Buddha Said to Take the middle way. He was wrong

Rating: 4/10 (8 February 2010)

This movie is middling in almost every way. It provides a couple laughs, every so often. The plot is interesting, occasionally. It is the second of a three movie trilogy. And of those three it is only mediocre one in the bunch. The only part that remains consistently strong is the original cast. The newcomers, are Surprise! Only so-so. Catherine Zeta-Jones is okay, but she's not funny! And isn't that the point of these movies?
By itself, the film is nothing special, but at least it's watchable, hence 6 stars. It disappointed me more than a lot of 6s, though, because it's part of a series. And such, it's just the nature of the beast that movies in a series are compared to each other. This, unfortunately, is not nearly as good as Ocean's Elven or Ocean's Thirteen.
The story isn't great. The stuff about rival robbers I really disliked. One of the things I loved about Ocean's Eleven was the easy, if occasionally tense, camaraderie. And then they throw in the crap about the Night Fox. That was probably the worst part in this movie. I still enjoyed it when they cut back to a simple revenge story, however. This part is well-written and makes the script worth watching.
Ocean's Twelve does have some really, really funny jokes in it, primarily one involving celebrity "mix-ups" and Bruce Willis. These jokes aren't throughout the entire picture. They are more like oases, funny pieces in a sea of middle-of-the-road humor that's cliché and really not that funny.
Brad Pitt was easily the best part of this movie. George Clooney was very good in the previous outing, but he seemed a bit listless in this installment. Bernie Mac's character Frank is a riot, but he, unfortunately has a much smaller part to do something with.
Yes, Buddha may say to take the middle way, but I still prefer the high road. Soderbergh has foregone that path with Ocean's Twelve, a completely average quality movie. Good thing he got back on track with Ocean's Thirteen.