Ocean's Twelve [M]

The last caper that Danny Ocean and his crew pulled off should have left them all living high the hog. Not under the watch Vegas big-shot Terry Benedict who somehow manages to round them all up again and demands back the money they stole from him…with interest. Having spent most of their shares like there’s no tomorrow and being too hot to handle in the U.S, the gang is forced to pull a series of odd jobs abroad in order to pay back Benedict. But their bruised egos are subjected to a further battering as another shadowy thief known only as The Night Fox is out to prove that he’s the best thief around and puts Danny and his crew up to a little challenge of skill. 

The hoax gets bigger and more elaborate this time around. That’s the fun with these sorts of movies, watching critically and analysing every little camera angle or line to try and find some hidden code or meaning in them. Ocean's Twelve sees new characters, new enemies, and new heights to which our favourite band of thieves strives to reach, all blended together by a fast-paced script and heaps of plot misdirection, making it twice as engaging as the first one and possibly twice as confusing…until everything comes together at the end of course. 

The last caper that Danny Ocean and his crew pulled off should have left them all living high the hog. Not under the watch Vegas big-shot Terry Benedict who somehow manages to round them all up again and demands back the money they stole from him…with interest. Having spent most of their shares like there’s no tomorrow and being too hot to handle in the U.S, the gang is forced to pull a series of odd jobs abroad in order to pay back Benedict. But their bruised egos are subjected to a further battering as another shadowy thief known only as The Night Fox is out to prove that he’s the best thief around and puts Danny and his crew up to a little challenge of skill. 

There is so much more packed into this movie in terms of just about everything. I think the best way to look at these particular movies is to see them as big fuck-off onions that you’re trying to peel and chop up. The story or stories are the various outer layers of dry skin that you have to peel away first. With this movie there are about three different stories that are being lifted upwards: we’ve got the payback story with Benedict, then there’s the battle of skills and egos with the Night Fox, and then there is this love story between Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones’ characters, which at the same time is a battle of skills almost akin to that of Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. 

After the layers have been separated and pulled away we then get all these little pieces of onion that have been subjected to the knife and they are the characters that flesh out this movie. There are so many people in this movie and oftentimes it’s hard to come to terms with who’s who and who’s good and who’s bad. It’s all one big labyrinth of chopped onion that we’re trying to find our way through. 

Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy Garcia, Elliott Gould, Casey Affleck, Julia Roberts, Scott Caan, Shaobo Qin, Carl Reiner, Robbie Coltrane, Vincent Cassel, Eddie Izzard, Albert Finney, and Bruce Willis, Ocean's Twelve is a thrilling and engaging thief movie that blends the subgenres of gangster, detective, and spy thrillers all into one package. Filled with action, deception, plot misdirection, romance, drama, and comedy, it’s pretty damned cool and a great way to kill some free time.