Oceans' 12: Confusing Name, Decent Movie

Rating: 5/10 (14 January 2009)

Oceans' 12, the sequel to Ocean's 11 was released back in December of 2004. The first movie is a great fun film that had great acting, a good plot, fun and interesting characters, crisp and humours dialogue, along with a cool style with how the movie was thrown together. Ocean's 12 brings back what was good about the first film, but it ends up failing short of being the perfect sequel.
Oceans' 12 sees the return of Oceans' 11 (the group of characters) whom have all lived happy lives spending away their stolen money. Unfortunately for Oceans' 11 Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) wants his money back and unless he receives it in two weeks Oceans' 11 will be appearing in the obituaries. The group meets and decides to head of to Amsterdam to steal their way to paying off their debt. The group is quickly tagged by Rusty's (Brad Pitt) former girlfriend and elite Europol detective, Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Things get worse for the crew when they find that they will have to compete with master thief Francois Toulour (Vincent Cassel) so that they can repay their debts.
Well I have no problem with the story as a whole it is the events that occur that make what should have been a good film and a great sequel. My first problem is with certain characters being excluded from the whole movie. Two of the eleven are quickly removed from the story, only to make short appearances later on. My second grip is with the overly ridiculous and pointless conversations between group members. Though they seem to develop character, for example the argument over if stealing from a handicapped man is wrong, in the end they really don't do anything for the average movie watcher, who will either get a couple of laughs with them or who will dismiss them quickly as useless wastes of precious runtime. I think a note worthy part of the film that is so ridiculous it really ruins the mood and really collapses the whole fantasy of these thieves in the real world is when Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts) pretends to be her real self, Julia Roberts. The hints through out the film that Tess looked like Julia were ruined when you find out what they were for. It was just a wow what the hell were they thinking moment.
My second biggest complaint with the film is that for about 40-50 minutes you are watching something that has no point at all. With out ruining it for the people who haven't watched the Oceans' 12 yet, the film practically laughs in the viewers face as it shows you what really happened instead of what you are lead to believe what was going on. If you've seen the film you will know what I'm talking about and what a big waste of time the 40-50 minutes was.
Now the biggest problem with the film is the title. Oceans' 12. Makes sense doesn't it? They just add a new member to the team. Well they really don't, though you could debate that there are actually a few characters they add to make the 11 a 12. Eventually after countless hours of debating with yourself on which character made the cut you will just figure out that Oceans' 12 was just a clever way of saying Ocean's 11 2 without having two numbers in the title.
Oceans' 12 is a decent movie and sequel, though it really takes away from the greatness of the first film. It brings a lot of what was good in the first film, but ends up wasting huge amounts of your time just to get a laugh or to actually have a plot. Would I recommend Oceans' 12? No I wouldn't say I would. I think the series is much better if it is just Oceans' 11 and Oceans' 13.