8. Ocean's Twelve
I loved
Oceans 11 much more then I though I ever would. This brat pack remake was slick, clever and fun. The cast were on top form. The methods used to perform the heist were ingenious. George Clooney and Brad Pitt were the epitome of cool and were supported by great actors such as Matt Damon, Bernie Mac and Elliott Gould; a new brat pack indeed. Andy Garcia was a great 'villain' in Terry Benedict. Arrogant and a little smarmy, you couldn't wait for Danny Ocean and his team to pull off the heist on his three casinos and net a cool £150 million. And they did it in style. And then its sequel
Oceans 12 happened. They tried to be clever. They tried to be bigger. Instead it became dull, lifeless and not very cool at all. I wondered what happened. The cast were still there. The heists were still as elaborate. It just didn't flow very well. Clever twists felt convoluted. Julia Robert's Tess trying to impersonate the actress Julia Roberts should have been fun, but it was silly. Catherine Zeta-Jones' Europol detective Isabel just didn't have that same romantic spark with Brad Pitt's Rusty that Julia Robert's Tess had with George Clooney's Danny. The whole thing was lifeless and over the top, but not in a fun way. This film showed that bigger and cleverer was not better. Frankly it was a bit of a bore...which seems insane considering how fun the first film was. As a result I took my time before watching
Ocean's 13. I'm glad I did though. It was a great return to form after this terrible, lacklustre sequel.