Review of Ocean's Twelve (2004) by Anssi V — 25 Dec 2013

This film's biggest sin is that it just isn't as interesting as a heist film should be. I'm writing this review about a month after I saw the film, and I honestly had to read the Wikipedia plot summary to even remember what I was supposed to talk about.

The first film was great because it had a very clear premise and the twists all played with the viewer's expectation and the conventions of the genre. This is just plain unpredictable, and not in a good way. You have no way of knowing where the story is going to move next and this is a problem, because the film keeps throwing new characters and locations into the mix in order to liven up the film, but all it ends up doing is diluting the plot to a point where the viewer couldn't care less what happens next.

The characters are also a bit of a hit and miss. Some of the returning characters, like most of the Ocean Crew, are fine. They haven't really evolved in between the films, but they work like they are. All the new character and especially Julia Roberts' Tess are utterly uninteresting and/or unlikable. Even a cameo from Bruce Willis ends up being just plain weird instead of good, as unbelievable as that sounds. And the less is said about the "villains" the better.

This is not a good sequel. It tries to follow in the footsteps of the original, but it has none of its intrigue, charm or ability to tell a coherent story. If you're a major fan of heist movies, you might find some good things in this - and yeah, the locations are actually pretty nice - but the rest of you, don't bother.