Yeep! Ocean of Medrocrity

I was in the mood for some good old fashioned heist caper movies, so I arranged to borrow the Ocean's 11 trilogy off a friend this weekend. Never seen them before, but I'd heard reasonably good things about them.

Ocean's 11 was pretty good. Sharp, well acted, decent plot that moved along stylishly and reasonably paced, with dialogue that didn't stop to spell out the storyline at regular chunks. everyone had a reason for being there, and the whole thing worked beautifully.

And then came Ocean's 12. Oh, dear lord. Did they improvise this turkey as they went along? Were the stars too busy slapping themselves on the back and larking around, telling themselves how clever they were? About the only thing that amused me (indeed, made me laugh uncontrolably) was the meta-idea of Julia Roberts playing Julia Roberts. And then throwing in Bruce Willis while they were there. Andy Garcia was wasted, the whole plotline was stupid and made no sense. And Catherine Zeta Jones, although pretty, couldn't convincingly pull off her role.

I'm eyeing Ocean's 13 dubiously now. Please tell me it's closer to 11? Please?