I think Soderbergh is one of my favorite commentators. He always creates interesting dynamics, not always convivial, with his co-commentators that probably mimicked their working relationship. Soderbergh and Nelfi seem much more jovial than Stephen has been with other co-commentators on his other films.

I like it when Soderbergh goes into technical detail mostly because I'm jealous he has such knowledge about lenses and that he obviously has access to them all during filming. He considered this film their 'Empire Strikes Back' and refers to that as his favorite Star Wars film. I also loved the fact that they broke Final Draft by doing too many revisions and that Warners is one of the few studios that will let you muck around with their logo.

I can't remember who said it but I loved the line... "If you can enter a scene zipping your trousers up you should". 8/10

As expected by now, this is a decent commentary track. They keep it screen specific for the most part. Soderbergh lets in on some of his process early on about how he decides to frame certain scenes. Apparently much of the film, as the first one was shot on a 27mm lens. There's some talk about the 'flashback within a flashback' scenes in Amsterdam and the difficulties it presented. They talk about the decision to have Julia Roberts act as herself and how many people at the studio were not exactly thrilled about it. Soderbergh convinced them that such a moment was done in "His Girl Friday". Overall I'd say there's a lot more information on the shooting of the film but not the point of great depth where it gets lost on the listener who doesn't care about technicalities. To balance the conversation out, they talk about production anecdotes throughout and to be specific - the infamous Clooney/Pitt pranks. A definite recommendation.

A Soderbergh commentary is always a pleasure for me. This time it's even better, because he is joined by George Nolfi, who's equally engaging and interesting.

On this track they focus a lot on the complicated plot of "Ocean's Twelve", on the original script "Honor Among Thieves", on the difficult task of getting all these (quite busy) actors together again, and on their desire to make a sequel that's not just repeating the best parts of the original.

Soderbergh, being a DP as well, talks a lot about the cameras they used, the lenses, the sets and the lighting of the scenes. The whole Julia Roberts playing Tess, Tess playing Julia Roberts 'thingy' is also addressed by Soderbergh and Nolfi. They make it clear that for them the gag works, and Soderbergh in particular says that at the end of the day he is happy with the whole movie.


I definitely learned a lot about this project, and as good commentaries tend to do I appreciate the movie itself even more now. Soderbergh reveals a lot about his work on and off the set, he talks about the prank Brad Pitt pulled on Clooney and the Italian crew, and reveals that the entire ending with the whole Ocean gang was basically one big improvisation by the actors. There is also a great little story about Vincent Cassel and his French filmmaking buddies who helped Soderbergh on several occasions.


All in all, a good, informative listen. Recommended.