What happened here? It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Rating: 6/10 (21 May 2005)

"Ocean's Eleven" was one of the best made "caper" films to be made in the past twenty-five years (my opinion). It was smartly made, with an interesting, handsome and talented group of actors. A wonderful script, updated by Ted Griffin. Steve Soderbergh kept the action and story tight, and gave the film a first class "look".
It went on to garner much critical and commercial success, and provided a hit vehicle for Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, that neither one had had in the previous few years. Talk of a sequel was guaranteed. Anticipation was high, for this surely seemed to be a franchise that could be tapped every couple of years.
Sorry to say that "Ocean's Twelve" is somewhat of a mess, and too much of a disappointment. The problem is with the difficult to follow screenplay by George Nolfi. I don't mind jumping back and forth in time to tell a story, but there are too many holes in the story that ask you to wait until the end of the movie for resolution. The problem with having so many holes in the story, is that it makes you realize how flimsy the screenplay as a whole is.
While it's good to see everybody back in this film, there seems to be less chemistry amongst the leads. Clooney and Pitt do not have any interesting scenes with each other here that makes you believe their characters are still friends., which was one of the things in the first film that made them so endearing. Garcia is largely wasted in what is little more than a cameo role. Roberts, who was pregnant at the time the film was made, has little to do, and the rest of the cast is wasted. The only one who comes off well is Zeta-Jones, who is absolutely beautiful.
There are some moments in the film that seem to be there only to let the cast and Sonderbergh show how much fun they had on their little vacation in Europe. An idiotic plot device that centers around Robert's real-life celebrity doesn't work, nor does an appearance by Bruce Willis. There are also an endless number of individual shots of each member of the gang. Oh look, here they are all walking out, one by one, of a building. Here they are, one by one, getting caught. And here they are again, one by one looking at each other. Not very interesting. And lastly, too much of the movie is explained after the fact. One of the best parts of the first film was to see how the caper went down as it happened. Here, it's all presented as a follow-up to the events. Not good.
"Ocean's Twelve" is in the end, a bitter disappointment. I wish I hadn't seen it and could just have preserved the memory of the first film in my mind.