“Ocean’s Twelve” (Warner Brothers)
Three years ago Steven Soderbergh gave the world a remake of the old Frank Sinatra “rat pack” film “Ocean’s Eleven.” It was such a success that supposedly audiences around the world cried out for a sequel. Soderbergh heard that cry and now there is “Ocean’s Twelve.” It is everything the first one was – and less. It reunites all the cast from the first movie and adds in Catherine Zeta-Jones, so now we have even more star power to choke the life out of this movie plot and that is what happens.
When the movie opens Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) has tracked down all the members of Danny Ocean’s (George Clooney) gang. He wants back all the money they stole from him plus interest. Or else they are going to be very sorry.
Since a lot of the money has been spent, the gang now has to come up with a new heist to give them funds to repay Terry. Danny, Rusty (Brad Pitt) and Linus (Matt Damon) are the ones who mastermind the new scheme; but all the old gang is back again to take part.
Isabel Lahiri (Zeta-Jones) was once involved with Rusty until she found out his criminal ways. Now she is part of the police force that is hunting the gang. She wants to get the goods on them and she just knows they have a scheme in mind. However she still has a weak spot for Rusty and is vulnerable to his charms.
Tess (Julia Roberts) is now Danny’s wife. She is in the States but flies over when the group needs her for a wild charade. This comedy sequence is the funniest in the film and is almost the saving grace of the movie. Almost, but not quite.
The problem is that so many of the jokes seem to be “inside” jokes between the cast members. You get a lot of “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” humor that all of the stars find hilarious, but the audience is not really in on the jokes. This means the audience is not having as much fun as the cast and so the movie has to rely on star power alone to make it worth watching.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.
“Ocean’s Twelve” is a sequel that is less than the original and the original wasn’t all that great. It is fun and in the Julia Roberts sequence funny, but the final result is too many stars and not enough understandable plot. Final score Ocean’s 12 – audience 5.
I scored “Ocean’s Twelve” a numb-erless 5 out of 10.
