Ocean's 8 (2018)

Turns our Sandra Bullock and cast have made the most appropriate sequel to the Ocean’s franchise. Like the Clooney movies, Ocean’s 8 is a rather safe, unremarkable movie that entertains just enough to get you through it but doesn’t inspire much enthusiasm.

First let me say I enjoyed Ocean’s 8. The movie is filmed in the exact style of the previous movies and features a heist story which is fun to play out. Sure, very much like those movies, the story relies on endless coincidences and unbelievable turns of events. But like those previous movies the cast is charming enough to make us not care. We can just enjoy the mayhem and be satisfied as the plan comes together.

But to be honest I think I was expecting more. This is a pretty damn impressive cast and despite having so many funny people on the screen the film doesn’t inspire many laughs. Normally people like Kaling, Awkwafina, and Bonham-Carter have me in stitches but here I rarely giggled. Sure they are all good in their roles. It is hard to pick any standouts cause they all nail their nutty characters. Perhaps I enjoyed Blanchett’s butch smarty a little too much. But despite that the film never lets us truly revel in any of the characters. It just moves from one plot beat to the next, quite formulaicly.

Now to be fair I would say Soderbergh’s films did the same thing. I found them enjoyable but overrated. So perhaps this film just fits very nicely into all of that. And in torts of general enjoyment I had a good time. I just really thought I was going to get a lot more out of this than it offered.

Ocean's 8
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Kindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Richard Armitage, James Corden, Dakota Fanning, Damien Young
Director: Gary Ross
Writers: Olivia Milch, Gary Ross