Great Film: Ocean's Twelve
Leaves you pining for '11'
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
Cast
- Turk Malloy played by Scott Caan
- Danny Ocean played by George Clooney
- Isabel Lahiri played by Catherine Zeta-jones
- Tess Ocean played by Julia Roberts
- Rusty Ryan played by Brad Pitt
- Terry Benedict played by Andy Garcia
- Virgil Malloy played by Casey Affleck
