Soderbergh Marathon: Part 12

Intro

Ocean's Twelve
I had seen Ocean's Twelve before and remember not liking it, so my expectations were not terribly high watching this.  As an added bonus, I remembered essentially none of it either.  Now, I don't like to go into a film thinking I won't like it, but if the film is remotely competent or even good, this is an ideal way to watch a movie in my opinion.  An okay movie will be a happy surprise.

This was an okay movie.  It's a weird movie and I think it's disliked because it doesn't really follow the parameters of what a heist movie is.  This doesn't have the fun plans of the first and third entries of the franchise.  Like with most heist movies, you'll have a target to steal and most of the movie will be comprising the team, developing the plans, and executing the heist.  Doesn't exactly work that way in this movie.

On the one hand, I respect the attempt to not repeat the first movie.  This is a vastly different movie than the first movie.  On the other hand, this is pure popcorn entertainment and you're not really giving the audience what they want with how this movie is structured.  I'm not saying you need to follow the formula exactly, but this is just a very oddly structured movie to be honest.

It's just not as fun of a movie, except for the meta moments, which sure straddle the line between being dumb and actually funny.  I still can't decide if I like Julia Roberts pretending to be Julia Roberts even though the subterfuge is basically the highlight of the movie.  Like the very act of acknowledging this is a movie threatens to trample our ability to get engaged in the movie.

Reportedly, they did this because Julia Roberts was pregnant, and I guess they didn't want the character Tess to be pregnant, so that's how they worked that into the script.  It's certainly one way to deal with a pregnancy.

The movie has Brad Pitt's character just so happen to be formerly sleeping with the head detective in charge of catching them and she just so happens to have an ultra famous secretive dad for a thief.  Between that and the meta moments, this just kind of breaks down for me.  It's entertaining to a point, although the thieves constantly getting caught is not what we want to see.

Anyway, my thoughts on the movie are disjointed and confusing because that's kind of how this movie is, just trying to look cool and get you to ignore all the things that don't make sense.  Which is true of all three movies, but it's never been more true than it is for Ocean's Twelve, which is why it's the worst of the three in my opinion.

2/4 stars