Twelve's the Ticket

Rating: Null/10 (12 December 2004)

Be prepared for a very different movie from the first.
I've read some of the other user comments, and with all due respect, I don't think that there are any guarantees that someone who liked the first will like the second.
On the heels of that, I also want to say that I think the movie was very well done - especially if you follow the angles. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone, so I'm not going to ruin any plot. What I can say is that what most people have mistaken for "rampant style" is really the placing of "Ocean's 12" as players on a much larger gameboard.
What the movie does particularly well is introduce the major players from the first movie into the larger context of the criminal world and the world at large. Everything about the movie feels expansive as the characters really prove themselves as masters of the long con.
In some ways, the movie is even more intense than the original, because as most people can surmise from the preview, the crew is already (in)famous from the Bellagio heist three years prior. Though the Bellagio job was a major play by Danny to get Tess back in the first film, we see that for the remaining guys on the crew it was just . . . Tuesday. Now though, the pressure is on in a really big way, and the stakes are much higher. Each member of the crew seems to be in very real physical danger at one time or another. While the first one banked on the idea that the whole plan could go south because each character had a particular flaw that could cause them to botch the plan, this one rides on the idea that though they're all consummate professionals, the very nature of the job means that they're always gambling against the house - the odds don't look very good.
For what it's worth, I think that they movie is really worth seeing. This time, the crew isn't sitting in the driver's seats, so I wouldn't walk in expecting them to be the main force for the action. However, as players in the game, the entire crew performs a first-rate job. The cameos are amusing, and the heists are cleverly executed.
Thumbs up.
analyst12