MovieChat Forums > Ocean's Eleven (2001) Discussion > The Shockingly Bad London Accent.

The Shockingly Bad London Accent.

posted 11 years ago by rjlextro
31 replies | jump to latest

I can't remember his name, but he is the black man who puts on what I can only describe as a painfully bad London accent.

I could tell straight away he wasn't a Brit, was it really so hard to get a black actor from the UK to do that part?

I had to skip his parts whenever he showed up in the movie. It sounded too strained but at the same time weak.

I say London accent, Christ knows what accent he was trying to put on - Cockney perhaps?

Whatever it was it was terrible, am I the only one who thinks this?

[–] blisteringlogic 11 years ago

Nope I'm right there with you. He's Don Cheadle and he's a really good actor )Check out 'Hotel Rwanda'(. I couldn't do an English accent to save my life, but I don't think I could do much worse than Mr. Cheadle.

[–] gd5150 11 years ago

Who cares it ads to the humor of the movie. Love Sir Don Cheadle.

[–] girlongoing 11 years ago

yeah he was trying to do a cockney accent. remember the barney rubble trouble bit with the cockney rhyming slang?

[–] MargiePax 10 years ago

Aha moment! I always wondered about that line in the movie! "We're in Barney." I had the same facial expression of everyone else, thinking, "Huh? I don't get it."

For an unrelated reason I googled "British slang" today and found this link:

http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml

It mentions Cockney rhyming slang. I still don't get it...but now I understand where the line was coming from. Seems to me, if you have to make a three line explanation of a slang term, it's not effective.

I think the Don Cheadle character would have been just as effective without the accent. He was awesome in Traffic. I dont recall whether the original Oceans 11 had a British character. They were all army buddies. And the Saul character in the Sinatra version actually died! I was freaking out thinking Carl Reiner's character was going to die.

Spoiler alert: in the Sinatra version, they hide the stolen money in their dead buddy's casket to get it out of town. Then, the ex-wife decides to cremate him in Vegas to save on shipping costs. The guys end up with nothing. Funny, and bittersweet at the same time.

[–] sd-106 10 years ago

The stupid thing is, "Barney" would not be used in cockney rhyming slang as it is already used in English slang meaning a fight (and it predates The Flintstones).

You could have a Barney, get in a Barney but you wouldn't be in Barney unless you're his boyfriend.

WRT your spoiler, there was a time when it was not acceptable for criminals to be successful in movies. This leads to some very odd and unexpected endings to movies in some cases. Such as http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056032/

[–] nyge72 10 years ago

Sorry but you are wrong. It does not mean a fight. I am from East London. It is slang, but it is 'Barney Rubble' = 'trouble'. You just don't bother with the 'Rubble'.

You can have a 'barney' meaning a fight, but that is not the context he was using it in.

[–] sd-106 10 years ago

Well, I can't argue with first-hand knowledge. I had never heard it used that way before though and have heard it used to refer to a fight plenty of times. It was fairly jarring to me when I heard it in the movie. I am not a native Londoner though and bow to your superior experience.

[–] nyge72 10 years ago

Ha ha ha. I would't call it superior. If you are going to make a rhyming slang, at least let it rhyme, and don't leave out words that make it rhyme.

[–] briankgeorge 8 years ago

The whole point of cockney rhyming slang is that you leave out the bit that rhymes, as only those in the know are meant to understand what the speaker means.

[–] mypaperdue 11 years ago

I thought he was fantastic

[–] SleuthoundSeburo 11 years ago

I thought he was hilarious. So cool how Soderberg cast actors from his previous movies. DC was perfect for Basher. Nowadays we see a lot of British actors doing American accents in movies and tv shows. It's cool seeing American actors doing British accents. His British accent wasn't good as Denzel Washington's in Queen and Country but it was still very good imo.

--

You tossers! You had one job to do!

[–] urbanlegend23 11 years ago

His accent was awful. Cheadle was miscast here.

[–] miles-bennett-dyson 11 years ago

I thought it was great! Very well done, good casting.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] muzz33 10 years ago

Meh... a lot of British actors have really bad southern American accents (see half the cast of True Blood and Walking Dead) - we shrug it off, you can too.

[–] liverpool26 9 years ago

What brit had a bad accent in walking dead? I've seen dozens of Americans say they didn't know the guy who played rick grimes was British so you can't mean him. The girl who plays magggie isn't British even if she does fake the accent she was born in America. That only leaves 2 brits the black guy from first episode who's been in about 3 episodes and the guy who played the governor

[–] Prismark10 10 years ago

Shockingly watching this film again it sounded a bit better. Almost a parody of those dodgy cockney geezer accents by C list British actors.

Its that man again!!