The Best Ocean's movie

Rating: 8/10 (31 May 2020)

This movie is quite fun. A surprise to be sure but a welcome one. It is not quite a heist movie; it is rather a comedy on the previous heist movie.
So to put things into perspective, when the Oceans Trilogy was done the consensus was that 11 was an instant cult-classic, 12 was a weird disappointment and 13 a highly welcomed return to the roots.
As in many cases (Alien 4 or Ang Lee's Hulk, Starship Troopers) sometimes everybody is wrong and only later we rediscover how beautiful, poignant or visionary certain art can be.
I am re-watching the series more than a decade later and I am surprised how wrong the zeitgeist was. 11 is very dated, 13 is pure garbage and 12 is actually not bad.
Oceans Twelve is actually the diamond in the rough. The forgotten gem. The overlooked ugly duckling of the trilogy(universe).
I low-key love this movie. It is not perfect, it is not the best movie ever. But especially after watching Ocean Eleven, this movie was so refreshing, funny, original and interesting.
It is not surprising on paper : Oceans Twelve enjoys doing the opposite of 11. I think it adds to the quality of the film, Twelve is fairly meta and loves no to take things too seriously. That is already the case in 11, and it bothered me. Because there was no reason these character acted so nonchalantly. The charm was not earned. The characters were not caricatures, they were played straight. They were the best and the coolest not by doing anything but just by being there. They had all the skills and they were the best at them.
In this movie the main characters Clooney and Pitt are acknowledged to not have any skill whatsoever. In this movie, they are plain assholes. And it is great. Of course it is intended to be ironic, but I think it works towards the film. In that regard the movie is rightfully the sequel of 11, where Clooney and Pitt do something that they think is clever but that is not in reality. In addition, the irony that the film wants to convey is not aimed towards Danny Ocean and Rusty, the characters or the plot; but it is towards Clooney and Pitt themselves. How funny the films thinks it is when Pitt and Clooney watch Oprah on the couch, while trying to fall asleep. The film involuntarily builds its characters through these inside jokes. And of course it is bad. But it is so bad it's good. Same with the scene Matt Damon asking for a bigger role, same with the Julia Roberts as Julia Roberts cameo.
This film works because it is an inversion of the first movie. You see Clooney and Roberts actually interact here, they have affection, they have a secret code, we get why they are together. Pitt plays Rusty as a suave seducer, which is hiding how clueless he is, we get an understanding of his characters because we see his failings. Everybody plays a caricature of themselves, and it works because the movie is in on it. The movie does not understand why it is funny, but we do. My favorite scene is when Matt Damon takes a moment to ask if we should make fun of a handicapped person, and everybody shoots him down. I loved it because the movie then proceeds to go with it anyway.
My enjoyment of this movie comes in larger part from the contrast with the first one. However the movie also tries in many ways to subvert the heist movie tropes. Again that is why this one is more watchable 20 years later. The heist in this movie is basically an anti-heist. And I don't really mind. Ocean 11 also at its core did not care for the heist, which made me ask to myself why the audience should. Here the movie does not care and we should not care. Here the movie is pure charm; you get to spend 2h in travelling through Europe with the gang. That is it. This is just a big excuse to spend some time with these guys. And it is actually enjoyable, because the locations are cool and exotic and not fake with the veneer of luxury, the music is cool and not recycled, and characters seem genuine and not artificial.
The first movie spent actually a lot of effort to try to not take things too seriously. Twelve actually does take things less seriously.
And this were you find the reason why people hated it. It builds on the first movie, but it goes resolutely against the grain. On purpose. So it is at the same time the best sequel, because it takes the first movie at face value and asks what do these characters do after they've executed the biggest heist ever. And for someone looking to have the same movie as the last time, it is the worst sequel.
You could throw the whole Oceans trilogy in the garbage if wasn't for this movie, that is why it is hands down the best Ocean's movie.
Posted :
This movie is quite fun. A surprise to be sure but a welcome one. It is not quite a heist movie; it is rather a comedy on the previous heist movie.
To put things into perspective, when the Oceans Trilogy was done the consensus was that 11 was an instant cult-classic, 12 was a weird disappointment and 13 a highly welcomed return to the roots.
As in many cases (Alien 4 or Ang Lee's Hulk, Starship Troopers) sometimes everybody is wrong and only later we rediscover how beautiful, poignant or visionary certain art can be.
I am re-watching the series more than a decade later and I am surprised how wrong the zeitgeist was. 11 is very dated, 13 is pure garbage and 12 is actually not bad.
Oceans Twelve is actually the diamond in the rough. The forgotten gem. The overlooked ugly duckling of the trilogy(universe).
I low-key love this movie. It is not perfect, it is not the best movie ever. But especially after watching Ocean Eleven, this movie was so refreshing, funny, original and interesting.
It is not surprising on paper : Oceans Twelve enjoys doing the opposite of 11. I think it adds to the quality of the film, Twelve is fairly meta and loves not to take things too seriously. That is already the case in 11, and it bothered me. Because there was no reason these character acted so nonchalantly. The charm was not earned. The characters were not caricatures, they were played straight. They were the best and the coolest not by doing anything but just by being there. They had all the skills and they were the best at them.
In this movie the main characters Clooney and Pitt are acknowledged to not have any skill whatsoever. In this movie, they are plain assholes. And it is great. Of course it is intended to be ironic, but it works towards the film. In that regard the movie is rightfully the sequel of 11, where Clooney and Pitt do something that they think is clever but it is not in reality. In addition, the irony that the film wants to convey is not aimed towards Danny Ocean and Rusty, the characters or the plot; but it is towards Clooney and Pitt themselves. How funny the films thinks it is when Pitt and Clooney watch
Happy Days on the couch, while trying to fall asleep. The film involuntarily builds its characters through these inside jokes. And of course it is bad. But it is so bad it's good. Same with the scene Matt Damon asking for a bigger role, same with the Julia Roberts as Julia Roberts cameo.
This film works because it is an inversion of the first movie. You see Clooney and Roberts actually interact here, they have affection, they have a secret code, we get why they are together. Pitt plays Rusty as a suave seducer, which is hiding how clueless he is, we get an understanding of his characters because we see his failings. Everybody plays a caricature of themselves, and it works because the movie is in on it. The movie may not even understand why it is funny, but we do. My favorite scene is when Matt Damon takes a moment to ask if we should make fun of a handicapped person, and everybody shoots him down. I loved it because the movie then proceeds to go with it anyway.
My enjoyment of this movie comes in larger part from the contrast with the first one. However the movie also tries in many ways to subvert the heist movie tropes. Again that is why this one is more watchable 20 years later. The heist in this movie is basically an anti-heist. And I don't really mind. Ocean 11 also at the core did not care for the heist, which made me ask to myself why the audience should. Here the movie does not care and we should not care. Here the movie is pure charm; you get to spend 2h in travelling through Europe with the gang. That is it. This is just a big excuse to spend some time with these guys. And that is actually enjoyable, because the locations are cool and exotic and not fake with the veneer of luxury, the music is cool and not recycled, and characters seem genuine and not artificial.
The first movie spent actually a lot of effort to try to not take things too seriously. Twelve actually does take things less seriously.
And this were you find the reason why people hated it. It builds on the first movie, but it goes resolutely against the grain. On purpose. So it is at the same time the best sequel, because it takes the first movie at face value and asks what do these characters do after they've executed the biggest heist ever. And for someone looking to have the same movie as the last time, it is the worst sequel.
You could throw the whole Oceans trilogy in the garbage if wasn't for this movie, that is why it is hands down the best Ocean's movie.