DVDFile

Warner Home Video / 2004 / 125 Minutes / PG-13
Street Date: April 12, 2005

Danny Ocean (George Clooney) has settled down with Tess (Julia Roberts). Their split of the Bellagio Casino heist of several years before makes for a comfortable suburban lifestyle, but Danny finds it a bit of a bore. Be careful what you wish for. Excitement comes to visit in the form of casino owner Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). He's tracked them down - how is initially a bit of a mystery, they're living under their third set of assumed names - and he wants his money back. Or else.

Benedict has been a busy guy. He and his thugs have visited every one of Ocean's gang: Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), Turk Malloy (Scott Caan), Virgil Malloy (Casey Affleck), Livingston Dell (Edward Jemison), Yen (Shaobo Qin), Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner), and Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould). His message is consistent: pay back nearly $200 million that includes extensive interest or sleep with the fishes.

The team reunites to discuss the threat. No one is sure how Benedict identified and found them; suspicion becomes an undercurrent. One thing is clear; they need to pull a big job and fast. Benedict has given them two weeks and the clock is running. Never mind that an insurance company made good on his loss; he's just being a vindictive hard ass. Pulling off a job in the States is too risky, so the team is off to Europe, Amsterdam to be precise.

They approach Matsui (Robbie Coltrane) a shady character who has the resources to hire them to knock over high valued targets. He starts them small, a rare document secured in a seemingly invulnerable home. But during that ingenious heist, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. They have competition in the person of master thief Francois Toulour, better known as Night Fox (Vincent Cassel). Toulour's vast (and apparently fragile) ego was recently wounded when his mentor, LaMarc (Albert Finney), perhaps the greatest thief of all time and now retired, suggested that Danny Ocean was a better thief than Night Fox. It was Toulour who hired Matsui to hire Ocean to steal the document. And it was Toulour who baited the scene to have Ocean and company seek him out.

Toulour throws down the gauntlet, a challenge to prove who is the better thief. The target is a priceless Faberge egg to be put on display in Rome. Toulour offers to pay off Benedict in total if Danny and his crew can steal the egg before he does. If Danny and his gang fail, Toulour will enjoy watching them killed by the vindictive casino owner. And just to spice up the tale a bit more, Interpol Inspector Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Rusty's ex-lover, is positively tenacious in her pursuit of the thieves. What follows is a delightful romp of a caper, complete with Julia Roberts poking a little good natured fun at herself and a significant cameo by a very popular star.

This is a great ensemble cast directed by the clever Steven Soderbergh. Fast cuts, flashbacks, a few bizarre camera angles, a brisk pace, and charismatic performances are so distracting that you don't realize just how silly it all is until the credits roll. There are twists and turns galore, and the way they are conveyed to the audience is my one serious gripe. There are two kinds of mysteries. In the more ingenious, all the clues are revealed to the audience as the detective finds them. There are red herrings and false cues, but everything the audience needs to solve the mystery is revealed long before the hero reveals the solution. The lazy form of the genre exposes the villain during climax with clues unknown to anyone but the hero; the audience had been kept in the dark. Screenwriter George Nolfi got lazy.

Regardless, Ocean's Twelve is undeniably a lot of fun, and the most complimentary way I can express that is to admit that as the closing credits rolled, I was unaware that the film had been over two hours long.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film's theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in anamorphic video. With the exception of some black crush that eliminates shadow detail during some dimly lit indoor scenes, this is quite a nice transfer. Edge halos are all but vanquished, leaving better than average small object detail and finely grained texture delineation. Flesh tones tend to lean toward yellow in some indoor scenes, but I believe that to be intentional. For better-lit or outdoor scenes, skin tones look quite natural. Primary colors are conveyed with no smearing or chroma noise. I saw no macroblocking or mosquito noise. The filmmakers played with the appearance of the film, including the palette, so be prepared for a few inconsistencies related to artistic decisions rather than any deficiencies in the transfer.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is quite disappointing. It sounds thin. It's not robust. It lacks dynamic range. The score sounds claustrophobic and confined. Surround effects are very rare and never call attention to themselves. The bottom end is anemic. The dialog is crystal clear throughout, but I was left pondering why the track seems so weak. There were ample opportunities to ramp up the drama or the fun with impressive audio. I was unimpressed.

An alternate English track is available in Dolby Surround 2.0. The alternate language is French in Dolby 5.1. Optional subtitles are in French, Spanish, and English, for which Closed Captions are also included.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The disc opens with a collection of non-anamorphic widescreen trailers for three DVDs: The Aviator ; Phantom of the Opera ; and, Million Dollar Baby . They may be skipped.

The only other extra on the disc is the film's theatrical trailer (2:15) in respectable anamorphic video.

The 125-minute film is organized into thirty-six chapters.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.

Final Thoughts

Okay, I have a weakness for caper flicks, and this one is skillfully made. So despite the weak audio, the lack of supplements, and a bit of plotting silliness, I was sufficiently entertained to recommend that you give this disc a spin, particularly if you enjoyed Ocean's Eleven .