12 is an unlucky number

Rating: Null/10 (22 February 2005)

A director of the calibre of Steven Soderbergh should stay clear of a re-make, but it worked handsomely with "Ocean's Eleven", and he should avoid like the plague a sequel, as proved by the bitter disappointment that is "Ocean's Twelve".
This is all style and no substance. The style comes from Soderbergh's lively camera-work, the location shooting in Amsterdam and Rome, and the re-engagement of all the stars from the original movie plus Catherine Zeta-Jones as the twelfth character. The lack of substance comes from the absence of set-piece action and a convoluted plot that involves too many flash-backs and twists. The dialogue is poor and the music is over-loud but, above all, the whole thing is totally derivative - of the first film, of "The Italian Job" (foreign gang in Italian city), of "The Thomas Crown Affair" (male thief has relationship with female investigator), of "Octopussy" (theft of Fabergé egg), of "Entrapment" (cat burglar evading laser beams) and even "Notting Hill" (Julia Roberts playing herself).
For Soderbergh, twelve is clearly an unlucky number and he would be crazy to even think of "Ocean's 13".