Saw Ocean's Twelve (thanks, Paul!) It was the sequel to the remake of Ocean's 11. This one was another foray into the land of gentleman thieves and high-wire heists. This one introduces more gleeful cliches: the secret society of master-burglars who all inexplicably know each other, the secret and significant lineages of everyone, the knock-out police-woman who is following their every saucy move. This one however is a bit inferior to the first film. It's not that it's not good, mind you, just not as good.
the introduction of a league of super-thieves sort of takes the magic out of it for me. The first film threw lingo around which suggested but, importantly, did not explicitly state the existence of this shadowy world. Explicitly spelling it out feels like showing the staircases move in Harry Potter: it's really better to imagine what it might be. I mean, either that or embrace it whole-hog ala Pirates of the Caribbean and camp it up. Anyway, the film feels too indulgent as is. There's also that Julia-Roberts-is-Julia-Roberts thing which is such low-hanging that even Family Guy took a pot-shot at it (seriously though, couldn't they just use the suspiciously-looking-like-Matt-Damon-Matt-Damon instead? Kind of a plot hole there...)
That said, it's still pretty fun. I enjoy watching cool dudes be jerks to each other and feel like, yeah, I'm one of them, without actually having to be in the same room as any of them. The heists are fun and the inevitable double-triple-crosses are cutely executed. The film sort of unfairly prevents you from figuring out what's going on ahead of time, but whatever. This is a movie for bros. Full of the signifiers of class (suits, rings, leather, poker) but with the snotty attitude of teenagers grown big. It's fun to watch as a show though.
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