...
Ocean's Twelve (2004) ...
The sequel of "Ocean's Eleven" may not be better than the first, but it surely has its qualities.
| Released: | 2004 |
| Running Time: | 125 minutes |
| Cast: | Brad Pitt
.... Rusty Ryan Catherine Zeta-Jones .... Isabel Lahiri George Clooney .... Danny Ocean Julia Roberts .... Tess Ocean Andy Garcia .... Terry Benedict Bernie Mac .... Frank Catton Don Cheadle .... Basher Tarr Matt Damon .... Linus Caldwell Carl Reiner .... Saul Bloom Elliott Gould .... Reuben Tishkoff Robbie Coltrane .... Matsui |
| Writers: | George Nolfi |
| Director: | Steven Soderbergh |
| My Rating | *** |
"Ocean's Twelve". That's eleven plus one! And
please, no questions of logic!
What did they do now?
The good public response "Ocean's Eleven" had in 2001 certainly energized director Steven Soderberg to make a sequel of the famous robbery story. This time, even better, favored with an even more glamorous cast in amazing European location. It's like the thieves have gone wild!
"Ocean's Twelve" is once again a heist movie with characters played by, of course, Hollywood's most wanted actors. But the plot...well, the plot is a little bit surprising.
This time, Steven Soderberg has worked with another writer, George Nolfi, thus making a crucial shift in strategy. The audience stops from feeling a part of the nifty conspiracy to pull off the audacious robbery. Instead, the director leaves us in the dark, tricking us with sleight of hand and misdirection. This movie makes you think more than feel more.
First, Soderberg enlarges the gang of eleven by adding one more companion - Catherine Zeta-Jones. Then, Nolfi comes up with a great idea of a screenplay: a competition rises between the great thief in America (Clooney) and the great thief in Europe (Vincent Cassel). Last but not least, the story contains so many time shifts, leaving huge gaps, that the audience is forced to remain focused in order to understand the whole plot.
Basically, the
story begins three years after "Eleven", when someone rats the gang out to
Benedict (you know, the loser of the first game) who was looking for them to
have his revenge. Benedict tracks the gang down one by one and asks for the $160
million back. The only way to fulfill his demands is for the guys to flee to
Europe where, hopefully, they will pull off enough robberies to gather the
money.
To make the task even harder, the guys run into major roadblocks in Amsterdam. First, there's Isabel (Zeta-Jones), an intelligent ambitious agent who is always half a step behind them. Then, there's someone else one step ahead them, the Night Fox (Cassel), a mysterious thief that always beats them to the target. Pretty difficult! So how will they do it this time?
Well, Isabel proves to be very insistent, but she has her reasons. On the one hand, her father is a former famous thief himself and on the other hand...she once had an affair with Rusty. Enough reasons! The Night Fox (Francois actually) is in fact the person who told Benedict where he could find the gang, because he was furious about its growing reputation as the greatest thieves in the world.
Francois is the
one who challenges Ocean to see who can steal a Faberge Egg from a Roman museum
first. The challenge is accepted, but unlike the Vegas job, this one proves to
be harder for the team as the police get tipped off, some members get arrested
and one of them even ends up in the wrong city. But no job is impossible for
this gang and eventually they accomplish the task. Of course, you'll have to see
the movie in order to discover how exactly they did it!
Like any other film, "Ocean's Twelve" has its flaws. For instance, even if the story remains enticing, the new writer doesn't succeed in offering a great part to all members of the famous team. The sequel of "Ocean's Eleven" may not be better than the first, but it surely has its qualities. You can find more laughs and more satisfying complications. As a bonus, I'll give you an interesting tip: Julia Roberts plays herself in the movie, as the character Tess is to impersonate her to help pull off a heist. How funny is that? Bottom line, it will keep you interested for at least 125 minutes.
