Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Tuesday, Jan. 27
The Indiana Daily Student

Who stole all the special features?

Caper sequel has DVD supplements stolen

Salad Safety

"Ocean's Twelve," Steven Soderbergh's recent follow-up to the 2001 remake, "Ocean's Eleven," was a box-office hit and now it's looking to gain some more cash on DVD. The hype and familiarity of a sequel always guarantees a good audience, and "Ocean's Twelve" didn't disappoint; mainly because Soderbergh didn't try to stray from the formula that proved successful in the first film. \nFirst of all, the entire cast is back. Arguably the least emphasized, but most important aspect of a quality sequel is getting all of the cast members back. It seems like a simple task, but lose one main character, such as Wesley Snipes not coming back for "Major League 2," and the entire movie is tainted. "Ocean's Twelve" brings back all the main stars and lesser supporting characters played by Casey Affleck (brother of Ben), Scott Caan (son of James), Carl Reiner and Elliot Gould. Catherine Zeta-Jones was the key star addition rounding out the 12.\nAt the end of the first movie, we are left seeing Danny Ocean (Clooney) leave prison with Tess (Julia Roberts), as well as $160 million of Terry Benedict's (Andy Garcia) money. However, he is being followed by two of Benedict's goons, letting the audience know Benedict wasn't completely fooled. This movie picks up, more or less, where "Eleven" left off. All the characters are reintroduced, now living lavish lifestyles with their new fortunes. Each is then visited by Benedict and/or his goons, who demands his money back, with interest. Ocean's crew must pull off a new heist in order to repay Benedict, but run into problems with master thief François Toulour, aka the "Night Fox," brilliantly played by Vincent Cassel.\nThe film uses similar styles to the first with quick, witty dialogue and complicated plans that can be hard to follow but ultimately are understandable. Much of the film takes place in Amsterdam, Paris and Rome, where on-location shooting provided beautiful settings. The playful competition between the clever schemes of Ocean's crew and more traditional styles of Toulour (exemplified in the completely ridiculous, but still amazing laser dance scene), provide plenty of entertainment throughout the film. \nAs for the DVD itself, there is little to say. Besides being in widescreen, the only extra features on the disc include sound type selection, languages, subtitles and the theatrical trailer. If you missed this film in theaters and are desperate to see it now, I would definitely suggest renting it. Otherwise, assuming a special edition DVD with more features will be released in a few months, it would be worth the wait to purchase that version instead of the one that is in stores now. The movie is fantastic, but the DVD adds basically nothing.

Get stories like this in your inbox
Subscribe