Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Things are oddly quiet on this one so far. You’d think this close to release, more people would have seen the movie already. I enjoyed the first one as a confection, a romp, an old-fashioned movie star movie where good-looking people get together and have an improbably perfect adventure. If this one is more of the same, I’m sure it’ll be fun. Let’s see...
Hey Harry,
Let me start by saying that I loved Ocean’s Eleven. The witty banter (“They say taupe is very soothing”), the ultra cool heist, the stylistic direction, the awful Don Cheadle Cockney accent, and especially seeing huge marquee stars working together on a project and looking like they had the time of their lives making it. I can watch Ocean’s Eleven and know that I’m enjoying a solid, well-acted, finely-tuned piece of film.
So I got to take a look at Ocean’s Twelve, and I approached it with equal parts excitement and fear. I mean, the first movie was great, but it stands alone, despite the open ending. I left the theatre years ago wanting to know what happened to Danny, Tess, and Rusty when they left the prison, but part of me was content to watch them drive away and let it be done. In the end, my excitement was slightly rewarded, and I had good reason to be a little nervous…
The movie opens with a glimpse into Rusty’s past, when three years ago he was a big-time thief and Catherine Zeta-Jones was a Europol detective hunting big-time thieves, oblivious to her beau’s career choice. Once she begins sniffing too close to a caper he just pulled, Rusty does the responsible thing and escapes out the bathroom window and out of her life. Until…
Months after the big Bellagio job, the Eleven have settled into their own little lives. Danny and Tess are married, living in the suburbs of New York under the pseudonyms Mr. and Mrs. Diaz. Though he is retired, he just can’t help casing joints and doing recon wherever he goes. The Mormon twins are doing their thing in Provo. The little Chinese guy lives like a rap star. Livingston has apparently tried to shirk his shyness, doing awful one-man comedy shows to unenthusiastic crowds. Frank is living it up, getting his nails done whenever possible. Rusty is still helping out wacky young actor Topher Grace while also trying to micromanage hotels that he owns. Basher is in London, producing music. Linus is trying to be respectable, and the old men are doing their old men thing.
Into all of their lives steps Benedict, who is furious about the money they stole from him, which he wants back plus interest. He convinces each of them in turn to pay him back, and gives them a two-week deadline. The Eleven reconvene to discuss matters, and realize that they are $97 million short of the $180 million that they owe Benedict. It’s time for another heist to get the money to pay Benedict.
Knowing they are too hot to work in the U.S., the Eleven head to Amsterdam, where they get their con on…
Along the way, as the characters split up for various reasons, the plot twists and turns, with multiple heists being attempted, but only one successful one being made. The Eleven (or Twelve since Tess come on to help) face a wily adversary, an infamous thief nicknamed the Night Fox, who stays one step ahead of Ocean and taunts him about it as well.
There are a great deal of things to like about this movie. My favorite bit has Tess joining the gang in the eleventh hour (hey, a pun!) by impersonating a famous actress (can you guess who?). Along with that comes a pretty fun Bruce Willis extended cameo.
But there’s a sense of satisfaction missing this time out. When you left the gang last time, they’d just said “In your face!” to Terry Benedict. This movie starts immediately with him telling them to give the money back, and them complying without question. Where’s the fun in that?? The gang faces a potentially cool opponent in the Night Fox, as he outwits them and gets them jailed one by one, but the resolution to that is not very satisfying, either. The movie began slowly, and I thought early on that I was not happy with the way things were going. Then, the plot thickened at the halfway point, and I felt like maybe the film would begin to twist and turn and get REALLY GOOD, but it petered out again at the end. There’s simply no be-all-end-all ultra-hip heist. In all, it felt like they rushed it out to make a sequel, without a solid plot. The twists were predictable, and the entire gang was not together on-screen for very long. In some cases, like Bernie Mac’s, you could tell he couldn’t be there to shoot with the others for long, so his character was written out for about half the film.
I laughed a few times, mostly at Brad Pitt. I really like his Rusty character (even if he isn’t eating in every scene this time). I enjoyed some of the clever camera work, and the cheesy throwback title overlays. Zeta-Jones was fine as Rusty’s love interest. Not great, but not bad, either. I just didn’t get a sense of fun like I did in the first one. If the gang decides to make an Ocean’s Thirteen, I will definitely see it because I love the characters. I just didn’t like where they went or what they did in this film. Ocean’s Eleven was a graded a solid A in my book. Ocean’s Twelve passes with a disappointing B-.
-The Flux Capacitor
Well, sounds okay. It’s the interplay between these actors that makes or breaks a film like this, anyway, so let’s see if they can earn their paychecks, eh?
"Moriarty" out.
