needs to be overly complex, but not complicated, and there needs to be an alternative motive, such as "get the girl".
This entire franchise does a decent job of this, keeping the motives and implementations interesting. Part of the problem with that is that because of how complex the heist is, have the movie is an explanation of how the heist is going to happen (with JUST enough information left out for misdirects), then there is the actual heist, with some misdirects, and an explanation of the gaps, if not the heist itself, then a resolution.
That's the formula for every heist movie ever, which is part of what makes it boring. It has to be special to really grab a audience and make it memorable.
This movie does all this with a great cast, and certainly enough production value. While it is certainly really interesting and entertaining, I can't really say its a great movie. We can chalk it up as personal bias, but I do think everyone should see this version as it has some historical value and is well worth the watch.