= 3 stars

Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Amazon Link

Synopsis

Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) wants back the money the Ocean’s 11 gang stole from him. Leaders Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) come up with a plan to hit Amsterdam, Rome, and Paris in a series of audacious heists.

The Good

• A slick style adornes scenes filled with slightly askew activity. Note the opening segment where Andy Garcia visits each of the Ocean’s Eleven members in various rooms, each shot in an interesting way. Other scenes are backed by continually groovy tuneage.
• A solid core of Clooney, Pitt, and Damon.
• Julia Roberts as Tess gets to play a funny part as herself, with a Bruce Willis cameo. Catherine Zeta Jones looks amazing just standing still.

The Bad

• There’s little reason to have eleven members in this gang. Several don’t get to do much of anything, Eddie Izzard and Bernie Mac in particular.
• One completely unbelievable (and laughable) scene where a thief literally dances his way through blue lasers.
• Less glammy punch than Ocean’s Eleven, which was more tightly focused on one huge casino caper against a well-defined adversary. Twelve goes for more with two big capers, a competing super thief, and a romantic subplot with Pitt, but the result is mostly muddled and at times confusing.

Conclusion

While captivated by Ocean’s Eleven, I was bored by the plot details of Ocean’s Twelve. It does have snazzy music and Soderbergh’s creative camera moves (the zooming in as the gang is released from prison, or a sideways airplane shot). That’s kind of sad, but a fair description of this flick’s failings - more style than substance. It sounds like Ocean’s Thirteen rectified some of these issues, so I’ll rent that next.

IMBD: Ocean’s Twelve
Wikipedia: Ocean’s Twelve
Rotten Tomatoes: Ocean’s Twelve 55%

Disclosure: The above reference to “Paris” could be Paris the city, Paris Gellar from Gilmore Girls, ParisLemon the blogger, or Paris Hilton. I have no financial relationship with any of them.

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