Ocean’s Twelve (2004)

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh | 120 minutes | action, comedy, crime, thriller | Actors: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Shaobo Qin, Carl Reiner, Elliot Gould, Vincent Cassel, Bruce Willis

After the great success that the film ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ has brought about all over the world, a sequel was inevitable. Rather than opt for a disastrous title like ‘Ocean’s Eleven II’, director Soderbergh has opted to expand Ocean’s genius crime gang. Danny Ocean is married to Tess in this sequel. When her husband is in trouble because of the traitor Night Fox, she decides to enrich the gang. And look there: ‘Ocean’s Twelve’.

In America this film can already be called a blockbuster, because in the first shooting weekend ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ yielded 40.8 million dollars in tickets. There is no doubt that this sequel will also be a success. Because a cast that consists of so many well-known Hollywood stars is almost guaranteed for success. For the Dutch, an additional motivation can be that a considerable part of the story takes place in Amsterdam and that can be called quite unique. It has been more than thirty years since the capital was the scene of a major Hollywood production. The last international production for which major movie stars came to Amsterdam was the James Bond film ‘Diamonds are Forever’ from 1971. Besides the film sessions in Amsterdam and Haarlem, we can also be proud of the appearance of Jeroen Krabbé in ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ , albeit in a minuscule role. The Dutch film hero, like Mr. Van der Woude, has the first certificate of the VOC in safekeeping in his strictly guarded canal house in Amsterdam, which must of course be stolen.

‘Ocean’s Twelve’ is an original story, building on what happened in ‘Ocean’s Eleven’. This creates a new story with a different setting, but with a further deepening of the characters. We see a nice development of the character Linus Caldwel (Matt Damon). Humor has been even higher on Soderbergh’s list of priorities this time. In this film it is often just as good or even better than in its predecessor, but on a few moments the humor completely misses the point. The humor falls below par when Tess is ‘dressed up’ as Julia Roberts in order to rob a museum piece. Julia Roberts in the role of Tess, who should look a lot like Julia Roberts… This scene should have been deleted or adapted, because the result is that as a viewer you are no longer in the film. And to come back to the title: in ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ it takes eleven specialized criminals to conquer Benedict’s heavily guarded casinos. In ‘Ocean’s Twelve’, however, the specific qualities of the twelve thugs do not play a role, which could have reduced the number and thus also changed the title to ‘Ocean’s Ten’ (or Nine or Eight).

With a sequel film, there is always the problem of looking at and comparing it to the original film. Well, and then we have to conclude: ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ is slightly stronger in terms of tension, originality and humour. But even though ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ is slightly less good as a comparison material than ‘Ocean’s Eleven’, this film is definitely worth seeing. The story is indeed strong, the tension is nicely built up, the humor is often well dosed, the cast is of course great, the soundtrack is fantastic and the camera work is razor sharp. If that doesn’t convince you to watch the film, then Amsterdam as a film location certainly must and will.