The Moose Hole - Review of Ocean's Twelve

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2004)

After grossing nearly one-hundred and eighty-five million dollars domestically and well over four-hundred and fifty million dollars world-wide, Warner Brother executives were eager to jump on the bandwagon while the property was still hot and pump out a sequel as quickly, and cheaply, as possible. Steven Soderbergh insisted that the production budget be kept around the same as that of the original film  eight-five million dollars respectively  and asked all his actors, specifically George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts, to take significant pay cuts from their usual twenty-million dollar-per-picture salary. And with the WB studio in a tight market race, currently tied for second place with The Walt Disney Company, they need a hit more then ever, especially if they want to come close to recovering profits lost on the multi-million dollar disaster, Alexander. Perhaps the executives of the studio could learn a thing or two from these con-artists.
The story picks up some time after the original film ended and takes audiences across such glamorous European locations as Amsterdam, Paris and Rome in another crime-capping adventure. It has been three years since Danny Ocean and the rest of the gang of thieves and con artists broke into the 'impenetrable' vault of Terry Benedict's Las Vegas casino and ripped a cool one-hundred and sixty million dollars right under his nose. After splitting the money amongst the eleven members of the Ocean's team, each went their separate ways, with the exception for Danny and Tess of course, and attempted to lie low and live an easy going life with their newly acquired fortune. Unfortunately for them, a fellow con-artist with a grudge against the group breaks Rule Number One by ratting them out to Terry Benedict, thus causing the ruthless casino owner to pay a visit to each and every one of the team members demanding a return of his one-hundred and ninety-eight million dollars  that's the amount of money they stole plus interest over three years  within two weeks. Considering they are too hot to find suitable work in the United States after their last stunt, they travel to Europe to steal an antique item only to run into complications with their criminal rival, 'The Night Fox', who just happened to be the man who broke Rule Number One. On top of that, the gang has to deal with Isabel Lahiri, an intrepid female Europol agent with extensive links with Rusty Ryan, who is vividly determined to catch them in the act. When it comes to the story treatment for Ocean's Twelve, one must learn not to take these sorts of genres, specifically the caper-comedy, seriously. They are for mere entertainment purposes only and not to be destined, or taken as such, for Oscar-caliber quality or serious thought. On another note, the script is not as original as it may seem. In fact, it was originally designed as John Woo action-flick vehicle but when it came to developing the highly-anticipated sequel to Ocean's Eleven, Warner Brothers decided to rewrite the script to specifically fit with each of the characters of the series. Though some may feel cheated by this piece of trivia, this turns out ten times better then anything John Woo could have slapped together, so look on the bright side of things here.
The complication Ocean's Twelve faces, the exact same predicament the original feature ran into three years ago, is that with so many cast members, specifically ones with marquee names, increases the likelihood of each person receiving limited screen time which inevitably causes complaints of certain characters being underused. Quite surprisingly, the whole Brad Pitt/Catherine Zeta-Jones romance angle worked amazingly well and added yet another intriguing twist to the already complicated storyline. Unfortunately, what does not work out quite as well as it should have was the 'family' element to Catherine Zeta-Jones' Isabel Lahiri, if it can be properly described as such. There is hardly any mention of her family other then in limited moments of the film and the scene near the end where she reunites with her father seemed senselessly tacked onto the end without a second thought as to what it should have meant but was not. Perhaps it is due to all these separate story elements  the romance between Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones and the wager with 'The Night Fox'  that George Clooney's Danny Ocean seems quite left out of the picture compared to the last go-around where it was completely and entirely his film. Not that this was a significant problem but this is just yet another demonstration of the sometimes unequal shifting of story involvement amongst the numerous characters of the film series. Without giving too much information away, let us simply say that the way Tess is used in order to help the Ocean's gang pilfer a specific item from an Italian art museum was hilarious. Sure, it does wear a little thin as more time is spent on but, in the end, it works invariably. The only one that can truly be said as being underused in this picture is Andy Garcia reprising his role as the menacing Terry Benedict, the victim of Ocean's Eleven's casino heist from the first film. His appearance in the film, in the beginning and near the end, is really nothing more then a mere cameo, possibly to fulfill the contractual obligation he signed to appear in the sequel with the rest of the cast. This, on the other hand, can not be said of Matt Damon's Linus Caldwell who seems to have had a significant increase in the amount of screen time from the last film, playing a more central role in the story, specifically near the end.
Overall, Ocean's Twelve, in spite of its failure to surpass the magnificence of the original which essentially set the precedent for all modern crime capers to follow, does indeed match it based on pure entertainment value and would certainly be a feature Frank Sinatra and the rest of the crooning Rat Pack would be proud of. All in all, the film itself has very few problems to raise complaint about  A drawback that was apparent with Ocean's Eleven as well was that the first thirty minutes of the picture start off quite laboriously and nothing exactly interesting happens or no real action occurs. Granted, this is to set up the situation and the characters but considering this is a sequel and most audience members are aware of the original film, this should not have taken as long as it did. And was it absolutely necessary to bring back every single member of the original Ocean's Eleven cast for this film? Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, and Carl Reiner barely appear at all  you could count on both hands, possibly only one, the number of lines each one of them has in this feature  and should have been written out entirely based on what they contribute  nothing. Middling complaints aside, Steven Soderbergh's skillful editing, mixing and cinematography style works wonders, except for the occasional still-picture shots, near the beginning and the end of the film, but are not so off-putting as to be entirely noticeable or discomforting. Though not holding quite the level of prestige as some notable sequels that have managed to surpass the expectations set upon by the first film might have, the series still able to maintain its suave composure, intricate white, and stylized flare to make more then worthwhile viewing over the holiday season this year.
My Rating: **** out of 5 (Grade: B+)