4. Ocean's Twelve (2004)
What Everyone Remembers: A sequel that presumably exists because the cast wanted to get back together again for a few months and hang out,
Ocean's Twelve reeked of an annoying smugness from start to finish, and was unnecessarily confusing to boot.
Why It's Nowhere Near As Bad: I think late film critic Roger Ebert had it right when he wrote of his own response to this movie, which - in turn - displays a good way to tackle the material: "The movie is all about behavior, dialogue, star power and wiseass in-jokes. I really sort of liked it." The fact that this sequel - like the first movie - was directed by Steven Soderbergh will come as no surprise to those who did realise that this movie worked as a one giant in-joke. That approach to the sequel obviously didn't go down well with mass audiences, but for those who like meta-movies and genre deconstruction,
Ocean's Twelve is a little goldmine. Embrace the seemingly out of place "Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis playing themselves" moment and the whole picture falls into place: it's a sequel about sequels, and about the absurdity of Hollywood. Not for everyone, but it tried to be different, and is a lot smarter than most movie-goers give it credit for.