Not really the new Eleven...

Rating: 7/10 (19 February 2006)

This is one of those cases where the law of diminishing returns unfortunately applies.
Three years after the Bellagio heist in Vegas, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his mates are tracked down by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who wants his money back. With interest. In two weeks. Or he'll kill every last one of them. Therefore the team decides to move to Europe, so that they can steal some valuable stuff. They only have two problems: one is Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones), an Interpol agent on their trail, who also happens to be Rusty's (Brad Pitt) former girlfriend; the other one is a French con-man (Vincent Cassel) who seems to be ahead of them all the time.
Original crime caper Ocean's Eleven is a very good film, mainly because of the script. The same can't be said about this sequel: the screenplay was originally written for a John Woo flick, and sadly, people can notice that: it's SO obvious the plot was altered just to let Clooney and the others go fooling around in France and Italy. Also, why call the movie Ocean's Twelve and make Rusty the team-leader? OK, so this time HIS love interest is causing trouble, but why didn't the writer just name the film Ryan's Twelve in that case?
Anyway, Twelve still has some appeal, thanks to one of its predecessor's key elements: great actors. Despite the discontinuous script, all the cast-members obviously enjoyed shooting this film, and I enjoyed watching their work. Matt Damon, in particular, steals the show as the insecure Linus, who would like "a more central role this time". The new entries (Zeta-Jones, Cassel) are quite good too, but the real treat is Bruce Willis'uncredited cameo as himself: Albert Finney, Robbie Coltrane and Eddie Izzard's brief appearances impress as well, but Bruno's presence is, along with Clooney asking people "How old do you think I am?", the funniest, and probably best sequence in the entire film. You might not like all of it, but that scene really is worth watching.
Altogether, a bit disappointing but still enjoyable. Will keep you entertained for two hours, should you choose to see it.