When the George Clooney version of Ocean’s Eleven (a remake of the 1960 original) came out, it was a hit and got great reviews. Director Steven Soderbergh managed to create a movie that was fast paced, slick and fun. It’s sequel stumbled and Ocean’s 13 in 2007 managed to be pretty good as well. Eleven years later there is Ocean’s 8, which doesn’t star (well, almost) any stars from the trilogy and isn’t set before the other ones as the title might suggest. This new version changes things up and replaces the cast with an all-female lineup who are planning a heist.
Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) is Danny Ocean’s sister who has just had a long stint in jail and not willing to change her ways. Once out she immediately starts stealing and has a plan to earn lots of money with a big score: Getting her hands on a unique Cartier piece worth 150 million dollars. She can’t do this alone however and gets together a crew to plan the heist, which takes place at the Met gala in New York.
Ocean’s Eight has an impressive cast with Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter and Awkwafina. You would say that that’s enough talent to make an amazing film, but unfortunately this doesn’t manage to reach the heights it could have. This mainly has to do with the script, which simply doesn’t take enough time to introduce the characters and also lacks humour and suspense. Within no time there is a whole team looking at how to pull this heist off, but you never really get the feeling they have a real bond. A movie like this should feel exciting, give you the feeling that it could go wrong any minute where the stakes are high, but it doesn’t manage to do so. It misses the sizzle/sparkle to get you really excited and isn’t slick enough. The strange thing though is that when you are watching it, it never is really bad and quite watchable. So not a must-see, but an ok time killer. So for now Debbie is still overshadowed by her big brother.
[score6]
That’s pretty much the feeling I got from watching it. It’s okay, but definitely didn’t develop the characters enough.
By the way, I rewatched the Clooney trilogy just before going to see this and I thought 12 was nearly as good as 11 while 13 was terrible.
Yeah, they should have spent more time on them.
I can’t remember the Clooney trilogy completely, but had a look at the RT scores.
Hello Nostra! I so miss reading people’s blogs so today I’m making the rounds. I haven’t got around to reviewing this yet but I totally agree w/ you, it’s ‘not a must-see, but an ok time killer.’ I love the female cast so they’re still fun to watch but the script is so meh.
I hardly get around to it either (plus I basically stopped the Dutch version of the blog), but nice to see you dropping by 🙂
Yeah, if only the script had been better!