Ocean's Twelve 2004

Critics score:
56 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Hey, these boys and girls just want to have fun. This time, though, it is at our expense. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: While the movie's lack of pretentiousness is refreshing, there's also a nagging sense of laziness to it. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Much of the movie feels improvised, with laid-back actors tossing off one-liners that work far more often than they don't. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: This movie often seems like a big, swinging party with a can't-miss guest list. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: If a caper comedy can't sustain a narrative line, all the goofy set-pieces in the world will come to naught. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: The film itself is like a glossy European fashion magazine come to life, with beautiful location shots, stylish direction from Steve Soderbergh and comfortable, winking performances. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The thrill isn't entirely gone, but much of the surprise element is. Read more

AV Club: Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: A better press conference than a movie. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It's so well made and undeniably entertaining it should leap from tall buildings and wear a big 'S' on its chest. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A lethargic would-be entertainment as well as a dispiriting vanity project, it is such a misfire that it makes it hard to remember what was special about its predecessor. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: Ocean's Twelve feels like a lark, a dashed-off confiture that isn't so much a movie as an excuse for a bunch of old friends to hang out in Europe with somebody else paying the bill. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: A fun-filled, mind-twisting romp featuring a cast that obviously had just as much fun making the film as the audience does watching it. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: We love these people like family, because they joke and whine and screw up just like our best friends would if our best friends were stealing $200 million. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: What's on screen is lazy, second-rate, phoned-in -- a heist in which it's the audience whose pockets have been picked. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Ocean's Twelve works like a short-term charm. In several years, you won't remember much about the movie except what a good time you had watching it. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: May be one of the most glamorous, goofy and heartfelt films about failure ever made. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Please, no questions of logic. Read more

Logan Hill, New York Magazine/Vulture: Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: How many movies recapture the blithe spirit of Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack, plus a sense of old-school star glamour? Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Steven Soderbergh's unabashedly trivial sequel may be slim pickings, but when it works, it's a blast. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Hits a new low in condescending facetiousness, with no fewer than 15 performers of varying talents, tongues firmly in cheeks, undercutting all the genre's action conventions while camping up a storm on two continents. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This embarrassing sequel to the 2001 remake of the old Rat Pack romp is bogus on a biblical scale -- a bunch of smug movie stars, goofing on their images, wandering through the wilderness for 40 years. Or what seems like it. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Pleasantness and affability reign supreme in Steven Soderbergh's sequel to the remake of Ocean's Eleven. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Soderbergh and his scenarists, George Clayton Johnson, Jack Golden Russell and George Nolfi, are doing a jazz riff. This isn't a caper movie at all, it's an improvisation on caper themes. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: It does the hard work of being a light, smartly turned-out amusement, the sort of thing that's becoming more and more rare on the movie landscape these days. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The pleasures are entirely in the digressions, which are silly and often delightful. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Some of the bits are hysterical, but others fall flat. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Ocean's Twelve lacks the courage of its star-driven convictions. Read more

Christy Lemire, Journal News (Westchester, NY): Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: In keeping with his general distaste for sequels -- this is his first, in fact -- Soderbergh has subverted all of the usual conventions, making the movie far more interesting than it has any right to be. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The real-life camaraderie of Clooney, Pitt, Damon and the rest translates to the screen with charm and verve. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: It's the most high-end junk food imaginable, completely unnourishing and forgettable afterward, but delicious and all but impossible not to enjoy while it's in front of you. Read more

Dennis Lim, Village Voice: The movie noisily conveys the messy joy of its making, and insists that you have a good time as well. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: In this sprawling oglefest, such things as 'narrative' and 'story' are remote little abstractions indeed. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: The whole thing is a piffle of fluff or a fluff of piffle. About halfway through you'll get an incredible hunger to see a movie. Read more