The Quick and Dirties: Ranking the The Ocean's Quadrilogy

One of my stated goals for this year was to write more about full franchises. So far, it hasn't happened. I won't bore you with excuses. I'll only say that I have finished at least one franchise. And that's why we're here, today. I powered through rewatches of all of the Clooney/Pitt Ocean's flicks and followed them up with a trip to the theater to see the gender swapped Ocean's 8. Let's see how they stack up to each other.

Side note: Yes, I know about the 1960 original, but that's not part of this franchise, so it's not included.

Ocean's Eleven

(2001)

We meet Danny Ocean (George Clooney) as he is being paroled from prison. Since he's a lifelong, and clearly not rehabilitated, criminal, he quickly catches back up with his old pal Rusty (Brad Pitt) and sets a plan in motion to rob one of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas on a night when they're hosting a championship boxing match. They expect the vault they are attempting to infiltrate will hold in excess of $160 million. The movie is known for that main plot, but that's not what makes it work. The magic comes from the way it simultaneously develops characters, develops numerous and varied relationships within that group, and takes us through the paces of planning the featured heist. The pitch-perfect performances from Clooney and Pitt make everything work. Neither has ever been cooler, plus their chemistry and timing is immaculate and keep the movie going. It's as if they're a juggling team standing on opposite sides of a circus ring effortlessly and flawlessly tossing a dozen pins back and forth. The supporting cast all play their parts just as perfectly. The story-telling is very busy with all that's going on, but never feels complicated. Each storyline works perfectly with the rest and they never overwhelm each other. The one weak point is that the resolution of the love story between Danny and Tess (Julia Roberts) isn't fully earned. This is still a very entertaining movie that miraculously manages to get out of your way in under two hours despite all that's going on.

Ocean's Twelve

(2004)

The owner of the casino our antiheroes robbed is one Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). He has been hot on the trail of the crew for two years. He finally catches up with Danny and Tess and lets him know the crew has two weeks to return all the money they stole from him. Of course, they don't still have all that money so they have to perform another heist to get it. Along the way, they cross paths with The Night Fox (Vincent Cassel), another super-crook hell-bent on being known as the best thief in the world, and Isabel (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a cop with a personal grudge against Rusty. This time, the movie doesn't have to do the team and world building of the first movie. It takes advantage of not having that burden by continuing to develop relationships between the various characters, including a clearer display of the smaller cliques within the larger group. Brad Pitt takes the lead this time, but his chemistry with Clooney is still magnificent. He also works very well with Catherine Zeta-Jones who is a brilliant addition to the franchise. The film also serves as a bit of a coming out party for Linus (Matt Damon). Both the character and the actor get to stretch their wings quite a bit in comparison to Eleven. Similarly to the first movie, everything works with one small exception, the resolution of the love story. Again, it's not fully earned, but not a big enough knock to change my opinion. If it's a step down at all from its predecessor, it's a tiny step. A tiny, tiny step.

Ocean's Thirteen

(2007)

One of the crew, Reuben (Elliott Gould) is muscled into giving up his share of a potentially lucrative hotel/casino to Willy Bank (Al Pacino), immediately suffers a heart attack, and travels to the verge of death. Danny Ocean gets wind of this, gets the crew back together, and sets out to rob said hotel/casino. In both of this film's predecessors, the heist is a device that propels the plot forward and plays more as a backdrop for the clashing and coming together of numerous personalities. This time around, the heist is the focus while everything else takes a back seat. And the movie suffers for it. It's worth noting that while George Nolfi wrote Twelve, Brian Koppelman and David Levien have taken over for Thirteen. Their script doesn't seem to understand what makes the other movies work, thus the flip-flop. It practically ignores The Night Fox, whom was set up by Twelve to continue playing a major role. Rather than have him visibly continue the competition between himself and Danny, he shows up, gets sidelined, and turns up again as a walking, breathing deus ex machina. Characters and relationships cease being developed. Reuben's health ultimately proves to be a cheap play for sympathy. Highlighted by the failure of this attempt, and the exclusion of Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones (wisely, on their parts), there is no emotion. Even the playful banter between Clooney and Pitt are lackluster. The cast as a whole just goes through the motions. It's not really their fault, though. They're mostly given nothing to do. The film runs slightly longer than Eleven, slightly shorter than Twelve, but does far less than either.

Before getting to the last movie, there are a lot of players in the franchise whom I haven't mentioned. It's not that they aren't good or important, because they're both. It's just that these are the quick and dirties, so you know, short reviews. Anyhoo, the guys I haven't mentioned at all, but appearing in all three movies are...

Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr

Bernie Mac as Frank Catton

Casey Affleck as Virgil Malloy

Scott Caan as Turk Malloy

Carl Reiner as Saul Bloom

Eddie Izzard as Roman Nagel

Qin Shaobo as The Amazing Yen

Eddie Jemison as Livingston Dell

Ocean's 8

(2018)

We meet the now-deceased Danny Ocean's little sister Debbie (Sandra Bullock) as she is being paroled from prison. Since she's a lifelong, and clearly not rehabilitated, criminal, she quickly catches back up with her old pal Lou (Cate Blanchett) and sets a plan in motion to steal a necklace valued at $150 million from the neck of a Hollywood starlet who will wear it to the Met Gala. Of course, this will require the two putting together a team capable of pulling off the job. If this sounds familiar, it's because the film uses the same floor plan as Eleven, but the carpentry isn't as good. We get wacky, but very cool intros to all the characters. However, beyond that they aren't developed at all. They're simply thrown headlong into whatever their role in the heist was going to be. With Bullock in the Clooney role, Blanchett is so entrenched in the Brad Pitt role she often seems to be doing an impersonation, but even she has little to do that isn't required as part of the crime they're committing. Debbie's ex-boyfriend Claude Becker (Richard Armitage) is a major driving force for her, but he's a pretty bland excuse for what amounts to this movie's Julia Roberts. All of this means 8 completely lacks any of the emotion required to get us as invested in these people as we should be. Thankfully, the cast is game, has pretty good chemistry, the jokes work. Awkwafina, who plays Constance, and Helena Bonham Carter, playing Rose Weil, are the scene-stealers, but far from the only ones who shine. Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, and Sarah Paulson are all excellent. The surprise is that Rihanna also acquits herself quite well. The one minor disappointment is talk show host James Corden playing the insurance agent hot on our team's trail. He's not terrible, but a lot of the material he's given feels forced and doesn't land. That doesn't even take into account that he's way too young to play the role based on a piece of info we're given shortly after he appears. Apparently, he busted Debbie's dad a couple times, and Danny once. Dude must've been working right out the womb. Then again, the time line seems completely screwed up as it pertains to Danny and Debbie's ages, so I suppose I can let that slide. Anyhoo, the other part of the film that really works is the execution of the heist itself. It's creative, fun, and holds our interest through the third act. Overall, it's a fun, but disposable rehash of Eleven.