Ocean's Twelve

The scene between Danny, Rusty, Linus, and Matsui where Danny and Rusty laugh uncomfortably at Matsui's gibberish joke says it all. Everyone in this movie expected us to enjoy whatever was put in front of us, because this is just a "safe picture", as Matt Damon's boyfriend would say would say. So, what went wrong? There are so many obvious in-jokes, cheap jokes, leaps of logic that even die hard Ocean's Eleven fans should feel cheated. The f**k scene with Basher is a good example of the sledgehammer type of joking this movie expects us to swallow graciously. These stars think that we are so involved with them that all they need to do is show us that they can make fun of themselves. I don't know the name of Julia Roberts' daughter; and I don't care. All those scenes with Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis are painful in their smugness. This movie feels like a bunch of friends got together and decided, on a whim, to make a movie. Steven Soderbergh should get full marks for making Ocean's Eleven work and full blame for this sequel. He should have told everyone to work first and play second.

A heist movie works on the premise that the audience is in on the heist. We dread the incredible security measures. We get to see the planning and the development. We marvel at the skills of each expert. We experience the same suspense and drama as the characters. Ocean's Twelve discards all these elements in favor of creative editing, avant garde camera work and superficial writing. It tries to extract great performances from so-so actors. O.K. so they all are beautiful people. That doesn't mean they are automatically the best actors. It doesn't mean that they can carry a film on their performances. Clooney and Pitt are no Newman and Redford. The acting talents of Catherince Zeta-Jones have never been anything to write home about. Only Finney in a tiny cameo draws any real emotion from the audience.

The best heist movies have real suspense. This film has none. The outcome is never in doubt. No matter how the surface of the plan is seemingly foiled...everyone is in on the far deeper "actual" plan.

On major problem is Garcia's character.

If the original "11" successfully pulled off the job we are made to believe they did in the first film, they wouldn't panic and crumble like a house of cards to Benedict's pressure and scare tactics. In fact, once a member of the cadre had been contacted, survelliance would have captured Benedict's strong arm tactics and bellicose threats immediately. The man would have legal challenges beyond belief.

It's not enough to know who robbed you. You must have proof, otherwise the worst threats would be a laughing matter for seasoned pros.

Three years ago Danny Ocean (Clooney) and his team stole 160 million dollars from Terry Benedict (Garcia). Now Benedict wants his money back. Plus interest. Thus Ocean and his crew must scramble together what they owe; too hot to work in America, they set their sights on Amsterdam.... where, not so coincidently, Rusty Ryan (Pitt) has an ex-love (Zeta-Jones) who just so happens to be head of police and hot on their trail. But Benedict and sexy cop Isabel Lahiri (Zeta-Jones) aren't the crew's only problem. Another thief under the alias of "nightfox" ( Vincent Cassel) is keen to battle it out with Ocean and his team; to decide who the best thief (or thieves) are.

And there you have Ocean's 12; a film which falls too short in terms of wit, appearance, plot... and pretty much everything else in comparison to the original Ocean's 11.

One thing must be made clear, however; the cast is great. Spectacular really. There is a definite and rare chemistry between everyone; even Catherina Zeta-Jones, newcomer to the Soderbergh film. And it is indeed very rare to jam-pack a film with so many big name celebs without the film being ruined by too much star power and not enough of anything else. And these films do indeed have A lot of Hollywood star power in them; Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherina Zeta Jones, Bernie Mac, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle... just to name the biggest names. And watching Ocean's 11, you can tell that the crew enjoyed making this film. Unfortunately, the audience may not gain the same pleasure as the actors did....

If you were like me, absolutely blown away by the chic and jazzy first film, then Ocean's 12 will be a disappointment. The first movie was simply 'classy'. All of the shots, every single take, camera angles were all very clean-cut, solid and very stylish. In this film however, Soderbergh decides to use the currently popular 'shaky cam' technique for some scenes. I can understand why. In this film, unlike the first one, the crew haven't had time to plan to perfection their 'pull'. In this film its a mad rush to meet Benedict's deadline and I suppose Soderbergh wanted to get that rashness and disorientation across. But it wrecks the film. He really should have stuck to his original idea of having it all snazzy, bold and clean. Plus it is confusing when the film snaps between past and present to explain how the crew made some of their robberies; it looks messy and ugly to change between shaky cam to the bolder scenes.

Secondly, the laughs are fewer in 12 and the script is duller. Ocean's 11 had a quick-wit and many a memorable line. Ocean's 12 has to sink so low as to throw in an age joke for Clooney; "Do i look 50?". The plot is predictable; from Julia Robert's 'impersonation' to the crew's great escape. It's all very blunt and can be spotted a mile away. And the summing up of the 'pull' is a little confusing; past tense (there's that shaky cam again!). I cant give too much away but my personal opinion is that the explanation of how the team pulled of the robbery is a little confusing and a sort of "huh"? moment which you will need to disucss with other's who have seen the film, to make sure you absolutely understood everything.

All in all the film is a let down. By all means go and see it; if for no other reason than to drool over the gorgeous Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and George Clooney.... But do not get your hopes up. As the credits roll you will find yourself feeling cheated somehow. Ocean's 11 was a real gem but Ocean's 12 just leaves you pining for the original.... 5.5/10

It's inevitable, isn't it? After the success of the remake of Ocean's Eleven, out comes the sequel three years later. I liked the style of the teaser trailer (and was probably one of the only ones who didn't mind the name), so naturally, I was looking forward to the movie. Naturally, it's a sequel, so it's inferior to the original (which I liked more than the original of the original). The entire cast is back (plus one more, obviously) for the necessary foreign-country locations and trendy scene transitions. There's the constant music, the people with the general European accents (well, villains), and every other caper movie cliché in the books.

Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his eleven/twelve compadres are forced to pay back the money that they stole from Terry Benedict's (Andy Garcia) casinos three years earlier. To get the money, they have to steal it in Europe.

Where the first movie was fun, this sequel was mildly entertaining. It went on a little long, but was never boring. It's watchable (as all crime movies like these should be), but not really entertaining. I wasn't having fun while watching a lot of Ocean's Twelve. I wasn't bored, either. I was in Limbo of the movie world. All of the Vegas glitz added to the first, and here it's drab European backgrounds. Steven Soderbergh's directing also makes the film harder to enjoy. The film's choppy-we don't see events that happened until after the fact (if that makes any sense), and there are so many subplots and characters with similar sounding names that eventually we stop caring. Whenever a movie makes me do that, I usually focus more in on the fun aspects of the movie. And sure, the movie had its fun moments, and never left me bored, but overall, it just lacked that ultra-cool style that the first one had.

Then again, every actor's back in cool form. Catherine Zeta-Jones is the newbie here, and although her character is barely defined, she still manages to be cool. George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt (being on screen probably more than anyone else), Matt Damon-they're all cool. But it's obvious that this isn't the best sequel that could have been made for Ocean's Eleven-the movie was originally written for a completely different movie, and then readapted to a sequel. Because of that, there aren't really any reminders on who these people were. I remembered Clooney, Roberts, Garcia, and a few character names and quirks (such as Pitt's obsessive eating), but, really, who were these people? Did Soderbergh think that we would all rush out to see the first one before seeing this? I'll bet as many people did that as the number who went to see the Russian Solyaris after Soderbergh made Solaris.

The caper this time around isn't as interesting (the major one doesn't come in until halfway through), nor as easy to follow. In fact, the whole movie's basically a convoluted mess. The subplot about Isabel's father, things like that...if there's a definition of worthless, that's it. Also, that "Julia Roberts" bit went on for too long. We got the joke there. At that moment, I think that the movie thought it was funny enough to abandon basically the entire plot and go with a ten minute schtick, when there was basically no other humor in the movie. Still, Ocean's Twelve isn't terrible, and can offer a good time if you're the right person.

My rating: 6/10 Rated PG-13 for language.

Three years after Ocean's Eleven the gang's all back for more in this sequel. This time around the elusive group of thieves and con artists reunite and travel abroad to Europe to try and pull off another elaborate heist after vengeful casino mogul Terry Benedict (García) tracks them down looking for reimbursement. Little do they dream that they'll face stiff competition from a self-proclaimed criminal mastermind (Cassel) who's determined to try and upstage them. The latest in a long line of tepid Hollywood sequels; the cast may have had fun making this film but that doesn't mean the audience will as it drags on for over two hours with endless story lulls, self-conscious humor, and banal dialogue. One particularly embarrassing in-joke falls flat and leaves you wondering just how desperate the producers were to earn cheap laughs. The same group of gifted actors that made the original so special are wasted here, as the needlessly inextricable "script" lacks any wit, style, or sense of purpose. **