style over substance

Rating: 4/10 (20 June 2005)

You might have seen a fun heist movie with George Clooney and a bunch of other familiar faces in it called "Ocean's 11". You might have enjoyed that movie. You might have seen that the sequel came out and perhaps you thought that this one will also follow the same lines, e.g. be a heist movie, and you can never really get enough of those.
Well if you follow that train of thought, you will also (like me) be very disappointed at what "Ocean's 12" really is, which is...actually I don't think I really know what it is, but it damn sure isn't a "heist" movie. Perhaps a "excersing viewer's nerves" movie, or a "and now look how {insert pretty actor's name} looks great from THIS camera angle" movie, but definitely not a "heist" movie, like the back of the DVD case claims.
This movie has a really funny characteristic - it feels like its own "Behind the scenes" feature. I mean you get the sense of the plot and the characters, the story is there somewhere, but what you mostly see is battering between the characters/actors filmed in all sorts of funny angles. You can see that this bunch really enjoyed making this movie, but having a great time is not quite the same as WATCHING people having a great time.
"Ocean's 12" is not a bad movie. Some of the plot points are original, some jokes work and it's light-spirited tone is kinda catchy. But when the credits start to roll what you're left of is a peculiar empty feeling, like there was a great party somewhere and you just paid for not getting invited.