Ocean's 8

During more than five years imprisoned framed by her boyfriend, the con woman Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) plots a scheme to heist the US$150 million Cartier necklace Toussaint from the Met Gala. She is released on probation and meets her former partner Lou (Cate Blanchett) and together they recruit a team of hacker, thieves, forger and swindlers to steal the necklace.

"Ocean´s Eight" is another film of the exhausted franchise "Ocean´s Something" with famous cast and cameos. The predictable brainless story has plot holes and is reasonably entertaining. Further, it helps to sleep. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Oito Mulheres e um Segredo" ("Eight Women and a Secret")

It's not funny, the characters aren't charming, and worst of all for a thriller - there's no suspense. Even the sound tracking lacked punch. The characters also lack believability - they don't convince anyone they are criminals, hackers, grifters or anything of the sort. I can't really think of anything good to say about this film - it'll genuinely put you to sleep.

Regardless of the concept, I've always been intrigued every time a new heist movie makes it to the big screen. The sheer notion of watching a group of people flawlessly pull off something that most people would be crazy to attempt is quite entertaining for many reasons. Ocean's 8 is the latest film of its kind to hit theatres and with the weight of the previous trilogy on its shoulders, there was a high bar to meet. I'm a huge fan of the previous remake of Ocean's Eleven and while neither of the sequels quite match the quality of it, I was hoping Ocean's 8 would steer this franchise in a new direction. While I did enjoy watching this movie, for the most part, I did find myself pretty disappointed by it as a whole. I can't quite recommend this movie as a great film, but if you're a fan of the franchise, here's why you may find some enjoyment in its latest addition.

Ocean's 8 follows the sister of Danny Ocean (George Clooney from the previous films) in Debbie Ocean, as she is released from prison and has plotted to rob the Met Gala in New York City. The plan is to steal a necklace that's worth over 150 million dollars, so naturally, she finds a group of women who are very interested in helping out. All having their quirks, they each become a necessity in accomplishing this task. Quite honestly, aside from the first film, this was probably my favorite heist sequence when looking back at the franchise, but if that's all the movie has to offer, then a lot will be left to be desired.

A slow build up is fine if your climax pays off in a big way and for that alone, I found a lot of enjoyment from the movie as a whole. The very meticulous plan makes for an engaging climax and I was sucked into the movie until the very end. That being said, the first act of the movie nearly put me to sleep. This movie takes a very long time to peak your interest. Yes, there are a few interesting characters and some humorous moments will keep you interested, but I didn't find those elements to be enough. I found myself breathing a huge sigh of relief when the actual heist began because the movie didn't seem to have a pulse until that point. Luckily, the dull moments were held together by some likable actresses.

From Sandra Bullock to Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway to Sarah Paulson, and even Rihanna to Mindy Kaling, everyone had their moment to shine here and I was having a blast watching these characters interact with one another. Sadly, those moments are few and far between. These actresses give their all with what they're given, but the script (aside from the plotting of the climax itself) just felt a little generic. A group of women gets together to do a heist and the circumstances are very much the same as the first film in the franchise. Nothing new was brought to the table, which was the one thing I was hoping for with this movie.

Fans of the franchise may have some fun with the movie when it truly kicks into high gear, as I surely did, but the overall movie is frankly average. In particular, I found some of the unique editing choices to be slightly cheesy and I'm not sure if the movie's style worked all that much. The pacing is off in many places and it seems as though music is used throughout the first act to liven up a scene and prevent it from being boring. For all of these reasons and more, I can't quite recommend this movie to many viewers, but if you enjoy watching a good heist, that portion of this film is worth the price of admission in my opinion. While it's not something you have to rush out and see at the cinema, Ocean's 8 is worth renting.

In this soft reboot--outside of a character connection, the idea of a heist/recruitment, and some scenes that they clearly wanted to serve as a mash note to O11--it really did not feel too much like O11. In fact, its plot felt more like Tower Heist with a tone closer to O12 and a deliverance that played out a bit like Logan Lucky. It opens up with a score similar to that of what David Holmes used in the past, but outside of the different score bits this film has an actual soundtrack as well to give it its own style (personally, I would have preferred an "only score" flick).

It's a very female-driven film. Not just by cast, but also with themes. A lot of this movie involves fashion and high society (as the heist itself takes place at the Met Gala, that's probably expected), and that lost me a bit. Even the target, although more tangible than that of what O13's objective was, felt a bit too small-scale. No, they didn't need to knock over another Vegas casino, but there was something great about that in O11 and O13 that was lost in O12, and it did the same again here. They didn't spend any time making the city backdrop become a staple or character in this film either. Everything was always shot very close and with a lot of interiors.

As I outright claim in my review title, the weakest aspect of this film was the writing. I just don't think they were really all that clever, at least in that I had seen it all before. What do all heist films tend to have in common? The suckers around the protagonists eat up everything they are fed. Everything has to work in such a convenient way for it to all be pulled off. In 2018, I'd like to see a heist film that sets up a lot of contingencies when things don't go right, and this one felt very linear. Also, one thing the previous Ocean's films did really well was kept the audience in the dark about a lot of what the protags were doing--that they weren't just tricking innocent bystanders, but they were tricking us along the way as well. I'll admit they got me once, but on two other occasions it seems like they tried and I just didn't fall for anything there. The rest of it was all very plainly laid out and we were just going along for watching them attempt to execute it.

These writers also simply didn't know how connect the (male) audience with its characters the same way as its predecessors. The players served their parts just fine, but only a couple of them had actual personalities. Plus, George Clooney and Brad Pitt developed such a "cool" dialogue with each other all of the time and always knew what the other was thinking. Maybe I'm actually looking for them to be closer to that film more than the writers wanted to, but this felt a little generic as a result. Plus, they upset me with one of their tie-in decisions to the previous trilogy, but I'm sure that was a decision that looms far above their control.

Now, it probably seems like I'm majorly harping on this film, yet really when all was said and done I'd actually say that I enjoyed watching it. It wasn't a great film by any means, but I certainly did enjoy it. What I think saved it was one Sandra Bullock and one Anne Hathaway, with heavy emphasis on Hathaway. Though let me first say, Sandra played so low-key that I wouldn't be hard-pressed to claim this might be my favorite performance of hers. It's not her best performance, but she didn't feel as much like a "try-hard actor" in this film as she normally does, so it made me like it a lot more. However, the REAL show-stealer in this was Anne Hathaway, and I didn't even remember she was in this film before she showed up. I LOVED Anne Hathaway in this. I mean she was the really redeeming quality of every scene that she appeared in. If I rewatch the film any time soon (which I likely won't), it will be for her alone. Her delectable presence got me to go with the idea of the female-ish tone that was being played out. Rihanna got into her character nicely as well. I did not like Cate Blanchett or Helena Bonham Carter, sadly enough. Mindy was kind of "there" as was Sarah Paulson (who they tried to give some character to, but forgot along the way), and I liked Awkwafina but honestly didn't know who she was before this. Lots of celebrity cameos and a few callbacks to the previous films as well.

Time will tell where this ranks with the other Ocean films, but right now I'd place it at the bottom. At least O12 had an artsy appeal of filming in Amsterdam and it felt like there were a lot of high stakes risks given Isabel, Benedict, and The Nightfox. Sodebergh did enough in that one and the dialogue was witty to still keep it at #3 on the list. Though gents, please feel free to take your significant other though if you'd like; they'll probably dig the fashionable aspects and you'll enjoy enough of the caper aspects to leave like I did, saying that you liked it and move on. If there is one other nice takeaway for this film, it's that everyone looked like they had fun filming it, which is an important staple of the Ocean's series.

There were a few laughs and maybe one twist, but otherwise there just wasn't anything special about this script. The main thing that was special was having that many fabulous actresses in one film.