# Ocean's Twelve and Julia Roberts – simply pathetic **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049 "2005-08-29T02:36:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/21 "2005-08-29T11:34:52Z")
Ocean’s 11 the remake is one of my favorites. I love the dialog and the cons. Ocean’s 12 is a fine example of 12 actors with what could have been a good plotline ruined by throwing Julia Roberts into the story line. Also, CZJ didn’t need to be there either. I think Pitt phoned in his part, as he was busy with the Troy movie. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/22 "2005-08-29T14:19:30Z")
I dun’ geddit. I didn’t like this movie either, but I _did_ like the whole Julia Roberts manouver. I don’t understand what others don’t like about it. I’ve seen on this thread several descriptions of the incident, followed by avowals of distaste, but I don’t think I saw any real criticism. One person on this thread actually explained several of the aspects of the incident which constitute it as funny (for example, the fact that it’s silly to think JR’s character looks just like JR while no one else’s character would be mistaken for the actors playing _them_) but then used this analysis as a staging ground for further avowals of distaste. I don’t get what’s so bad about whole Julia Roberts thing. Yes, it’s implausible and wierd and (as someone here put it) fucks with the audience.\* But what’s wrong with that? The movie’s cheeky. This is just more cheekiness. I don’t see what’s wrong with it. -FrL- \*Another case where someone used a comment as a staging ground for avowals of distaste, when I thought the comment encapsulated pretty well something _good_ about the scene. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/23 "2005-08-29T14:21:53Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > He’s saying Potter and Roberts don’t look alike. I can see a passing resemblance. Sure, in that one photo. I imagine my sister could look like Julia Roberts if you did her up precisely the right way. In the other photos I just don’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/24 "2005-08-29T16:15:46Z")
The Julia Roberts things was pretty much the only thing that made me laugh in the whole movie – the rest of it was utter crap. I used to be able to say that the movie had the worst ending I’d ever seen, but then I got dragged off to War of the Worlds. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/25 "2005-08-29T16:18:21Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > Sure, in that one photo. I imagine my sister could look like Julia Roberts if you did her up precisely the right way. In the other photos I just don’t see it. I haven’t seen much of MP’s work, but the resemblance was uncanny in _The Very Thought of You_, AKA _Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence_ (god-awful title! ) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/26 "2005-08-29T16:30:12Z")
I have not seen Ocean’s 12. (been lucky so far) But when Ms. Roberts has the supreme acting challenge of acting like she is Julia Roberts, does she pull it off? In the first movie, I thought she was terrible. Just awful. Maybe they realized that she couldn’t act. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/27 "2005-08-29T16:37:46Z")
I borrowed Ocean’s 11 & 12 from some friends while they were out of town last month. I thought 11 was acceptable matinee fluff, but 12 was shite. The most glaring example for me was Catherine Zeta-Jones. This lady should stick to fucking Micheal Douglas and leave the acting to people who actually have some talent. Oh, and I agree the Julia Roberts thing was unbelievable lame, as was the backpack switch. Shite. Just shite. ---
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/28 "2005-08-29T17:26:54Z")
I had heard during filming (and IMDb trivia seems to confirm) that Ocean’s 12 was not originally written as a sequal, but as “Honor Among Thieves”, a treatment to be made into a John Woo movie. They shoehorned the O11 cast into it anyway. Thus, the complete suckage, over and above the suckage that is Ocean’s 11. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/29 "2005-08-29T18:01:43Z")
Ocean’s 11…entertaining and disposable. Ocean’s 12…a potential Geneva Convention violation if shown to POWs. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/30 "2005-08-29T18:16:20Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > Nope. > > Ocean’s Eleven sucked sweaty gorilla balls. The flick is about watching the whole smarmy bunch get paid for the dramatic equivalent of jerking each other off for two hours. The entire movie is a gigantic in-joke about a bunch of guys having more fun fucking around on the set than the audience is having watching the whole tedious Hollywood frat party. Great. They should’ve just called it “Cannonball Run 3” and been done with it. And while I didn’t see O’s 12, doesn’t that whole self-referential Julia Roberts gag uncomfortably remind anyone of the Roger Moore character in Cannonball Run, who thought he was Roger Moore? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/31 "2005-08-29T19:26:41Z")
> [@awldune](#): > > I haven’t seen much of MP’s work, but the resemblance was uncanny in _The Very Thought of You_, AKA _Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence_ (god-awful title! ) The first two movies I saw MP in, _I’m With Lucy_ and that thing where she’s an art restorer living with models and solving crimes, I thought that it was Julia Roberts in blonde mode. The face, the voice, everything, dead ringer. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/32 "2005-08-29T19:30:26Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > The first two movies I saw MP in, _I’m With Lucy_ and that thing where she’s an art restorer living with models and solving crimes, I thought that it was Julia Roberts in blonde mode. The face, the voice, everything, dead ringer. I didn’t actually think she was Julia, but I was like, “wow I didn’t know Julia Roberts had a prettier, younger sister”. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/33 "2005-08-29T20:08:35Z")
Geez, I thought I was the only one who didn’t find her attractive and didn’t understand what the big deal was. I liked her in **Pretty Woman** but that was about it. And the gag in O12 was completely self-indulgent. I like an in-joke here and there but to make a whole movie of it is so smug. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/34 "2005-08-29T20:18:10Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > They should’ve just called it “Cannonball Run 3” and been done with it. > > And while I didn’t see O’s 12, doesn’t that whole self-referential Julia Roberts gag uncomfortably remind anyone of the Roger Moore character in Cannonball Run, who thought he was Roger Moore? This explains why, when I was a child, I thought that [this was in fact Julia Roberts](http://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/0193-ons.qui/Events/0193-ons.qui/moorerog.er%23?path=pgallery&path_key=Moore,%20Roger%20(I)). ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/35 "2005-08-29T20:28:40Z")
_O12_ was not so much bad as it was screamingly unnecessary. A poorly made movie, though? Not in my humble opinion. I enjoyed it overall. But then, I do have a nonsexual crush on George Clooney. And yes, count me in the minority who found the Julia Roberts thing amusing. :o ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/36 "2005-08-29T20:55:40Z")
The thing is… **Ocean’s 11** was a good movie BECAUSE it had a solid plot and an entertaining heist and some funny scenes, and DESPITE the fact that it had this lots-of-big-stars-just-having-fun feeling. Sadly, whoever was making **Ocean’s 12** got that entirely backwards. ---
**Author:** ![pjnlsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e8c25b/32.png) [@pjnlsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjnlsn)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049/37 "2013-04-17T15:32:40Z")
srry for bump I just watched this movie, and I have to say that while it wasn’t that good, there’s only like 1 or two things that really got to me. And they are: Julia Roberts playing Julia Roberts, and Tess, as in Julia Roberts. I.e. the person I can’t stand in the film is her, I mean, yes, the plot is worse than the last one, but Clooney and Pitt are still good actors, and they’ve got a few funny scenes; The rest are mostly reliable, I guess, but Julia Roberts…it’s like, throughout the entire movie she’s got no enthusiasm and you get the sense she doesn’t wanna be there at all, and she looks strained, and she just drags the whole thing down. She makes the movie bad even if you wanted to enjoy the movie no matter what, which honestly I tend to do sometimes: I have movies on in the background to distract me, but even after having watched it a few times, the one thing that always annoys me is anytime you see Julia Roberts, and anytime her characters are mentioned. She makes that movie terrible. Worse than it would’ve been without her, anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oceans-twelve-and-julia-roberts-simply-pathetic/319049.md?page=1)