Terry Benedict, the owner of the 3 casinos Danny Ocean's gang robbed in the last movie, has tracked down all of Danny's crew and makes them offer they can't refuse or they're all going to prison: repay the $160 million they stole plus $38 million in interest.
They have two weeks. Or else.
I should point out that Benedict already has his $160 million that was stolen. The insurance company was nice enough to fork it over after they verified that, yep, he was done robbed all right.
Short about half of the money, Danny and the gang jump over to Europe to stage a heist. A heist that goes off like clockwork except there is nothing to steal. They've been beaten to the punch by the master thief known as the "Night Fox".
The Night Fox is François Toulour, a wealthy French baron and gentleman thief who is in a tizzy of a snit that Danny Ocean might be a better thief than him. So he issues a challenge to Danny Ocean: steal the Imperial Coronation Fabergé Egg on display in a Paris museum. If Danny and his crew win, Toulour will pay off the debt to Benedict.
Spoiler: I don't think Toulour can be trusted.
Danny's crew set up an elaborate heist to swap the egg for a holographic recreation. But Toulour sells out the crew to an Interpol agent and the plan is barely underway when all but 4 of the crew are arrested.
Those 4 guys whip up a second plan involving Danny's wife, Tess, posing as a pregnant Julia Roberts in order to get close to the egg and swap it.
That plot gets foiled as well and they get arrested. The whole gang is to be extradited back to the United States by the FBI.
Danny Ocean and his gang appear to be well and truly fucked.
But... things are not what they appear to be.
The FBI, for example.
Toulour is giddy that he outsmarted Danny Ocean and stole the egg from the museum under cover of darkness.
But... things are not what they appear to be.
That egg, for example.
Danny's team had already stolen the egg while it was in transit to the museum. All the attempts by Danny and his crew to steal the egg from the museum were not designed to succeed.
Since Toulour could not be trusted.
Toulour admits Danny won the bet and gives him the money to pay off Benedict.
OK, there is some fun stuff in here.
Julia Roberts pretending to be Julia Roberts. If Bruce Willis hadn't shown up and made a persistent nuisance of himself, she might have gotten away with the ruse.
But there's something that doesn't quite work for me in Ocean's Twelve. As I wrote about Ocean's Eleven, what makes crime caper plot work is "the son of a bitch they're robbing is an asshole who deserves it."
In this case the "son of a bitch", Terry Benedict, has the upper hand from the outset and Danny Ocean's objective is to make a rich man richer.
The twisty logic of reveals within reveals and schemes to hide other schemes makes Ocean's Twelve a fun challenge but it borders on nonsense and illogic. It lacks the emotional core of the first movie and for all the cleverness on display, it feels a bit shallow.
Next month, I'll post a Cinema Saturday that looks at the 3rd film in the franchise, Ocean's Thirteen.
Next week, in the aftermath of Valentine's Day, Cinema Saturday will look at one of the iconic romantic comedies of the 1990's, Four Weddings and a Funeral.
No comments:
Post a Comment