Ocean's Twelve

Ocean's Twelve is a 2004 American comedy heist film, which acts as the sequel to 2001's Ocean's Eleven. Like its predecessor, which was a remake of the 1960 heist film Ocean's 11, the film was directed by Steven Soderbergh and used an ensemble cast. It was released in the United States on December 10, 2004. A third film, Ocean's Thirteen, was released on June 8, 2007, in the United States—thus forming the Ocean's Trilogy. The film stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy García, JUlia Roberts, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac. It was the tenth highest-grossing film of 2004.

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Produced by: Jerry Weintraub
Written by: George Nolfi
Starring: Geroge Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Julia Roberts
Music by: David Holmes
Cinematography: Steven Soderbergh
Edited by: Stephen Mirrione
Country: U.S.A.
Language: English
Running time: 125 minutes

Ocean's Twelve Trailer (2004)
Budget: $110 million
Box Office: $363 million
Release date: December 10, 2004
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, Roadshow Entertainment

Plot

The film starts in Rome some years before the actual time. At Rome, Rysty Ryan (Brad Pitt), a member of the gang of thieves of Danny Ocean (George Clooney), lives in an apartment with her girlfriend Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Isabel is an Europol Detective that is working in the "Bulgari case", a case that investigates the theft of some jewels. Rusty is the thief of that case but Isabel is oblivious to that. But, when he's about to be discovered by Isabel, Rusty runs away from Rome and abandons Isabel.

Some years later we are set on actual time. After Ocean's Eleven have made their biggest heist stealing the money of three casinos in Las Vegas from Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), all of the members of the gang are living their lives separately and with different identities. Terry Benedict locates all eleven members of Danny Ocean's gang, and he demans to each of them to return to him in less than two weeks the $160 million they stole from his casinos (plus $38 million interest).

Short by half, the group schemes to stage another heist in Europe to avoid problems with United States authorities. So Rusty decides to organize for the gangs a heist in Amsterdam (which is where Isabel lives now and Rusty knows it, but he hides that from the rest of the gang).

At Amsterdam Rusty goes to see Isabel in secret.

The next day, Danny, Rusty and Linus are tipped off by an informant named Matsui (Robbie Coltrane) about the location of the first stock certificate ever. The stock certificate is in a vault of a particular named Van der Woude, a millionare.

The gang plan a complex series of schemes to enter into the house at night. They succeed, but they find the document has already been stolen by "The Night Fox", another master thief, since the vault is empy and with a figure of a black fox inside.The vault also has a voice-message from "The Night Fox" who says that he stole the document, that he hired Matsui to set them up, and that he also gave to Terry Benedict the location of all the Danny Ocean's gang. "The Night Fox" says to them that he wanted to locate them to compete with them as the best thiefs of all time.

Isabel Lahiri is called in to investigate the theft of the stock document and sees the document has been stoled by "The Night Fox", but she realizes her talking earlier about a particular burglary with Rusty during their relationship, would have given Rusty the idea of how to solve the complication the gang would have come up against the theft.

Surprising the group at their accommodation, Isabel visits them and warns them they cannot beat the Night Fox or his mentor, the mysterious master-thief "LeMarc", both of whom excel in practicing the "long-con". She has been hunting both for years. When Isabel leaves, Rusty realizez she has steal his mobile phone.

Danny and his gang discover the Night Fox is Baron François Toulour, a wealthy businessman who has a mansion on Lake Como. So the gang travels to Italy and there they steal some pictures in Toulour's manor.

So Toulour invites Danny to his mansion. Toulour is upset that LeMarc did not describe him as the best thief in the world, and challenges Danny to steal the Fabergé Imperial Coronation Egg from a musseum of Rome. If Danny and his gang win, 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 Isabel Lahiri to their presence, since she has the mobile phone of Rusty.

Isabel captures most of the gang on their first attempt. Linus (Matt Damon) comes up with a second plan involving Danny's wife Tess (Julia Roberts) posing 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. Lahiri is told that they are to be extradited to the United States. Linus is chosen first to be interrogated by the FBI agent (Cherry Jones) assigned to collect them. It turns out that she is his mother, who organises the release of the whole gang. She points out to Lahiri that she will face only retribution for her forging a signature on a Europol form.

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 LeMarc earlier when he revealed his confidence trick intended to humiliate Toulour, and at the same time, to restore to himself the Fabergé egg that he had stolen years ago and had returned following his wife's wishes. 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—even as Toulour himself is in the background spying on Benedict. Rusty takes Lahiri to a safe house that he claims has been lent to him by LeMarc. She is reunited with her father, who is revealed to be the man she has been pursuing for years: LeMarc (Albert Finney). 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.

Cast

- Antonio Banderas - Alejandro De la Vega/Zorro

- Catherine Zeta-Jones - Elena De la Vega

- Adrian Alonso - Joaquin De la Vega

- Rufus Sewell - Count Armand

- Nick Chinlund - Jacob McGivens

- Julio Oscar Mechoso - Padre Felipe

- Michael Emerson - Harrigan

- Shuler Hensley - Pike

- Pedro Armendariz Jr. - Governor Riley

Music

James Horner was hired to compose thefilm score in September 1997. For his work on The Mask of Zorro, Horner was influenced by Miklos Rozsa's score from El Cid. The soundtrack, released by Sony Classical Records and Epic Soundtrax, was commercially successful and propelled by the rising profile of Latin heartthrob Marc Anthony and Tina Arena. Their duet, "I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You", plays in the closing credits of the film and was released as a single in Europe. The song went #3 on the French singles and #4 on the Dutch singles charts.

1. Plaza of Execution

2. Elena and Esperanza

3. Ride

4. Elena's Truth

5. Fencing Lesson

6. Tornado In the Barracks

7. Confession

8. Zorro's Theme

9. Mine, The (Montero's Vision)

10. Stealing the Map

11. Leave No Witnesses...

12. Diego's Goodbye

13. I Want To Spend My Lifetime Loving You - Marc Anthony & Tina Arena

Historical references

The Legend of Zorro continues its predecessor's inclusion of historical elements of California history into the fiction, though many liberties have been taken.

Alejandro, the Mexican-born Californian who became Zorro at the end of The Mask of Zorro, is a fictional brother to Joaquin Murrieta, for whom the character's son Joaquin is named. Military governor Bennet Riley, the last of California's heads of state prior to statehood, is portrayed, but the Maryland-born American is played by the Mexican actor Pedro Armendariz Jr., and speaks English with a Hispanic accent. Leo Burmester plays R. S. Beauregard, a Confederate colonel whose character is not to be confused with the historical P.G.T. Beauregard. Pedro Mira plays pre-Presidential Abraham Lincoln as an observer to California's statehood, though the real Lincoln never traveled to the region.

Critical reception

Critical reaction to The Legend of Zorro was mostly mixed to negative. The film currently holds a rating of 47 out of 100 on Metracritic, and a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Rogert Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a below-average review, awarding it one and a half stars (out of four), commenting that "of all of the possible ideas about how to handle the Elena character, this movie has assembled the worst ones. James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave The Legend of Zorro two stars (out of four), saying that "the action is routine", "the chemistry between the two leads, which was one of the highlights of The Mask of Zorro, has evaporated during the intervening years", and that the movie "fails to recapture the pleasure offered by The Mask of Zorro." Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com praised the film, calling it "entertaining, bold, and self-effacing at once", noting the civic and parental questions it raises. Slate Magazine critic David Edelstein also praised the film, in particular the action scenes, villains, and chemistry between Banderas and Zeta-Jones. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said the film was "watchable—not remotely enjoyable, but watchable." Nathan Rabin of The Onion's A.V. Club gave the film a lukewarm review, saying that "director Martin Campbell doles out action sequences stingily" but added that "The Legend of Zorro still feels like a half-hearted shrug of a sequel." Brian Lowry of Variety said that The Legend of Zorro is "considerably less charming than The Mask of Zorro" but added that the film "gets by mostly on dazzling stunt work and the pleasure of seeing its dashing and glamorous leads back in cape and gown." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly awarded the film a "B-" score. Schwarzbaum said that "too many scenes emphasize gross butchery over the elegance of the blade", but added that the film is "well-oiled" and praised the "fancy fight sequences". Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post reacted negatively, calling The Legend of Zorro "a waste of talent, time, and money" and "stupid and boring". Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle was also not

Zorropremiere — Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones at the "Legend of Zorro" premiere in 2005

impressed, remarking that "there are precious few things for a Zorro fan – or a film fan, for that matter – not to loathe about The Legend of Zorro."

Box-office

The film did reasonably well at the box-office, grossing $142,400,065 internationally, but did not match the success of its predecessor.