Ocean's 11 (2001)

Virgil Malloy: Who you calling bud, pal?
Turk Malloy: Who you calling pal, friend?
Virgil Malloy: Who you calling friend, jackass?
Turk Malloy: Don't call me a jackass.
Virgil Malloy: I just did call you a jackass.

Reuben: [as Danny and Rusty are leaving Reuben's home after lunch] Look, we all go way back and uh, I owe you from the thing with the guy in the place and I'll never forget it.
Danny: That was our pleasure.
Rusty: I'd never been to Belize.

Completing my tour de Ocean's trilogy, 11 is clearly the best. It has the best dialogue; the leanest of the casts, and does a great job and effortfully exuding cool.

I had forgotten that earring clad Joshua Jackson is in this. A part of me also wanted to write this review like I was Rusty and always mmphh eat...ing.

What I think Ocean's 11 does so well is the narrative structure that supports both telegraphing the play and supporting the big reveal. This is not easy. The writers deserve extra attention and adulation for the job they did in this regard. It's in the way that Saul just asks the central question of the heist at the beginning and we forget about it.

3.93 out of 5, Worth is every time.

Ocean's 12 (2004)

Danny Ocean:  Do I look 50 to you? 

Basher: Yea...but only from the neck up....

Ocean's 12 is the weak link in this trilogy. Sequels that go to Europe are just cliche -like 'sexy voiced secretaries". 

The big reveal is underwhelming and the introduction of a few more characters leaves less time for those we knew.  -though hats of to Eddie Izzard, Robbie Coltrane, Jared Harris, and Catherine Zeta Jones. 

Why is it that even though I know the play, for me and for other Americans I assume, I continue to buy into the brand that Europe is sophisticated and glamorous? I've been. And I've met Europeans. I can base my heuristic shortcuts on experience...yet centuries of colonial power positioning remain. 

You kind have to watch this to complete the trilogy so...there's that. 

2.4 out of 5 for the ensemble and the dialogue, but not much beyond that. The plot is pure lunacy.