Film Review: Ocean's Twelve (2004)

Hollywood in 1960s tried to bring audience to theatres not only by visual spectacle, but also by films that gathered all the greatest stars available, often cast in small roles or even glorified cameos. Steven Soderbergh, a great admirer of 1960s cinema, tried to replicate the same formula and succeeded with his celebrated 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven, 1960 heist film starring Frank Sinatra and his legendary Rat Pack. He applied the same formula, on a grander scale, with its 2004 sequel Ocean’s Twelve.

The plot begins several years after the events of the first film. Danny Ocean (played by George Clooney), Rusty Ryan (played by Brad Pitt), and nine other members of their team are tracked by Terry Benedict (played by Andy Garcia), the powerful businessman and owner of the Las Vegas casino they robbed. Benedict gives them a simple ultimatum: pay back the stolen amount with interest within two weeks or face the consequences. Danny and his men are forced to improvise a big heist in Amsterdam, only to discover that it was part of an elaborate scheme by François Toulour, a.k.a. Night Fox (played by Vincent Cassell), a French aristocrat and gentleman thief who wants to challenge Danny for the title of the world's greatest burglar. Their target is a priceless Faberge Egg, and the challenge is complicated by Isabel Lahiri (played by Catherine Zeta Jones), a Europol investigator who has spent years trying to identify and arrest Night Fox.

While it is quite common for a sequel to end worse than original, many viewers were surprised by just how bad Ocean’s Twelve was, given the successful formula, stellar cast, and undisputable talent of Steven Soderbergh. The main reason for this might be Soderbergh’s desire to go bigger with the new film. While the first film was confined to the fascinating but relatively limited universe of Las Vegas, the sequel takes Europe as a setting, adding new potential uber-villains and enigmatic characters to the mix.

However, the script by George Nolfi, originally written under title Honor Among Thieves as a standalone story, suffers when transported to the Ocean’s universe. It ends with a convoluted and overcooked plot that lacks the first film's focus and relies on too many coincidences, soap opera elements, and "clever" twists. Even Soderbergh's use of different directorial styles here looks more annoying and "artsy" than playful. The same can be said of the "meta" scene in which Julia Roberts plays a character trying to pass as real Julia Roberts.

The characters that were so memorable in the first film are here reduced to cardboard cutouts, and the film doesn't even look that original, being obviously inspired by relatively recent examples of heist genre like The Thomas Crown Affair and Entrapment. While there are a few scenes with certain charm, and Soderbergh takes great effort to make European locations look attractive or add some sort of local flavour, like with Ornella Vanoni’s rendition of “L’appuntamento” as part of soundtrack, most of the audience will have problems with the film's pace. Overall, Ocean’s Twelve is a disappointing sequel that fails to recapture the magic of its predecessor.

Despite receiving somewhat lukewarm reviews, film was a commercial success, leading to Soderbergh making another sequel, Ocean’s Thirteen, in 2007.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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