Ocean’s 8 is a 2018 crime comedy about a woman who gathers an all-female crew to attempt an impossible heist at New York City’s yearly Met Gala.
The Ocean’s franchise is back, this time featuring an all-female cast led by Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Anne Hathaway. Although the film is certainly fun and has the feel of an Ocean’s movie, it fails to make its mark on the franchise. At the end of the day, the movie winds up being a simple jewelry heist with a few minor twists and turns. That’s by no means a problem, as I still feel that director Gary Ross still made an enjoyable film, but if they were looking to transcend and make a bold statement to stand out from the other three films, they did not.
The movie begins with the release of Debra Ocean (Bullock) from jail, having served a little over 5 years after being framed in an art con by her then boyfriend and now renowned artist, Claude Becker (Richard Armitage). Once released, Debra meets up with her best friend and former partner in crime, Lou (Blanchett), and tells her about a plan she devised in prison of a jewelry heist to take place at the annual Met Gala in New York. The heist will consist of getting the renowned Toussiant necklace on loan from Cartier to be worn by a celebrity (of their choosing), and then swapping it out at the Gala for a fake. In order to pull off this caper, Debra tells Lou that all they need is a team of 7, and $20,000.
Honestly, that’s about all the background you need to know. From there the film goes through the expected recruiting process of Bullock and Blanchett putting their team together. This is always an enjoyable part of movies like the original Ocean’s or The Avengers even, and Ocean’s 8 is no different. However, the problem is that the recruiting process is so quick that you see this entire part of the movie in the trailer. After the recruiting is finished they go through all of their necessary prep to get the con ready, and then they attempt to pull of their caper.
A main gripe I have is that everything was too easy. What makes heist films great is how a crew handles adversity when their plan starts to fall apart. In Heat, when they are caught robbing the bank, they go into a blazing shootout in downtown LA which offers us one of the best movie shootouts of all time. Obviously I wouldn’t expect that to be the case here, but the only hurdle they run into is that they unexpectedly need a special magnet in order to open the back of the necklace. This doesn’t even wind up being a major issue, as they come up with a simple fix and all is well.
The acting is one part of the film that had no problems. Bullock and Blanchett were spot on as the head of the crew. Anne Hathaway was a treat as well, playing the arrogant, pretentious mark of the movie, Daphne Kluger. Hathaway does a phenomenal job delivering the narcissistic performance you’d expect from such a person. Her ego is unbridled to the point where you can’t help but laugh. Helena Bonham Carter is excellent as the tanking fashion designer that they rope in to dress Kluger. We even get a nice little part from James Corden at the end as the insurance fraud investigator who is brought in to track down the necklace.
All in all, the movie just felt safe. It’s great to see that the all-female Ocean’s film is opening strong this weekend, proving that a franchise can seamlessly move to a female cast and not falter. The writing, while still delivering some laughs here and there, fell flat through a better part of the movie. The banter between the crew that was such an integral piece of the original Ocean’s movies is nowhere to be found. On top of that, the plot itself does nothing to stand out. Bullock is out for revenge against an ex lover, not unfamiliar from how Danny Ocean (George Clooney) was out to take down the man who was with his ex lover in Ocean’s 11. To really distance itself from the other movies, what needed to be done here was a grandiose caper that allowed the female crew to really make their mark in the history of crime. While watching them carry out the jewel theft was certainly cool and enjoyable, it isn’t too far from forgettable. Because the cast itself was such a treat, one can only hope that they find a way to do a crossover with Clooney and crew down the road.