Ocean's Twelve

365 Films

Entry #110

Ocean’s Twelve (2004)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Ocean’s Twelve put something of a damper on the runaway success of the original.  I only say that because it seemed to have left a really bitter and sour taste in some viewer’s mouths.  In re-visiting the film, I came to the conclusion that if Ocean’s Eleven was a tribute to old Hollywood, than Ocean’s Twelve was completely hijacked by the spirit of the French New Wave from conception to execution.  A much more prodigious mind than mind will be able to correct me on this incredibly pretentious proclamation I’m about to make, but, does anybody else think that Ocean’s Twelve is the Ocean’s movie that early 60’s Godard would have made?  Seriously, nearly every single scene, performance, and line of dialogue can’t help but allude to the fact that the very idea of a sequel to something as innocuous as Ocean’s Eleven is anything but absurd.  I think the film is about one step shy of having each actor look into the camera and wink after they deliver a line of dialogue.  The plot begins when Terry Benedict is tipped off to the whereabouts of Ocean’s Eleven and begins to track each one down individually demanding restitution with a deadline of fatality should they fail to pay.  Under the barest traces of story necessity, the gang is whisked off to Amsterdam so that they can essentially hop scotch across Europe for the next two hours pulling off a variety of increasingly outlandish heists only to wind up with the coveted item through a simple backpack lift on a crowded Parisian train.  That particular beat definitely gives me the most delight when reconsidering the film.  To recap, after lifting a house from its foundations only to find that another thief had beaten them to the punch, and then swapping out a priceless Egg from a Rome museum with a goddamn digital hologram, the entire film comes down to switching backpacks with some guy on a train.  Oh and we only see it in flashback, and Tess is roped into the museum heist playing Julia Roberts, and Bruce Willis is there for some reason.  As you can see the film proceeds to lodge itself directly up its own ass in a matter of minutes and becomes little more than a hall of mirrors style series of inside jokes.  Don’t get me wrong; this is what I love most about the film.  Putting the content aside and the fact that while I’m sure a script was written, the plot seems like the cast is making it up as they go along, this is a beautiful fucking movie.  It’s a film that really makes you long for the days when Soderbergh shot on film and I can’t think of a better showcase for his DP abilities than this film either.  Pulling out all the stops, ignoring any rational dictates of taste, Ocean’s Twelve is perhaps the sequel to end all sequels.  I can’t think of another second entry in a series that goes as much out of its way as this one does to point out how entirely pointless and useless sequels are in general.  Yet, at the EXACT same time, it essentially follows all of the “rules” of sequels in terms of being bigger and more of a visual spectacle, in addition to deepening some of the character relationships (take that with a grain of salt, they do it as much as you can in an Ocean’s movie).  You’ll forgive me for beating a dead horse but much like Van Sant’s shot for shot Psycho remake, I believe Ocean’s Twelve is Soderbergh’s attempt at putting a nail in the coffin of big budget studio sequels.  You can dress it up however you want, spin as complex a web as you need to, but at the end of the day, its meaninglessness is kind of the point isn’t it?  This movie makes my head spin and in case you can’t tell, I kind of love it.