Let me preface today’s remarks by saying that nobody in their right mind (self included) endorses crime and/or criminal acts committed by absolutely anybody.

Hopefully that will ensure I am not lawyer bait when I say that I’m terribly, terribly fond of the Ocean’s Eleven line of films, from eleven all the way to thirteen.

The Sheer Ingenuity of It All

Seriously. It does not matter even vaguely what Ocean and company are setting out to do–they have a spectacularly well-engineered plan in place for virtually every contingency, even those contingencies they had not thought of. But even when their plans fail–remember down in the vault in Ocean’s Eleven with the balky detonator?–they still manage to improvise a way out of whatever pickle it is they happen to be in. Their plans are incredibly complex and their gift for spot-on improvisation makes the Ocean crew seem larger than life, and that’s not an easy thing to do in an action film line that features surprisingly little violence.

And Speaking of Violence….

You notice that? There is not what you’d call a whole lot of violence going on. And yet it’s still so wildly engrossing and made sufficient cash to merit extending it into a trilogy. When even the picketers are getting cramps in their sign arms from the sheer amount of cinematic bloodsports they need to protest, it’s noteworthy that the Ocean’s series stays away from such things, instead depending on excellent scripting and split-second timing on the part of its able cast.

All This and It’s Funny Too?

If you don’t laugh during any of the three Ocean’s installments, there is something seriously wrong with you. Jokes fly as fast and as thick as the clever planning, and for an action movie, that says something incredibly unique. When they can actually take Julia Roberts, have her play a character, and then have her character pretend to be Julia Roberts for an extended sequence, you know you’re dealing with an upper echelon of filmmakers here.

It’s all of these put together and plenty else that makes the Ocean’s series of films high-quality and high-caliber film making that is almost a crime to miss. And speaking of which, if you’re ready to play our social movie trivia, it’s almost a crime to miss our Ocean’s Eleven movie trivia and Ocean’s Thirteen movie trivia.

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