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Ocean's Twelve opened to enormous success, picking moviegoer pockets to the tune of $39.2 million in its first weekend, largely due to the popularity of its predecessor, Ocean's Eleven, and to the fame of its all-star cast, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Don Cheadle, and a few superstars making surprise appearances.

This latest in a year full of heist movies provides amusing entertainment in the form of confident performances, poker-faced punchlines, elaborately choreographed robberies, stylish cinematography, and a good deal of Hollywood in-joking.

Christian viewers are responding to the sequel with the same differences of opinion that they demonstrated for Ocean's Eleven. To those who took the film seriously, it was an offensive glorification of thievery, ego, and greed. To those who accepted it as tongue-in-cheek goofing from a bunch of Hollywood jokers, it provided decent escapist entertainment.

Heist movies are a genre that is popular partly because audiences love to solve a puzzle, and each heist movie poses its characters an interesting challenge—how to crack a safe, how to remove items from high-security locations, how to outwit the guards. It's the excitement of breaking codes, of executing clever maneuvers, of sleight-of-hand. Unfortunately, this movie's heist becomes so convoluted, so overpopulated, that it's easy to become disoriented and even totally lost.

But Soderbergh is smart enough to wink at the audience over the hedonism, recklessness, and greed of his characters, so much so that at one point one of the more conscientious crooks expresses dismay that his colleagues would ever consider robbing a disabled person. The actors have excellent chemistry, bringing to life characters that are brilliant at burglary and foolish in life. There's far too little of Bernie Mac, but Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Matt Damon all seem as worthy of top billing as Clooney, whose role is considerably reduced here. A de-glamorized Julia Roberts gets caught up in one of the most inspired and zany sequences of the year, where she's asked to impersonate a famous actress. French superstar Vincent Cassel is a fine addition to the mix; he gets to show off some acrobatic moves in a memorable security-busting scene.

But if viewed naively by those who will be attracted to the attitudes, values, and lifestyles of the characters, the film could be misleading. The cocky, ego-driven "heroes" seem to live for the thrill of their criminal activity far more than for any kind of prize.

Lisa Ann Cockrel (Christianity Today Movies) raves, "What we need is a good story full of characters we love, characters we hate, intrigue, and witty dialogue. Ocean's Twelve has all these things in spades. To cite standout performances in Ocean's Twelve would basically be to read the cast list. It looks like everyone had a lot of fun making this movie, which I hope was indeed the case—because I'm already eagerly awaiting Ocean's Thirteen."

Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) disagrees, calling it "an over-padded, sleep-inducing bore … a sinking ship of a sequel. The script … is cumbersome and complicated. The set-up takes too long to establish and the payoff is incomplete and unsatisfying. Of the cast, Matt Damon and Vincent Cassel seem to be the only ones working at portraying a character. The rest seem content to ride the celebrity train and collect their high dollar paycheck for simply walking in front of the camera."

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December (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48