Oceans Eleven was new territory for Steven Soderbergh back in 2001, having previously directed nothing quite as commercially mainstream when he took on the remake of Lewis Milestones 1960 film of the same name. It turned out to belong to a very small pool of movies remakes that are actually more enjoyable than the original. Soderbergh successfully recreated the capers of gentleman thief Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his cohort in a super slick and perfectly paced heist movie. Oceans Twelve seemed like a no-brainer at this point. Keep the same director, create another exciting job for Ocean and his crew, add to an already impressive cast and youre on to a winner, or so you thought. The sequel takes place three years after Ocean and his boys robbed shady entrepreneur Terry Benedict blind, and someone has ratted them out. The resulting game of cat-and-mouse is lazy and illogical, and slick turns to smug. The sequel is mainly remembered for Julia Roberts character Tess pretending to be Julia Roberts in one of the most self-satisfying, cringe-worthy moments in the history of cinema. Actually, scratch that, in history period. Writer George Nolfi would have been better off exploring the origins of Danny Ocean. What was he like before he met Tess? Was he always such an accomplished thief? Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) admits that he has known Ocean for many years, with one previous collaboration involving the theft of precious Incan matrimonial headmasks. Maybe this particular job would have come across a bit too Indiana Jones, but seeing a young Danny earn his stripes in the heist world would have been far more entertaining than simply moving Ocean's Eleven to Europe. Plus, George Clooney never ages, so there's casting sorted.
