4 out of 5

Director: Steve Soderbergh

Ocean’s Eleven was all about the heist.  Soderbergh styled it up with extra cool and brought together a dream cast and filtered it all through his Peter Andrews lensing to give us one of the smartest and most fun caper flicks ever made.  You know Twelve is a sequel, so you know not to expect it to be as good (and to account for some bloating made oh-so-obvious by that plus one in the title), but how can you not go into it hoping for some more heist hijinks?  And so I – along with many – came out of the film cursing it for really tanking on that hope, along with having an over-complicated plot that you try to follow for no real reason.  …Or so it seems.  Watching it again, knowing what to expect, if 11 was about the heist, 12 is just about having a good time.  Accepting that, it IS a good time.  The setup is a sensible follow-up – Benedict has tracked Danny’s crew down and expects all his money returned to him (plus interest) in a limited amount of time… OR ELSE.  The group comes up with some plans, but find themselves continually foiled by a Europol agent – Zeta-Jones – and a rival thief – played perfectly with gross charm by Vincent Cassel.  Trying to follow the double-talk and sleight of hand is sort of pointless until the end, so it’s better to just let all the charm wash over you.  Despite just having fun (Soderbergh’s commentary talks about how many scenes are there for laughs – they either work for you or don’t), he brings his typical quality to the pic, making some of the scripting stumbles (a wandering beginning, a bizarre meta anti-climactic climax) zip by with panache, gorgeous natural light, and fitting tunes.  It’s not the pristine diamond of Eleven, but it belongs in the Ocean’s world, and it’s a joy when viewed with an ‘entertain me’ mindset.