Ocean's Twelve

Apparently, there is this bastion of people who detested the re-make of Ocean's Eleven (from 2001). I can sorta understand where they're coming from -- the current Brat Pack getting together, having a lark, you know what the outcome will be, what's the big deal? (Of course, the other part of me says, if you don't like stuff like this, why'd you go see it?) But, Steven Soderbergh and the screenwriter of the original film deserve quite a bit of credit, in my opinion. My husband and I watched the original film in Milwaukee a few Christmases ago, when there was nothing else to do, and we wondered whether our enjoyment of it was due to our need for anything to entertain us. Still, we woke up the next morning with certain plot twists still on our mind and have watched that film a couple times over the years. We still enjoy it -- it's clever, twisty, funny, one of my favorite heist films of all time. Ocean's Twelve has all of those elements except the last. It tries to bring back the magic of the first, but it's biggest problem is that, well, nothing happens. I think it was an NPR commentator who was the first I heard to remark on the complete lack of action. Granted, the first one wasn't your blow-'em-up type of heist. Still, one daring stunt in the second film, and it isn't even performed by one of the twelve? The cleverness is almost worth the price of the film, and if you like cinematic (ok, Hollywood) in-jokes, it'll be particularly fun. But it is the Soderbergh pack, scraping by on the acting (except Catherine Zeta-Jones, who apparently wasn't aware that these films are supposed to be one big party), and just having a ball. It should bring a smile to your face, if nothing else.

year: 2004
length: 120 min.
rating: 2.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349903/combined