Reviewed by Robyn Ludwig

Of the many sequels released this year, both necessary (Shrek 2, Bourne Supremacy) and unnecessary (Bridget Jones, Seed of Chucky), Ocean's Twelve certainly takes top prize as the most smug and shallow.  Picking up three years after the original ended, Twelve finds loveable thief Danny Ocean (Clooney) now comfortably settled into the suburbs with his wife Tess (Roberts). When vengeful casino owner Terry Benedict (Garcia) tracks the pair down, looking to reclaim his $80 million that was stolen in the first film, Ocean has just two weeks to reunite his Rat Pack group of scammers and schemers, pull off the ultimate jewel heist, repay the whopping debt, and avoid swimming with the fishes.  

Reunited again are slick huckster Rusty Ryan (Pitt), sensitive pickpocket Linus Caldwell (Damon), retiree Saul Bloom (Reiner), cranky gangster Frank Catton (Mac), explosives expert Basher Tarr (Cheadle), computer nerd Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison), freakishly flexible Yen (Shaobo Qin), dueling yokels Virgil and Turk Malloy (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan), and lounge lizard Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould). The twelfth member is unsuspecting Tess who gets dragged into the plot when things go terribly awry. Tracking the dozen with ruthless determination are Interpol detective Isabel Lahiri (Zeta-Jones) and the mysterious Night Fox, a thief determined to earn top billing in the world of larceny.

The original film was slick, polished entertainment, with snappy dialogue spoken by sexy people in a glamourous setting worthy of a glossy travel magazine.  This self-indulgent sequel is bland by comparison, with long stretches of tepid exchanges between characters, and none of the gratifying tension at watching the heist unfold with harebrained precision. While some enjoyment comes from watching the actors clearly enjoying their time on set, the laughs are too few and far between, and the in-jokes are too wink-wink-nudge-nudge to cause anyone to fall down laughing. (You know a ship is sinking when Bruce Willis drops in to riff on his own celebrity with an embarrassed-looking Julia Roberts.) With its uneven pacing and glaring lack of an attention-grabbing scam, Ocean's Twelve fails to recapture the magic of the first film, and in comparison with the equally sub par After the Sunset, it fails to capture the dubious title of Best Caper of the Year. .