Ocean's Twelve

[KLAXXON]

Three years after Danny Ocean and 10 other thieves managed to steal $160,000,000 from casino tycoon Terry Benedict, they have been caught, and are left with two weeks to give back all the money they stole, plus interest over three years.

Danny and his friends needs to get $190,000,000 or else they will be killed, so they plan to pull off three large-scale robberies in Paris, Rome and Amsterdam before the time is up. All the while, the boys must deal with increasing pressure from a dedicated Europol agent with a link to Rusty's past, and a mysterious French rival known as the "Night Fox." Will Ocean's crew reach their full potential and become the greatest thieves the world has ever known, or will they fall victim to Benedict's revenge? All bets are off...




 Clooney and Soderbergh reunite their pals for another caper comedy, some of which actually translate into entertaining cinema. This sequel is much more fragmented than the original, but it's also slightly more substantial in where it takes the characters.
After being robbed of both money and his wife (Roberts), casino boss Terry Benedict (Garcia) wants revenge against Danny Ocean (Clooney) and his 10 thieving pals. To get him off their backs, they'll have to stage heists in Amsterdam, Paris and Rome. But another master thief (Cassel) always seems one step ahead of them. As does a government agent (Zeta-Jones), who has some messy romantic history with Ocean's sidekick Rusty (Pitt).

It's clear from the beginning that this isn't as plot-driven as the first film. Yes, there's far more story here--constant twistings and turnings, with more new characters added every few minutes. But Soderbergh and crew don't even try to make sense of it all; they use the incoherent narrative as mere background for the on-screen antics and knowing jokes (including a ludicrous jab at Zeta-Jones' other heist movie Entrapment). So it's lucky for us that the film is stylish and a little edgy, and that the cast is so clearly having a great time.

Some of the sequences work brilliantly, drawing out the best of the cast (Pitt, Damon and Cheadle get the strongest scenes), while others are badly sidelined (most notably Mac, but also Gould, Reiner and the "minor" team members Caan, Affleck and Qin). Roberts has the oddest role here--she's photographed unflatteringly and then bravely endures the film's most shameless (and extended) inside joke. Zeta-Jones adds class and spark, while Cassel gleefully gives the film a badly needed Eurotrash sensibility.

Meanwhile, Soderbergh cuts between all these characters so quickly that we're only barely aware that he's not bothering to hold the story together at all. But it's not just us--the actors seem as lost as we do, making it up as they go along. But at least it's less smug than the first film, and there's a freewheeling sense of fun in the way the film breezes past one unconvincing twist after another.







A self-indulgent lark if ever there was one. Lucky for us Steven Soderbergh is at the helm. The script-by-committee feels sloppy, roughed-up, and not at all how heist films should feel like. Having said that, I think Soderbergh was trying less to make a heist film than just a fun diversion, albeit one that indulges its star-powered cast a bit much. The snarled story has to do with how Danny Ocean (Clooney) and his cohorts must recover the $160 million that he stole from Terry Benedict (Garcia) in the first movie, plus interest. The only way to do it is to leave the county and plunder Europe where his identity is less known. When he and his Eleven make it to Amsterdam, they soon realize that a well-known and notorious French thief, the Night Fox (played smoothly by Vincent Cassel), is on to them and very jealous, not to mention zealous about securing the crown as world's greatest thief. So, it comes down to a race between the Night Fox and Ocean's Twelve (the Eleven plus Tess, Danny's wife) to nab a Faberge egg from a Rome art gallery. Tangled into this brouhaha is a Europol detective played by the luscious Catherine Zeta Jones (a former flame of Brad Pitt's Rusty and a woman scarred by the childhood disappearance of her father) determined to capture the Night Fox and corral Ocean's gang while she's at it. It's all fun 'n' games, but one gets the feeling that Soderbergh is merely indulging (there's that word again) his stars at the expense of respect for his audience and for the needs of what should've been a tighter, more streamlined effort. Generally sloppy performances give the impression of a bunch of rich movie stars set loose on a very expensive playground...and presuming we want to watch. Still, Soderbergh has a good eye, and a solid enough grip on style and on his material to make this a fairly watchable, amusing outing.







Brad Pitt ...  Rusty Ryan
Catherine Zeta-Jones ...  Isabel Lahiri
George Clooney ...  Danny Ocean
Ed Kross ...  Bank Officer
Julia Roberts ...  Tess Ocean
Don Tiffany ...  House Painter
Anne Jacques ...  Shop Owner
David Sontag ...  Plainclothes Goon #1
Larry Sontag ...  Plainclothes Goon #2
Andy Garcia ...  Terry Benedict
Casey Affleck ...  Virgil Malloy
Dina Connolly ...  Virgil's Fiancée
Scott Caan ...  Turk Malloy
Nelson Peltz ...  Partygoer
Mini Anden ...  Supermodel



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