Ocean’s Eleven/We Were Soldiers/Training Day George Clooney 2005 DVD

A triple bill of action. ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ (2002) is Steven Soderbergh’s remake of the 1960 Rat Pack heist classic. George Clooney stars as Danny Ocean, an ex-convict with a smart new plan to rob the casinos of Las Vegas. Gathering together a crack team – including his old friend Rusty (Brad Pitt) – Danny and the boys begin the meticulous preparations necessary to carry out the complex job, with pickpocket Linus (Matt Damon), con-artist Saul (Carl Reiner) and explosives expert Basher (Don Cheadle) all playing their part. Meanwhile, Danny continues to pursue his ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts), who is currently dating the casino boss Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). ‘We Were Soldiers’ is a big budget war movie telling the true story of the Battle of Landing Zone X-Ray. The year is 1965 and Colonel Hal Moore’s (Mel Gibson) men arrive in the highlands of South Vietnam ready to carry out a search-and-destroy mission. But thanks to a fault in military intelligence, they disembark near a large North Vietnamese army base and soon find themselves surrounded. What follows is a three-day battle resulting in massive casualties for both sides. Whilst ‘Training Day’ is a police corruption thriller featuring an Oscar-winning performance from Denzel Washington. Rookie cop Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) has been newly assigned to an elite narcotics unit and is due to spend his first day on the job with veteran detective Alonzo Harris (Washington). As the day passes, and after dealing with street thugs and drug tycoons, Hoyt begins to suspect that Harris might have become corrupted by the job. When Harris then murders criminal kingpin Roger (Scott Glenn) and tries to get the act pinned on Hoyt, the young cop realises that he has no choice but to confront Harris himself.