'Ocean's' unpretentious, star-powered

By Rene Rodriguez
Knight Ridder Newspapers

OCEAN'S TWELVE Rated PG-13 Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck, Bernie Mac, Scott Caan, Andy Garcia, Elliott Gould, Vincent Cassel, Carl Reiner. Director: Steven Soderbergh. Producer: Jerry Weintraub. Screenwriter: George Nolfi. A Warner Bros. release. Running time: 127 minutes. Vulgar language. Playing at area theaters.

The plot, such as it is, finds George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and the rest of the thieving crew heading to Europe for a big score to make good with the casino boss (Andy Garcia) they ripped off in "Eleven." New to the mix are Catherine Zeta-Jones as a Europol detective on the gang's trail and Vincent Cassel as a vainglorious crook who prides himself on being the best thief in the world.

There are also several cameos by some very big stars. "Ocean's Twelve" has so many characters, in fact, that the movie runs on for more than two hours in order to cram all of them in, but several still get stiffed. When Damon's pickpocket tells Julia Roberts' Tess "You're going to have to play a small role in this thing," he might as well be talking about the movie itself.

There's so much of that kind of meta-humor in "Ocean's Twelve," you start to wonder if Charlie Kaufman had a hand in the screenplay. Practically all of the film's best moments depend on the actors' goofing on their real-life selves, like a scene in which Clooney asks people how old they think he is (and is shocked to hear their guesses), or a sequence in which Roberts breaks the fourth wall in a highly ingenious manner.

That moment is reminiscent of a similar trick in Soderbergh's experimental "Full Frontal," in which the relationship between the viewer and the movie was jostled in an unexpected way. Despite its impersonal, throwaway feel, "Ocean's Twelve" bears Soderbergh's distinct directorial stamp, from its occasional flashbacks and jump cuts (reminiscent of "The Limey") to a hilarious scene featuring Robbie Coltrane in which the characters speak in nonsensical riddles (shades of "Schizopolis").

It's all fizzy and enjoyable, provided you like these actors to begin with, but you can't help wish the filmmakers had at least tried to tell a genuine story. "Ocean's Twelve" is the work of fabulously rich and glamorous people in a playful mood, but while the movie's lack of pretentiousness is refreshing, there's also a nagging sense of laziness to it — an awfully precious vanity project that happens to be fun to watch.