Bloated script and pretentious directing

Rating: 4/10 (10 June 2008)

While watching Ocean's Eleven I could not avoid to make a comparison with films like Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.
Just replace the fresh, tight and engaging script with a wannabe-smart, well polished but ultimately soulless script that incidentally is also the based on some 40 year old original idea; the mostly unknown but captivating cast with a bunch of assorted Hollywood stars who, for the most part, have made better things; last but not least, replace a stylish, snazzy but functional work of Ritchie with Hollywood's idea of an 'alternative' director (the vacuous Soderbergh) In Ocean's Eleven all of this just works because the script is not exceedingly preposterous, and most importantly, it was directed with a steady pace which did not give too the viewer too much time to think about it.
Such a long introduction to explain why 12 is such a failure: the good things which made 11 a decent film are completely gone in 12. The attempt at tongue-in-cheek humor has gone so bad that the tongue sticks out of the cheek, there are even MORE stars, but the entertainment value has completely vanished: to be fair, the plot is built uphill, depicting the 100%-coolness heroes of the first film as clueless lads which have run out of both luck and money; it was really a sorry and miserable viewing, since the all-stars cast (and the cardboard-thick characters) does not make it easy to sympathize with the gang misfortunes. To add insult to injury, the final twist is so much stretched and overblown, that the rest of the film look almost believable in comparison.
Soderbergh's direction not only lacks tightness but occasionally even manages to become annoying, like one sequence when he does repeated close-ins on the faces of the main characters. A trick that works two or three times before it starts upsetting my stomach (a sensation previously felt only once, while watching the second Bourne).
Also deserving a mention is the metafilmic turn it takes towards the end when one of the characters pretends to be the actor it is interpreted by. However the idea had the potential to amuse, this trick is pulled off in such a campy and hollow manner that, short of being funny, it actually succeeds in representing how distorted the idea of self-irony may be in a bunch of overcelebrated mediocre blockbuster stars and writers.
Unless you are a hardcore fan of the first film or the cast, this is one to steer clear of.