Ocean’s Twelve

Danny Ocean and his slick band of high end thieves are back in another fun filled crime caper from Steven Soderbergh. The film follows the continuing adventures of Danny Ocean and his gang, slightly older but no wiser, as the guys take on Europe in another romp. There are a number of plot holes that require blinders to ignore but overall the film is a feast for the eyes and ears. Put your mind on hold and enjoy the ride.

The film begins with Danny Ocean and Tess on their anniversary. They have settled down to a new life though not as successfully as they would hope. Danny is on the straight and narrow even though every time he sets foot into a bank or a jewelry store he automatically starts casing the joint. Tess believes her man has changed, but only to a point, and they have settled down to renovate their home. Then a blast from the past sets things in motion. Terry Benedict, Andy Garcia reprising his role as the heavy from the first film, visits each of the eleven members of Ocean’s band to pass on the message that he wants payback for the money that was stolen from the Bellagio casino on his watch. Plus interest. Of course these men have been living the high life on their ill gotten gains and they don’t have the money to pay off their debt. It seems that crooks rarely have sound investment plans for the future. In fear for their lives the guys jet off to Amsterdam to search for a big job that will cover their debt.

In Europe the boys are playing in the big leagues drawing the ire of a world famous cat burglar nicknamed the Night Fox who sets them up with a job and then steals the loot before they can get it. He admires them but thinks they are competition so he challenges them to a battle of the burglars and if they win he will pay off all of their debts. Of course this pits the guys not only against the police, but against another criminal and this can be confusing as the three dance around each other. Yen, who didn’t get a word in the first film, talks nonstop as he rattles on in Chinese to no one in particular while living the hip hop lifestyle.

There is nothing new here to learn about these guys, the caricatures have already been set, but some of the changes are amusing. Bernie Mac must have been busy while the film was being made; Frank appears briefly, gets locked in jail, and is virtually forgotten until the end of the movie when he magically reappears. Yen, who didn’t get a word in the first film, talks nonstop as he rattles on in Chinese to no one in particular while living the hip hop lifestyle. Saul, Carl Reiner, is tired of the con and doesn’t go with the guys to Amsterdam stating bluntly ‘I want the last check I write to bounce.’ But Saul, like Tess, gets pulled back into the gang’s con just when the need them the most.

Oceans Eleven focused on Danny Ocean and his relationship with Tess and how it jeopardized the job. This time it is Rusty Ryan, Brad Pitt’s cool as ice character, who gets into lady troubles. It appears that an old flame of his, the lovely Catherine Zeta Jones, Isabel Lahiri is an Interpol expert on high end burglaries. This lends a more interesting cat and mouse game that the original lacked but its resolution is not only unbelievable, it is uninteresting. They pull a rabbit out of the hat to tie up all of the lose ends and it leaves the audience feeling a bit as if they had been had. Zeta Jones is a good foil for the guys, however, though most of her activities seem only vaguely threatening until the final heist.

The film is also an opportunity for Matt Damon to shine as the nervous Linus Caldwell who is still trying to prove his mettle in the group. Linus wants a larger role in the group’s scheme as well as more hands on leadership of the heist. It is in the scenes between Linus and Rusty where Linus is trying so hard to impress and Rusty is so calm and less than enthused that both Damon and Pitt show their acting skills. Linus orchestrates a break in scheme after the others are arrested that is hilarious in its executions as well as its premise. Plus, when he gets into trouble he has to call his mommy, which is unnerving for even the most professional of thieves.

At the end of the day the caper is fun, the faces are beautiful, and the scenery is lush, there just isn’t quite enough story to keep up. So as long as you are willing to ignore any nagging questions of feasibility and just go with the con this is an enjoyable and well paced film. The con at the end of the film, supposedly a last ditch effort to save the group, is hilarious in its play on the celebrities in the film. If this does well in the box office and everyone’s schedules align I see no reason why we won’t all be enjoying an Ocean’s Thirteen somewhere down the line.