Back to basics, with an assured, relaxing ease

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2007)

They've done this twice before. They know you like 11 and they just pretend that you have forgotten 12. With full control at the helm, Soderbergh gives you a pleasant reminiscence of 11, although it does not have the freshness that you can only get the first time around.
The theme is "relax and enjoy". Right up front, they give you a simple reason for the heist  getting even for buddy Reuben (the guy who financed "11") who has been taken for a ride by unscrupulous partner Willie Bank (Al Pacino) and, as a result, fallen into a coma after a heart attack. Not wanting you to exert your brain too much, the movie makers give you, up front, the three-prong revenge plan. One: at the opening of Bank's new casino and hotel, get it to lose the highest amount possible at various games in 3.5 minutes during which the super surveillance computer is knocked out. Two: steal his favourite, hidden diamonds. Three: give the hotel rating agent such a tortured time that the usual 5-star rating that Bank's hotels invariably gets will plummet to rock bottom. None of this is terribly original. The fun is in the execution.
What comes through very clearly in this movie is the special attention paid to little touches of humanity (compassion, loyalty, friendship etc):

such as, Rusty catching Danny's eyes all moist after watching a TV show in which the poor and deprived are helped

such as, Yen initially refusing to get into a super dangerous stunt, but cannot resist the trio's (Danny, Rusty, Linus) wickedly clever plead using Reuben's poor helpless conditions (yielding, Yen points a finger to each of them saying "shit", "shit", "shit", and then plunges into the elevator shaft at the risk of having his head chopped off by fast moving elevators)

such as, the poor guy from the rating agency getting a "surprise present" from Rusty after the hell through which they've put him

such as, references of good Old Blue Eyes, a handshake with whom is purportedly a most sacred symbol of loyalty

The entire gang is back, and you'll love them. The trio is never more at ease, with Cloony and Pitt looking like they are almost ad-libbing and Damon maturing into a niche all of his own. Everybody else has a fair share of screen time. Even Garcia and Cassel (from 12) are back, as Terry Benedict actually finances their project, for a simple reason that he hates Bank's guts. "Nobody is forever and friend or forever an enemy" and "your enemy's enemy is your friend" never ring so true. Al Pacino of course never disappoints, making here something out of a role that doesn't offer much for him to do.
The movie is by no means great. The pace gets loose, and in not just once place. As mentioned, it does not have the freshness of 11. But you don't want to keep scores. Just sit back and enjoy the party.