Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Ocean's Twelve (2004)

This is topic Ocean's Twelve (2004) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000862

Posted by Nate Lehrke (Member # 1460) on 11-26-2004, 02:38 AM:

A good entertaining two hours.
Not as good as the first, but you can't expect it to be. The story moves quick and the comedy is just as good.
The addition of Catherine Zetta Jones was some really nice eye candy [Smile]

-
-
-
-
SPOILERS
I thougt the ending was very predictable, you just knew that they had stolen it right away & that made the finally all the less entertaining. The whole father-daughter story made me cringe, I hate that crap.
I still can't stand Julie Roberts but was thankful she had limited screen time and I hate Bruce Willis even more. One more thing, when they zoom in on each character leaving the building, I just was stunned on how stupid the director must have been. We spent 2 minutes just watching them walk!

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 11-26-2004, 06:19 AM:

Have you not seen the end credits of Buckaroo Banzi!?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-03-2004, 01:56 PM:

I haven't seen the movie so all I can review at this point is the trailer! [Big Grin]

This movie wins my award for worst trailer of the year. Our Scope copy doesn't even have DTS timecode. On top of that, the trailer pretty much makes the movie look sucky. The teaser was worse (They're ALL back....yes, they're ALL back...) [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Andrew Shingleton (Member # 2257) on 12-04-2004, 12:57 AM:

I agree Mike. When I saw the trailer I thought of one word - pretentious. Sorta like they were going "hey, how clever are we! We've made another really clever movie, and we're going to tell you that you'll definitely want to see it!"

Hopefully the movie doesn't come off that bad.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-09-2004, 05:53 AM:

Ok I have just finished screening this movie.

They're all back...yes they're ALL back...yes, ALL of them...every single last one of them...except for the writer...and that's why it sucked.

1.5 out of 5 stars

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 12-10-2004, 01:56 AM:

I didn't see the first one, but this one pretty much sucked. Even SDDS-8 didn't help any. [Razz]

Go figure.

They are all back, as Brad said.. except also they must have been one camera man short because apparently they hired a one armed chimpanzee with epilepsy to film some of the scenes. OMG Seizure Cam at its worst.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 12-11-2004, 04:25 AM:

THe movie had its moments, but overall boring ass direction by Soderburgh. Soderburgh lacks David O Russell's humorous touch. He is a cold director who has to work hard to carry off an ensemble comedy/adventure like these movies. I think Out of Sight was the only one where he pulled it off so well.

THe cast was wasted. Only Vincent Cassell and Elliot Gould seemed to register. The Catherine Zeta Jones subplot ends up being stupid and anticlimactic. The pacing seemed like an indie movie from the 90s where they use 70s south american lounge music for romantic effect. It's like Soderburgh was trying to create some retro cool styles without even considering if they gelled with the genre of the movie.

SPOILERS : So is this what happened? Brad Pitt dates Zeta at some point. Her dad finds out. Wants to use Pitt to get Zeta into his life. So he provokes the Cassell character by provoking him into daring the Ocean's gang to beat him in a heist. So Cassell snitches to Andy Garcia to achieve his goal. Meanwhile, Zeta's dad tips off Ocean that the Faberge Egg is with a courier from whom the gang ends up stealing the egg from the train? Meanwhile Zeta is unaware that fakery is going on and thinks that they are about to steal the egg and captures them all. Then Damon's mom somehow manages to fool everyone into thinking she is a govt agent? THey all escape. Then Pitt takes Zeta to her dad along with the egg in what ends up being a cringeworthy scene? What the hell. Casell honors the bet but is working on stealing money from Garcia in the future.
So is this the plot? END OF SPOILERS

The movie seems to be raking it in this weekend because of no competition. The screenings were getting sold out hours in advance with not a single empty seats and overflow meaning people probably snuck in.

[ 12-11-2004, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: Pravin Ratnam ]

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 12-11-2004, 06:23 PM:

Somebody should buy this DVD and send it to Soderbergh for christmas. Then he could learn how to make a gripping heist movie for about the budget that Mr. Clooney's sandwiches & coffee alone did cost on the production of OCEAN'S ELEVEN and OCEAN'S TWELVE. [Big Grin]

Grand Slam (1966)

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 12-13-2004, 01:38 AM:

I was very disappointed. The plot really is

[Eek!]

SPOILERS

chaotic and doesn't make sense. Especially the whole bet thing. The bet was about who could steal the egg, not who would be informed by the master of all thiefs how else they could steal it before it gets to the museum. That was idiotic. Somehow this encapsules the whole film: they couldn't come up with a good heist story, so they invented this strange, very unlikely and twisted plot and the great coup is that they wrangle the egg from confused couriers on a public train. Great story. But the Julia Roberts impersonating Julia Roberts thing was even worse...

The Italian police has a reputation for being a little chaotic, but even there you couldn't just show up with half a dozen black limousines, flash a fake bage and then take prisoners away. Suspense of disbelief does not mean that you can throw absolutely every unlikely idea at the audience.

And then Monsieur Cassell trained so hard to "dance" through the moving laser beams when he could simply have passed them on either side? It was very easy to see that there was a corridor behind each row of columns which the laser beams almost never touched.

I really don't understand how somebody can write a film like this and it actually gets made. I don't have a talent for storywriting either, but I could have written this one. Only I would have been too embarassed to actually hand it in!

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 12-17-2004, 06:26 PM:

Is it just me, or did this seem grainier than Super 35 ought to look given that it was digital intermediate? Does anyone know the details?

As for the movie itself, I enjoyed it, simply by dialing up my suspension of disbelief. If you're complaining about other ways the lasers could have been avoided, then you're entirely missing the point!

--jhawk

Posted by William Valdes (Member # 2690) on 12-18-2004, 12:53 AM:

Can't wait til they complete the inevitable trilogy [Roll Eyes]

with... Oceans Thirteen.

Synopsis: Danny Ocean teams up once again with the gang and yes theyre back. They're ALL back to sit around, talk, pose, and laugh at lame jokes however they face their BIGGEST CHALLENGE to date, a group of copycats who try to steal their thunder (played by Gilbert Godfried, Bobcat Goldthwait, Chris Kattan, Chris Penn, and Gary Coleman) They compete in Mayberry county's 24th annual HEIST-OFF!! Who will be victorious in boosting THE ULTIMATE SCORE... Aunt Bee's home-made APPLE PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Start waiting in line TONIGHT [sleep]

for Steven Soderbergh's next $180 million dollar blockbuster!

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-22-2004, 10:04 PM:

I really enjoyed the 2001 remake of the original, but Ocean's Twelve was just boring and muddled and completely lacked the energy and style which made the 2001 film memorable. The 2004 film started with a lackluster script and went downhill from there. Yawn.

Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 01-03-2005, 11:27 PM:

I remember when I first saw the 2001 Ocean's Eleven. I thought it was one of the best films made. A Great heist movie.

What happened with Ocean's Twelve? I really don't know. The energy and atmosphere just wasn't there like the first one. It was entertaining, but very disappointing.

1/5

Oh, and who was the 12th? Was is Roberts? Or Zeta-Jones?

Posted by William Valdes (Member # 2690) on 01-05-2005, 07:27 PM:

I think it was probably Catherine Zeta-Jones

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-17-2005, 12:37 PM:

I haven't watched this yet and probably won't. This is one example of me being excited for a movie, but then the trailer wrecked it for me. Just took away all desire to see the movie. This had probably the worst trailer of the year so far. The teaser was terrible, but the final was worse. And the one-sheets were stupid too.

People have been making good comments on exit though. So I guess it's an audience pleaser.

Posted by Don Cross (Member # 2980) on 02-08-2005, 12:48 AM:

Having all of the acting tallent in one movie: 9 out of 10, but...

There was very little tallent to be founf anywhere in this movie.

Movie plot and movie overall: 4 out of 10.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 02-08-2005, 01:44 PM:

I watched a Digital Projection presentation of it last night at the Loews E-Walk on 42nd Street in NYC (screen #8). My seat was about two image heights from the screen, and I still saw pixels (especially in bright highlights and the closing titles), and my eyes kept wanting a sharper image with richer (blacker) shadows. I agree with most of the postings regarding the convoluted plot.

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 02-19-2005, 08:50 PM:

I'm late giving my review here...but this movie just felt uncomfortable. When I watched it, I just felt that they tried too hard, and just rushed it....

2 out of 5