Ocean's Twelve

I went into 'Oceans 12' as being a big fan of the first installment, but my hopes were not astronomical. And for the two or so hours that I watched the movie, I was not disappointed. However, I cannot say that I enjoyed it nearly as much as I had enjoyed 'Oceans 11'.

'Oceans 12' was a very fun, but at the same time flawed, movie. The movie was every film students dream come true, full of indie style camera and editing tricks from beginning to end. But this could not hide the fact that at its core it was still a studio movie. The storyline was entertaining and full of just as many twists and turns as had graced the first one. However, when the final credits rolled I could not help but wonder about some of the loose ends (and there were many). It almost felt as though the scriptwriter had too many ideas that really did not fit with one another, but he threw them in anyway. At times it could be a little frustrating and leave you wondering why they even showed the last ten minutes of the movie.

By far the strong suit of the film was the cast and their generally above par performances. Brad Pitt was excellent again, and Matt Damon was probably even better then he had been in '11'. The rest of the gang was about as they had been previously, with the possible exception of Shaobo Qin whom I felt was even funnier this time around. Catherine Zeta Jones turned out to be a welcome addition and she fit right in with the movies flow as Pitt's love interest. She perhaps looked the most comfortable in her role out of all of them, despite the fact that it was her first hand in the series.

All in all, I was pleased that I had spent the eight dollars to go and see this the day that it opened. But by the same token, I doubt I will be purchasing it when it appears on DVD.

My Overall Rating: 6 1/2 out of 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.

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.

Lacking the freshness of the original and going a bit overboard with its twists n turns, the follow-up chapter to Ocean's Eleven does exhibit the lavish look & carefree vibe of its predecessor and adds a couple more charismatic actors to its ensemble but its story is weak and only gets messier as it progresses.

Taking place some time after the events of the previous film, Ocean's Twelve brings back all the members of the original team as they battle against time to pay back all the money they stole from the owner of Las Vegas casinos, with interest. To meet the demand, they decide to pull off another heist, however, there's a new player in town.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film picks up from where it left off in the last picture and doesn't take long to bring all of them back into the same room. The basic storyline is interesting but how the events unfold in the final print is where the problem arises, not to mention that the subplots relating to new characters don't add anything of significance.

The sumptuous look n feel is retained and the European scenery is beautifully photographed. The smart manoeuvring of camera & refined use of colour palette adds a vibrant quality to its images. Editing is a mixed bag, however, as the numerous twists don't carry the same weight and appears forced into the narrative. And the background score doesn't have anything new to add either.

Coming to the performances, pretty much the entire cast of Ocean's Eleven make their appearance in this one with Clooney & Pitt leading the pack like before while the new additions include Vincent Cassel & Catherine Zeta-Jones who play their part responsibly but their respective characters are very poorly sketched. Roberts however gets additional screen time and is able to improve on her earlier input.

On an overall scale, Ocean's Twelve is an inferior sequel by all means that does take the arcs of its characters a little forward but doesn't add anything of substance. What's also disappointing is the climax that's far more ridiculous this time and seems way far-fetched than it did the last time. Still, there's some fun, laughs & amusement in store but if you're expecting a sequel that improves upon the original, then Ocean's Twelve isn't one of those.

This time the con is on the fans! This sequel is specifically made to make easy money and guess what it comes from you! no thought has gone into cooking up a story -no thought has gone into attempting to give any type of direction or even editing - just a bunch of superstar smarty pants have got together to figure out how much their star power can get them in their spare time. Of course since die-hard fans of Oceans 11 (such as myself) will have to see this movie even if it is to just believe how bad it really is its a no brainer for the producers to dish any hogwash onto our plates - its a well thought of commercial strategy but very cold blooded and callous on the fans. Its extremely painful to sit through - the best performance is by Matt Damon in one particular scene which is the highest point the movie ever reaches -I hope they make an Oceans 13 and really think of a nice story this time around as a sort of apology for their bad behavior this time - or bring out an apology to all the fans they conned!