Boring, predictable and incomprehensible in equal measure

Rating: 4/10 (22 February 2005)

Too many famous faces trying to have their moment, so the film ends up as a game of spot the cameo. A lot of the characters seem to have nothing to do except stand around briefly. Is there anyone who hadn't guessed that Catherine Zeta-Jones' character was the master- thief's daughter within the first half hour? (so boring I can't remember their names). Several opportunities to make the plot both more interesting and more coherent were thrown away. And as for the ridiculous scene where Julia Roberts has to pretend to be Julia Roberts to Bruce Willis - please! Does anyone else feel this is an illegitimate tactic and cheap, cheap, cheap? Matt Damon just seems stupid and wasted, as is George Cluny, and even Brad Pitt seems to have lost his good looks and appears overweight, clumsy, much older than in Troy, and with grating mannerisms. Most of the rest of the team are redundant. Ocean's Eleven was just about believable, and it had a coherent core of scenes around the planning and execution of the robbery. This mish-mash lacks any central core scene, and long before it was over I was looking at my watch and thinking what could possibly happen to fill in the remaining time. 4 is a low vote for me, as my general attitude is that film is not an intellectual medium, it exists to pass a couple of hours on a Saturday pleasantly, and if it does that, fine. This didn't even do that.