Terrible - and made worse by threatening a sequel

Rating: 4/10 (19 April 2004)

With a class director and four of Hollywood's top stars, you would expect a guaranteed success. But not with this unnecessary repeat of one of Sinatra's minor films.
Soderbergh seems to have no empathy with any of his stars. George Clooney's normal sparkle is missing: Matt Damon is even more wooden than usual: Brad Pitt is anonymous, and even Julia Roberts is so subdued that you cannot see why Andy Garcia and Clooney are in the least interested in her.
The plot - yet another heist - builds up slowly through the standard Hollywood stages - recruitment of team, preparation using a simulation, the robbery and the smart escape. But it's all been done before (not least by Tom Cruise in 'Mission Impossible'). There's no excitement, and the quickfire(?) dialogue is muttered so indistinctly by the cast that half the time you need subtitles to follow what's going on. Worst of all, the hope of an unexpected twist at the end - all that kept me awake through the final stages of this boring film - is ruined by a final sequence crudely and obviously set up only with a sequel in mind. A waste of time.