STEVEN SODERBERGH

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBB.5.  USA, 2004.  Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Jerry Weintraub Productions, Section Eight, WV Films III.  Screenplay by George Nolfi, based on characters created by George Clayton Johnson, Jack Golden Russell.  Cinematography by Steven Soderbergh.  Produced by Jerry Weintraub.  Music by David Holmes.  Production Design by Philip Messina.  Costume Design by Milena Canonero.  Film Editing by Stephen Mirrione.  

After having robbed Las Vegas’s Bellagio hotel of over a hundred million dollars, the eleven slick thieves of the first film are visited by the casino’s owner, Andy Garcia, and told that if they don’t pay back the full amount, with interest, they will be killed. Now, ringleaders George Clooney and Brad Pitt have to come up with whatever money the group hasn’t spent since their big job, and they find the answer in Italy: a priceless Faberge egg is making its way to a Roman museum and its value would cover them for sure. Unfortunately, the master thief of Europe (Vincent Cassel) has every intention of thwarting their every move, and Pitt’s Europol Agent ex-girlfriend (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is on their tail every step of the way. This doesn’t mean that these guys ever lose their cool, because no matter how many twists you see happen before your eyes, they’ll always hide the very best from you until the end. It’s a fun heist film, photographed just as beautifully as the first one and with the same amount of dry humour, but the story doesn’t zing as well as its predecessor and the heist itself isn’t as imaginative. The addition of Zeta-Jones is a marvelous one, as she really gets some good mileage out of her character, and Julia Roberts is a scream in the sequence where she is required to pretend to be Julia Roberts, but the rest of the team aren’t used enough and the story’s enjoyment level suffers for it. Still, you could do a lot worse, particularly for a money-minded sequel.