Ocean’s Twelve

THE GIST: Still seething at being robbed by Ocean's gang, Terry Benedict tracks them all down and demands they pay him back with interests or face criminal charges. Forced into action again, the robbers have very little time to come up with a lot of money, so they head over to Europe to steal a precious work of art.

Well, apparently a lot of money and talent thrown at a hot property can still horribly mangle it.

After the brilliant Ocean's Eleven, director Steven Soderbergh is back at the helm for Ocean's Twelve, but the results are diametrically opposite. Whereas Eleven was clever and entertaining, Twelve is messy, confusing, and even boring.

Soderbergh seems to use the film to test out the craziest camera angles, as if this is a school project. He's a very good director, whose work I usually admire, but here if feels like he's winking at us going, "See how cool I am? Look at the crazy stuff I can do with my camera!" Boring and wrong. If anything, the camera work distracts from the plot.

The screenplay is paper thin, trying to conjure up the heist of the century while the only reason for its existence seems to be making a quick buck before too many people realize this is crap.

Finally, while the cast sees even more big names added to its already illustrious list, like Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vincent Cassel, Don Cheadle, and Cherry Jones, they seem to have come together for a cookout, not a job. Feels like we are the real victims of the con.

THE BOTTOM LINE: I recently wrote about how Mission: Impossible II is a textbook case on what not to do with a sequel to a successful movie. Ocean's Twelve is perhaps an even better example: don't expect to be cheered on by the audience when you just come back together because of the name recognition of the previous movie. If you don't have a story to tell, go back to the drawing board or just leave it alone. Please!

Grade: 2