Ocean's Twelve (2004, PG-13)

This sequel, made because of the box-office and critical success of its predecessor, Ocean’s Eleven, arrives with the same ensemble cast and most of the same characteristics as previously, but with more originality. 

            Steven Soderdough returns again as director to helm this second part of the Ocean’s trilogy.  Set maybe about a year after the events of the previous film, which saw the team pull of a cool 160 million dollar heist, Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), has hunted down all of the members of the team and demands that they pay him back.  Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and everyone else is back for another adventure, this time travelling to Europe to regain the money for Benedict….and a little extra for themselves.  Added to the cast is Catherine Zeta-Jones as Rusty Ryan’s (Brad Pitt) love interest.

              Ocean’s Eleven was a generally fun heist comedy caper movie, but all we ever cared about was that the stellar cast pull off a good movie.  All we got was something to sit down and watch while we munched on our popcorn.  Maybe this can be blamed on director Soderdough, who never adds much character depth—so therefore we don’t care about much of the characters in the movie. 

            And that applies to Ocean’s Twelve.  Fortunately, Ocean’s Twelve does bring the level up by being much more original then Ocean’s Eleven.  In addition, I also had a little more fun watching this sequel.  It’s a rare chance that a sequel is superior to its predecessor, and it’s common that sequel outdoes its predecessor at the box office.  Ocean’s Twelve opened to mixed reviews, and grossed a lot of money at the box-office but not quite as much as Ocean’s Eleven did.  In stark contrast to this, I liked Ocean’s Twelve better then Ocean’s Eleven, even if almost everyone else disagrees with me, though it still holds it fair share of faults and flaws. 

            Ocean’s Twelve also adds splotches of fun moments and comical scenes, but did not make amazing use of its European scenery.

            All of the Ocean’s movies are nothing more than average popcorn flicks, but I still liked this pic for better or worse.   

                                             ***/5