Needlessly complex - a highly irritating sequel

Rating: 3/10 (2 April 2005)

What staggers me most about this film is that it was made by the same people who produced the fantastic Oceans Eleven three years previously. Where Ocean's Eleven was a film with a significant target (the money in the safe), and all the action and drama was leading toward that goal, its sequel is disjointed, aimless and highly confusing.
I defy anyone to tell me on the outset of the film what the thieves are going to steal. First it's one thing, then another, but it isn't really, and then it is. But as it turns out, it was something else, then it wasn't, then it was. Ad infinitum. I can't accurately describe the details because they were simply too muddled and poorly explained.
Another fault is the use of the characters. Where in Eleven there was a coherency in what each member of the team had to do, in Twelve we are shown a billion different plot strands that confuse their roles in the heist and even hide some members away for no real reason (Bernie Mac is put in jail a quarter of the way through and not seen again until the end. In essence, there are many pitfalls on their way that separate them all from each other. And that shouldn't happen, because the whole idea should be Twelve thieves working as a team - rather than some trying to complete one objective, and others getting on with something completely different. Or am I wrong?
Lastly, I found it highly annoying how many little plot strands were being introduced and never fully explained or concluded, and this served simply to make the movie quite unappealing. I just want to know why, when writing this film, they thought it would be cool to disjoint and confuse everything to a maximum degree.
Ultimately, confusing, aimless and not a patch on the original.