Rated PG-13 for language
Directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven, Solaris, Traffic, Erin Brockovich)
Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts . . . the whole gang again plus Catherine Zeta-Jones
The proverbial sequel. Not a bad film, but pale in comparison to the original.
I guess it’s hard to even judge a film like Ocean’s Twelve fairly, because I carry so much bias to the theatre. I loved the original, so my expectations were high. So I guess it wasn’t surprising when the sequel didn’t measure up; very few sequels do. (Save Terminator II, Aliens II . . . and a few others that James Cameron didn’t make.)
On the other hand, Twelve might have been a little more boring than I actually experienced. I might have actually given Twelve a little more grace because I loved the characters so much. I was waiting for Frank (Bernie Mac) to do his thing, for Rusty (Pitt) to leave Linus (Damon) hanging again, and for the next argument from the Malloy brothers (Caan and Affleck . . . yes, James Caan’s son and Ben Affleck’s brother). So I was a little more patient with this film. Soderbergh had already captured my attention with the first film and perhaps that patience held my interest longer than the normal movie-goer.
The plot is simple: the crew has been hunted down by Benedict (Garcia) and needs to pull off a big scam to pay him back. Daniel Ocean recruits one more team member so he can pull off three major European heists. But this time there’s competition . . . another thief that always seems just one step ahead.
There are some creative and original moments in this film as well. The new thief that they introduce is a very interesting character. And a cameo performance by Bruce Willis was probably one of the funniest scenes in the film.
If you enjoyed the first, I think that you’ll at least want to rent the sequel. But don’t see it if you haven’t seen the first, first. (Did I say that right?)
SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
It’s not made for young kids, and young teens will be bored. I know adults that were bored. Is there anything objectionable in it? No sex or nudity. A little language. Check out www.screenit.com for specifics.
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
- What are some of the messages or themes you observed in this movie?
- How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
- How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?
