Like an episode of Seinfeld, Ocean's Twelve is about nothing, but I like that. I was hoping that the sequel wouldn't be just another retread of the first film, and it isn't. What it is, exactly, is hard to describe. Perhaps the word "hodgepodge" fits it best, no that has a negative connotation, and I liked this movie. Where the first movie was a formula heist film, this is, well, itself.
To summarize the plot would take several pages, as well as more time and effort than I am able to commit. I couldn't follow all of the twists and turns, I and I doubt many will be able to after a first viewing, but that isn't really the point. The first movie wanted us to care about its formula plot twists and surprises, but this assumes the audience has more intelligence, not relying on those devices to make the movie.
It opens as the mark from Ocean's Eleven, Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), tracks down the criminals and gives them all the same message- they had better pay him back plus interest in two weeks or its curtains. The eleven head over to Denmark and get a job there, only to find that a notorious French thief (Vincent Cassel) has beat them to it. How can possibly plan a job big enough to get the money they need in time, if the French guy beats them to it everywhere first?
If most other directors had been given this script it would have been an incredibly tedious series of cheesy twists, but Soderbergh, who apparently slept-directed the original movie, is having fun here. The movie is all in the style and the unnecessary asides. Unlike the first movie, this one has an ethical sense as well. The funniest moment is when Matt Damon's asks the others if they think it's wrong to steal from a disabled person, and they all shrug and say no.
The movie's biggest problem is a very, very lame postmodern joke involving Julia Roberts' character (you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it). Not only is it unfunny, but is groan inducing in its obviousness and pretentiousness. It's like something out of the director's worst movie, Full Frontal, although , it does lay the foundation for an amusing cameo from a major star. I also thought that by this point there were just too many characters-in addition to the twelve, there's Garcia, Cassel and a European detective (Catherine Zeta-Jones). I lost track of where everyone was and what they doing, but perhaps that wasn't really necessary for the full experience of the film. Still, it could have been called Ocean's Six just as easily.
I can't give this movie a bigger recommendation because it's not very substantive, and I feeling this is one of those movies that you see and enjoy but quickly forget about. It's the work of a talented director who is has having fun and not trying to make a Big Statement, and I appreciate that.
Ocean's Twelve (2004)