Ocean's Twelve

Ocean's Twelve - ***

Ocean's Twelve is the Steven Soderbergh directed sequel to the remake of the film that defined a generation of filmmakers. Whereas it's predecessor was almost a serene tribute to the original 1960 picture starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr (along with the lesser Rat Packers), this film branches out and attempts to be something distinctly unique. The gang is off to Europe this time around, in an attempt to make enough money to pay back their begrudged former victim Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). Of course, the name indicates that there's someone new on board, and I can only guess that is Julia Roberts' Tess. It might have also been Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta Jones), but I suppose the fact that she's an ex-Lover of Rusty (Brad Pitt)/detective counts her out. Whereas the original was a brightly put together and highly original film that turned corners every step of the way until the final brilliant ending (although not hardly as brilliant as the Rat Pack version), the sequel relies more on humour than inventiveness. Effective examples of this humour include much of Matt Damon's work in this film, as well as the back and forth between the Malloy Brothers (Casey Affleck, Scott Caan). George Clooney's work seems a lot like most of Sinatra's movie work; uninspired. This is not a traditional Soderbergh film in that it doesn't really break any conventions, but the similarities between this and his previous work is that he finds a way to make the efforts come to something. In this, some sadly average directing and unoriginal storytelling are offset by some great humour and a solid cast. A marginal thumbs up.