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.

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!

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 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

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