overdressed to impress!

Rating: 5/10 (7 February 2005)

At first glance oceans twelve would seem the perfect sequel. The cast are fantastic(and so too is there paycheck, i would imagine), it takes place in Europe and is directed by Stephen Sodernburg(excuse the spelling)who directed the first. However when you actually watch this mess you're perception deteriorates rapidly. The problem is that it is too clever for it's own good. Everything seems to slip into place perfectly and they seem to have an expert for every problem that they face along the way: A holographic egg, the control panel sliding down the perfectively placed zip wire, lifting a whole house etc. The first film was perfect, balancing perfectly, the technical stuff and the way that oceans eleven work with each other, whereas the sequel is to reliant on technical substance over major plot flaws. There is a nice turn in the form of Julia Roberts playing Tess pretending to be Julia Roberts(keep up!) and a couple of good cameos from Bruce Willis and Albert Finney, but Don Cheadle's English accent is just excruciating , playing on British Stereotypes rather than being truthful. Clever though this film is I still don't understand why they spent loads of money on technical gizmos and staying in hotels when they had the egg six days before the deadline or why they put the Chinese guy in the Arsenal bag, when the police weren't even looking for him! I would recommend this film if you are a die hard fan of the first film or are extremely bored, but as a great film, don't even think about wasting six quid for a ticket!