RageLite review - Ocean's 12

It’s May, so let’s take a look at the Ocean’s Franchise again with its sequel, Ocean’s 12. With the success of the previous film, a sequel was announced but now they no longer have an old movie to remake so they’re on their own, for better and for worse. To handle this job, they got George Nolfi, a relative inexperienced writer, his only other film is Timeline, which was critically panned and a financial disaster. Still, Steven Soderbergh is still directing so there should be some consistency

Made on a $110 million budget, the film was successful, earning $362m at the box office, still less than the $450m the original made, but critics were far less kind to it, with only 54% finding it favourable, whilst scoring only slightly higher at 60% with audiences [has RT taken away the average scores, they provide important context] so what happened here? Let’s take a look.

The original members of the gang are accosted by Terry Benedict, he demands all the money back they stole from him, plus interest or they’ll be killed. Short by at least $100m, the gang travels to Europe in search of the next big score but run into the games of Europol Agent and Rusty’s kinda-sorta girlfriend Isabel Lahri (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and a master thief known as the Nightfox, who is determined to prove once and for all, who is the better thief. I mean, you’re outnumbered 11 to 1 but… OK.

This plot relies heavily on a twist near the end which I’m gonna have to spoil, there’s a bit of talk about how Nightfox and his mentor Lemarc are masters of the Long Game. And it turns out our thieves are playing the same game, everything that happens since they met is part of a larger plan.

Their convoluted scheme to get the egg, the complications that arise from Rusty’s affiliation with Isabel, the second stage involving Linux taking command, having Tess pretend to be Julia Roberts in a plan that backfired, getting themselves caught and arrested is all part of a show. It relies on so many coincidences though, also Bruce Willis showing up for no reason was kinda unnecessary.

Julia Roberts having to play Tess Ocean playing Julia Roberts was a stroke of genius and lead to a few good gags. The chemistry between the cast is still there but much like a previous film, quite a few of them get the shaft. Frank Catton is out early on, Saul Bloom is absent for a large chunk of the film, anyone remember what Yen did? Or the Malloy Duo? And I only really remember Basher Tarr because of his hilarious accent.

Once again, the focus is on Frank Ocean, Rusty Ryan and, because the Bourne Films had started and Matt Damon’s star was rising, Linus Caldwell. Linus get the bulk of something resembling an arc for the film as he wants in on a larger role in the heist to fit his larger role in the plot. And despite a shaky start he accomplishes this goal by the end, his connections actually essential in getting them out of prison.

Frank and Rusty are the veterans and the key decision-makers of the group. The opening establishes that even after retirement Frank can’t turn his brain off the life and approaches everything like he’s approaching a robbery and Rusty… owns a Hotel? Huh.

The heists themselves are still pretty entertaining even if we actually see very little of them in this one. We see the aftermath of a heist that the Nightfox got to first, and attempt 1 at the museum is over before it even begins. The Nightfox’s robbery attempt feels very forced. The lasers he’s dancing around are supposed to be completely random, it feels too easy for him.

Isabel Lahri’s arc is interesting, the problem is that all her agency is lost by the reveal that she played into a larger scheme. She’s supposed to be smart and capable, able to see the patterns because of her family background, her father was a master thief but whilst she does show that, it’s all part of the plan so it still feels like she’s 2 steps behind. The reveal that her father was in fact LeMarc was interesting, I guess. Now she’s entered the thief’s circle… can’t wait for her not to show up in the sequel.

Oceans 12 tries to be bigger with more locations and higher stakes, the problem is that it all feeds into a narrative that relies on a twist ending to work. A lot of the stakes and agency are lost in retrospect and it all feels a little too convenient and easy. The chemistry between the leads works but at most maybe half of them have anything memorable to do.

Rating 65/100