Too clever for its own good (6 out of 10)

Rating: 6/10 (12 December 2004)

This movie never had a chance of living up to its hype. First off, Ocean's Eleven was about as perfect as a Hollywood movie with big names can be these days. It would be darn near impossible for a sequel to get that close to perfection. Soderbergh would have to catch lightning in a bottle twice. And despite his awesome talents as a director, and despite the greatness of the actors who took pay cuts to make it simply because they love working with Steven and each other, it just couldn't be done.
The movie was hip, fun and entertaining - just like the first one. But during the second half of the movie, it simply gets too cute and too clever for its own good. I thought the last half-hour was nothing short of ludicrous. I just couldn't buy it, as much as I wanted to.
An amazing thing about the first movie was that despite all of the big names, EVERY actor stole a scene. There was Bernie Mac yelling "Cracker," Don Cheadle protecting his genitals while firing off the pinch, the Mormom twins racing in Provo, etc. With Zeta-Jones, Bruce Willis (yes, Bruce Willis) and a new villain added to the mix, there just aren't enough scenes to go around. Cheadle and Mac are pretty much entirely forgotten, which is a shame because they were great in the first one.
Anyhow, the movie was certainly entertaining. It just got too clever towards the end, and left me counting the number of ways they could have ended it in more believable ways. Still good, though, and with such a great director in charge of such a great cast, it's still worth going to see in the theaters. That's what Hollywood is all about. 6/10.