Monday, April 14, 2014

***Where The Dough Is -By The Numbers-George Clooney’s Ocean’s 12





DVD Review

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Ocean’s 12, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitts, Julia Roberts and a bunch of other guys, 2004

Okay, let’s do this one by the numbers. Not in numerical order because as I have noted in reviewing Ocean’s 13 and then the granddaddy Ocean’s 11 (modern version, no the 1960s Frank Sinatra and pals “classical”) in that order there is not such sequencing here. What I mean by the numbers here in this last of the trilogy to be reviewed is the number of heists that it takes this time in Ocean’s 12 to get square. See in 11 and 13 the crew just did one big caper and done, hitting the casinos in Vegas (we definitely can forget the Las Vega moniker since we are more than honorary citizens after three films) just for the sake of doing it or to help an old comrade out. Here there are several capers that did not seem to connect together and, frankly, there were too many moving parts to try to hold this immediate sequel together.        

Here is the problem. We know from 11 that Danny (played by George Clooney of course) and the boys took a big haul, over 150 million from three casinos in Vegas from one multi-billionaire owner Terry Bennett (played by Andy Garcia). But old Terry did not get where he was in the world by being beaten up six ways to Sunday by a bunch of “unconnected” independent street hoods. And thus Terry must seek revenge (not to mention that he lost his girlfriend, Danny’s ex , played by Julia Roberts, back into Danny’s arms) and so strong-arms the guys into paying every cent taken plus interest.     

Of course street guys naturally have already spent a good portion of the dough one way or another and so under a two week time limit set by Terry to get each and every dollar back (plus interest) the boyos must go back to work. And here is where the too many moving parts comes in. They are working Europe for any kind of dough they can get but the work is slow so what they are left with is a challenge/dare by a rich well-known master thief named the Night Fox. The prize, whoever can grab the extremely well-guarded Faberge egg (from Tsarist times in Russia), will in the case of the Night Fox be declared the max daddy king thief or for Danny and the boys the money to get out from under Terry‘s death threats. Terry got his dough. Enough said.       

No comments:

Post a Comment