Ocean's Twelve

Ocean's Twelve
Directed by	Steven Soderbergh
Produced by	Jerry Weintraub
Written by	George Nolfi
Starring	George Clooney Brad Pitt Matt Damon Catherine Zeta-Jones Andy García Don Cheadle Bernie Mac Julia Roberts Casey Affleck Scott Caan Vincent Cassel Eddie Jemison Shaobo Qin Carl Reiner Elliott Gould
Music by	David Holmes
Editing by	Stephen Mirrione
Studio	Village Roadshow Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	December 10, 2004 (2004-12-10TUnited States)
Running time	125 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$110 million
Box office	$362,744,280

Ocean's Twelve is a 2004 American crime comedy film, the sequel of Ocean's Eleven from 2001. Like its predecessor, which was a remake of the 1960 film Ocean's 11, the film used a celebrity ensemble cast. The film was released in the United States on December 10, 2004. The sequel, Ocean's Thirteen, was released on June 8, 2007 in the United States. The film starred George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy García, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac and others.

Plot

Terry Benedict (Andy García) rounds up the original eleven members of Danny Ocean's (George Clooney) gang, demanding they return the $160 million they stole from his casinos with $38 million in interest. Short by half, the group schemes to stage another heist in Europe to avoid problems with United States authorities. They are tipped off by an informant named Matsui (Robbie Coltrane) about the location of the first stock certificate ever, issued in 1602, which was for the Dutch East India Company, owned by an agoraphobe (Jeroen Krabbé) and kept in his private home in Amsterdam. While the certificate would not meet their debt, it would help extend their deadline and secure another job by Matsui that will be enough to pay the debt. After a complex series of schemes, including raising the house a few inches to achieve a necessary line-of-sight, they find the document has already been stolen by "The Night Fox", another master thief. After the failed attempt, Europol Detective Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is called to investigate the theft and realizes Danny's gang attempted the heist based on her previous relationship with Rusty (Brad Pitt) as well as the Night Fox's involvement. She surprises the group at their lodgings, and warns them they cannot beat the Night Fox or his mentor LeMarc, both of whom she has been trailing for years.

Danny and his gang discover the Night Fox is Baron François Toulour (Vincent Cassel), a wealthy businessman who has a mansion on Lake Como. Toulour invites Danny to his mansion and reveals that he had hired Matsui to inform the gang about the certificate in order to arrange the meeting with Danny. Toulour is upset that LeMarc did not describe him as the best thief in the world, and challenges Danny to steal the Coronation Egg. If Danny and his gang wins, Toulour will pay off the debt to Benedict.

Danny and his gang begin to plan an elaborate heist to swap the Egg for a holographic recreation, but the engineer hired by the group accidentally tips off Lahiri to their presence, and she captures most of The Twelve on their first attempt. Linus (Matt Damon) comes up with a second plan to have Danny's wife Tess (Julia Roberts) pose as a pregnant Julia Roberts in order to get close to The Egg and swap it. They are foiled by Lahiri, and the rest of the group are captured. While Lahiri prepares her case against Danny's team, they are extradited by the FBI, aided by Lahiri having forged documents to allow her own involvement in the bust; the lead agent is in fact Linus's mother (Cherry Jones), a legitimate U.S. law official.

Some time later, Danny and Tess return to Toulour's estate where he reveals his glee at their failure. Toulour claims to have stolen the Egg at night using his agility and Capoeira skills to evade the heavy security. Toulour's celebration is short-lived when Danny reveals that his group stole the Egg while it was in transit to the museum and Toulour realises they were tipped off by LeMarc. A flashback reveals that Danny and Rusty had met with LeMarc much earlier where he revealed his long con whose success would humiliate Toulour, bring him the Egg that he had stolen years ago and relinquished due to his wife's wishes, and eventually reunite him with his daughter. Toulour is forced to admit Danny won the bet and gives him the money for the debt. They pay back Benedict and promise not to perform any more heists in his casinos but Toulour keeps the group under watch (a foreshadowing of the events of Ocean's Thirteen). With Rusty's help, Lahiri is taken to a safe house lent to him by LeMarc, who reveals himself to be her father. The final scenes of the film, in which the primary characters enjoy a private poker session, imply that she and Rusty have re-kindled their relationship.

Production

The sequel was based on a spec script by George Nolfi called Honor Among Thieves that was originally intended to be directed by John Woo. The filming of Ocean's Twelve took place at many locations worldwide. United States film cities include Beverly Hills, California; Lake Forest, Illinois; Lincolnwood, Illinois; Winnetka, Illinois; and Los Angeles, California. In Europe, the crew filmed in Amsterdam, Haarlem, The Hague, Paris, Monte Carlo, Lake Como, Rome and Tonnara di Scopello near Castellammare del Golfo.

Cast

Ocean's Twelve

1. George Clooney as Danny Ocean
2. Brad Pitt as Rusty Ryan
3. Matt Damon as Linus Caldwell
4. Bernie Mac as Frank Catton
5. Elliott Gould as Reuben Tishkoff
6. Casey Affleck as Virgil Malloy
7. Scott Caan as Turk Malloy
8. Eddie Jemison as Livingston Dell
9. Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr
10. Shaobo Qin as "The Amazing" Yen
11. Carl Reiner as Saul Bloom
12. Julia Roberts as Tess Ocean/Herself (credited as "and introducing Tess as Julia Roberts")

Others

• Catherine Zeta-Jones as Europol Detective Isabel Lahiri
• Andy García as Terry Benedict
• Vincent Cassel as Baron François Toulour/The Night Fox
• Albert Finney as Gaspar LeMarc (uncredited)
• Eddie Izzard as Roman Nagel
• Bruce Willis as Himself
• Jeroen Krabbé as Van der Woude
• Cherry Jones as Molly Star/Mrs. Caldwell
• Robbie Coltrane as Matsui
• Topher Grace as Himself
• Candice Azzara as Saul Bloom's girlfriend
• Jerry Weintraub as Denny Shields (uncredited/cameo/extra)
• Jared Harris as Basher's Engineer

Reception

In spite of extremely high box office expectations and a promising opening weekend, Ocean's Twelve did not fare as well as Ocean's Eleven, although by film industry standards it was still a financial success. By comparison with its predecessor, Ocean's Twelve grossed about $125 million in the United States and $351 million after its worldwide theatrical run, while Ocean's Eleven made about $184 million domestically and grossed $444 million worldwide in its entire box office run.

The movie received mixed reviews overall, scoring a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was criticized for its slow start, its complex plot and a final twist that negated much of the preceding action. The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter said that "it all ends on one of those infuriatingly sloppy notes where, having dramatized narrative events for us, which we have taken on good faith, it suddenly and arbitrarily delivers narrative events which completely invalidate events."^[1] Many viewers and critics also felt the movie was a thinly veiled excuse for several A-list actors (including Clooney, Pitt and Damon) to work on a project together. Newsweek said that "while it looks like the cast is having a blast and a half, the studied hipness can get so pleased with itself it borders on the smug."^[2] Claudia Puig with USA Today remarked, "At the rate things are going, all of Hollywood will put in about a day's work on Ocean's Seventeen."^[3] More mercifully, Roger Ebert concluded his review this way, "The movie is all about behavior, dialogue, star power and wiseass in-jokes. I really sort of liked it."^[4] Ocean's Twelve was rated by Entertainment Weekly as one of "The 25 Worst Sequels Ever Made".^[5]

Despite its poor critical response, the film won a BMI Film Music Award, received by composer David Holmes. The film was nominated for several^[which?] other festival awards.

Soundtrack

Ocean's 12
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released	December 7, 2004 (2004-12-07)
Genre	Electronic music Ambient music Modern Rock
Length	57:05
Label	Warner Bros.

The original soundtrack to Ocean's Twelve was released by Warner Bros. Records on December 7, 2004. David Holmes returned to compose the music for the film and won a BMI award. His songs "Amsterdam" and "I Love Art...Really!" were released as singles and do not appear on the commercial soundtrack. The soundtrack is also absent of the music used during the Nightfox "laser-dance" sequence in the film. The clip is from a track called "Thé à la Menthe" performed by La Caution, according to the film's end credits. The track titled "The Real Story" is different on the commercial soundtrack than it is in the film, which uses "Rito a Los Angeles" by Giuseppe De Luca, featuring part of the main riff of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. The music Benedict plays on the piano when he comes to visit Basher is called "Requiem for a Dead". It was written and performed by Andy García. The track that plays as the group are escorted from the police station to the black cars is "Margaret" by Giuseppe De Luca. The track that plays as Lahiri cracks Matsui is "El Capitalismo Foraneo" by Gotan Project. "Ascension to Virginity" was taken from the 1968 movie Candy where it likewise appeared in the epilogue -- the version on the soundtrack is the full length version from the Candy soundtrack LP.

All songs by David Holmes, unless otherwise noted

1. "L'appuntamento" by Roberto Carlos, Erasmo Carlos and Bruno Lauzi, performed by Ornella Vanoni – 4:35
2. "$165 Million + Interest" (into) "The Round Up" – 5:43
3. "L.S.D. Partie" by Roland Vincent – 2:59
4. "Lifting the Building" – 2:34
5. "10:35 I Turn Off Camera 3" – 2:25
6. "Crepuscolo sul mare" by Piero Umiliani – 2:44
7. "What R We Stealing" – 3:21
8. "Faust 72" by Dynastie Crisis – 3:23
9. "Stealing the Stock" (into) "Le Renard de Nuit" – 4:53
10. "7/29/04 The Day Of" – 3:11
11. "Lazy [Album Version]" by Yellow Hammer – 4:30
12. "Explosive Corrosive Joseph" by John Schroeder – 2:33
13. "Yen on a Carousel" – 3:13
14. "The Real Story" – 2:55
15. "Ascension to Virginity" by Dave Grusin – 5:05
16. "Three 8 Bar Drum Loops" – 1:02 (hidden track)
17. "l'appuntamento by ornella vanoni; 5:14

There is also a reference to Kashmir, during the meeting between Rusty, Matsui and Danny (who speak an incoherent language code that Linus cannot understand), when Linus recites the first two lines of the song. Matsui takes offence to this, and Linus is told to wait outside. When Danny and Rusty come out, Rusty asks Linus: "Kashmir?".

References

1. ^ "An Uneven 'Twelve'". Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post. December 10, 2004. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2004/12/10/AR2005033114889.html. Retrieved May 20, 2010. 
2. ^ Ansen, David (2004-12-13), "Style Over Substance". Newsweek. 144 (24):63
3. ^ Puig, Claudia (2004). "Forecast for 'Ocean's': Splashy and very cool"
4. ^ Ebert, Roger (2004). "Ocean's Twelve" SunTime.com. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
5. ^ "The worst movie sequels ever - # 16. Ocean's Twelve". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1169126_11,00.html. Retrieved 2008-09-07. 

External links

• Official website
• Ocean's Twelve at the Internet Movie Database
• Ocean's Twelve at AllRovi
• Ocean's Twelve at Rotten Tomatoes
• 1897 Imperial Coronation Egg by Carl Faberge