The Unseen Movie Review

Ocean's Twelve

This is Steven Soderbergh’s first time directing a sequel. He made his name through independent inventiveness and even since emerging into the mainstream has doggedly stuck to his indy roots, and refused to play by the standard Hollywood rules. He seems to hate repeating himself, so a sequel seems at first to be an odd choice.

Considering he’s the man behind both the effortlessly cool Out of Sight and the complexly intelligent Traffic, it’s a fairly safe bet that if Soderbergh had wanted to turn his 2001 remake of the third-rate 1960s Rat Pack classic Ocean’s Eleven into a more “grown-up” movie than it was, he easily could have done. Instead, he opted for an affably silly heist romp which, though being rather more stylish than the usual Hollywood fare, was essentially little more than a basic blockbuster done very well with a huge all-star ensemble cast. Just as with the original film, a lot of the charm came from the sense that all involved in its making were having a damn good time.

For the sequel, there is more of the same – sort of. Again, there’s a roll call of big name stars most directors would kill for: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Elliott Gould and all the rest from the first film, plus some additions including Brits Catherine Zeta-Jones, Robbie Coltrane and Eddie Izzard. Again there are touches of Soderbergh’s trademark visual flair, humour, and ear for snappy dialogue. Again there is an all-pervasive, laid-back feel, despite this paradoxically still both looking and feeling like the big-budget Hollywood number that it is.

Rather than being another straight heist flick, kicking off where the first movie left off with Clooney and Roberts heading off into the sunset pursued by the recently-swindled Garcia’s hired goons, the director has ensured that the material remains fresh, interesting and fun, perhaps in part due to its European setting. Yet the events of the first movie are vital – Garcia’s enraged casino boss has tracked Clooney and co down, and they must pull off yet another daring heist – or rather, heists – to pay him back the money they stole.

In places, Soderbergh’s love of the bizarre leads the narrative to become almost entirely secondary to the characters’ relationships – their conversations and friendly playfulness almost descending to the level of the kind of impenetrable, in-joke strewn, dialogue-heavy territory of the Kevin Smiths of this world.

While not as accomplished as the first movie, which in any case many at the time found a fairly sleight affair by Soderbergh’s usual standards, Ocean’s Twelve still manages to be a far superior film to much that comes out of Hollywood these days. With the sheer amount of talent involved, this should be no surprise, but at the same time it remains an impressive achievement to keep all those superstar egos under some semblance of control. Don’t expect an Ocean’s Thirteen, but this will certainly give fans of the original what they want – more of the same, only different.

posted by Nosemonkey @ 12:00 AM