Ocean In The Desert Redux-George Clooney And Brad Pitt’s “Ocean’s Twelve” (2004)-A Film Review 

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

Ocean’s Twelve, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, 2004  

Recently in reviewing the original Ocean’s Eleven (not the original Frank Sinatra/Rat Pack one done in the early 1960s but the first in what would be a trilogy of George Clooney-Brad Pitt vehicles) I noted not without some blow-back probably from people who have been conned I mentioned the following which applies to the film under review here –the sequel Ocean’s Twelve:    

“Let’s face it everybody loves a con, loves a con artist at least since old Herman Melville made a big literary deal out of such characters in his 19^th century novel The Confidence Man. Well everybody loves a con, a con artist as long as that personage is conning somebody else and not one’s good self. Better if the con is on some super-rich guy who made his dough by walking over a pile of people, hell, maybe a pile of corpses. And that latter premise is what makes George Clooney’s remake of the 1960s Frank Sinatra-led classic con story Ocean’s Eleven.” That rather obviously sound reasoning gets another work-out in this sequel where the original crew plus Tess, played by Julia Roberts, who makes the twelve of the title.  

Here’s how this version played out. Terry Benedict, played by Andy Garcia, a Las Vegas casino owner who was bulked out of $160 million dollars in the original Ocean Eleven caper did not get to own casinos by being conned by tricky con men, or so he thinks. Through his intelligence apparatus he finds all the gang members and gives them an ultimatum-return the dough plus about thirty million in interest since the caper occurred three years before his round-up-or else. Problem: these guys, these cons didn’t invest their ill-gotten gains in nice municipal bonds but spent it like, well, like drunken sailors. When they add up the tally they are about ninety-seven million short (that includes the interest as well). They are given two weeks by Terry to ante up or once again-or else.          

What to do? Well it won’t be by applying for bank loans or such but back to the old hunting grounds, back to the big time con. Their first caper backfired since the rare item they were after had already been filched. Somebody else was working the same street. Moreover a Europol detective Lahari, played by fetching Catherine Zeta-Jones, was hounding their footsteps as she pursued a thief whose moniker was The Night Fox an acolyte of master thief “LaMarca.” It was the Night Fox, a member of the aristocracy who had plenty of time on his hands who had beaten them to the rare document that would have gotten them well. The cocksure Night Fox challenges Danny and the boys to a match to see who was king of the con hill. Steal the then incredibly well-guarded Faberge Imperial Egg. The reward for his failure would be that he would pay out the ninety-seven million to Benedict (presumably from his household funds or walking around money).

The chase was on. Not to worry though Danny and the guys have this one mapped out to perfection-have got all the angles covered. In the old days this kind of caper depended on muscle and maybe a few inside job participants. Now it is all craft. The solo Night Fox figured after his assault on the museum where the egg was being shown that he had won. Sorry, not against Danny and the boys. Why? Well they had an inside advantage. They had made contact with LaMarc who gave them the details of when the egg was going to be in transit. Piece of cake. Terry Benedict take your dough and beat it. Along the way Rusty goes under the sheets with that Detective Lahiri who as it turned out was the long lost daughter of LaMarc. She crosses the line to his side. Must be in the genes. Not as good at the plot-line in the first one but okay.