Ocean’s Eight – a review

Debbie Ocean, the sister of Danny Ocean, is released from prison. Once out she gets a team together to steal a priceless necklace during the most exclusive gala New York city has to offer. Will she and her fellow criminals get away with it? Of course they will.

First things first

The famous heist movie genre can roughly be categorized in two distinct groups:  (1.) One, A group of people doing a heist, not a lot of celebrities involved. The outcome could go either way. And (2.) two, the big celebrity extravaganza in which the crime usually succeeds.

I think, by my tone, you’ll surmise that I prefer the first. As such, I think you’ll understand that I’ve never been much of a fan of the Ocean’s Eleven remakes.

Still, Ocean’s Eight has a lot to offer the audience so why not enjoy it.

Political Correctness only applies to females apparently

I don’t like writing these words. But apparently they have to be written.

Ocean’s Eight is a pretty good female movie.

The reason I don’t like writing this is because a movie shouldn’t be judged by how many women are in the lead.

Second, nowadays, being a female-lead movie also automatically demands the movie to be divers. So the cast isn’t all white. Nope every age, colour and creed is in this movie.

Apparently if you want to prove (as moviemakers) that women can just as easily star in a blockbuster movie as men you have to pick up the various other inequality-gloves as well.

That makes it harder.

In this sense it is very easy to fail. Because apart from making a good movie you (as a moviemaker) also have to jump through several political correct loops to satisfy the demand.

So Ocean’s Eight has an African-American, an Indian-American and a Asian-American in the main cast. But, luckily, these actresses do get to do a little bit more than merely flesh out the demographic.

Plus they are a whole lot more fun than the white leads.

That’s why Ocean’s Eight is a good movie. It learned from its predecessors (and where those movies failed) and leapfrogged over the ‘Political Correct Pitfalls’.

For instance, it being an Ocean-sequel there has to be a reference or two to the original trilogy (or maybe even the Rat-pack one). There are references in this movie but only politely. Never so demanding as in the Ghostbusters remake.

Second, yes there is an all woman-cast but that ‘Elephant in the room’ is only mentioned once and then quickly discarded with a simple line of dialogue.

When you think about it: why weren’t there more women in the Ocean’s movies.

So, in short, one could call Ocean’s Eight a triumph because it one of the first movies in our current gender/minorities-struggling climate to actually manage not to get too flustered by all the do’s and don’t western culture is demanding from it.

Having that said...

I opened this paragraph with the words: Ocean’s Eight is a pretty good movie. It is a very good movie in evading all those above-mentioned pitfalls. However, as a movie on its own there are a few lesser beats that prevent it from being ‘very good’. Basically it boils down to mistakes, missed opportunities and a strange final act.

Now, the mistakes are forgivable. True there are some scriptural errors (how did a con-artist get an invitation to an exclusive gala again? Why are there no cameras on particular spots?), or some basic editing flaws (the 180 line/rule being crossed).  Then there’s the moment when a character categorically says she won't do something and then still does it. Which would be fine if the movie showed the fallout – which it doesn’t.

But then, these mistakes don’t hurt the movie that much. Besides: watching our dangerous dames walking down the stairs in their bling at the end of the movie charm you enough to forgo those little japes.

Missed opportunities

What the movie could've worked with more (and does try in fact) is the sexist driven feminine culture. The heist takes place at an all gossipy gala where nobody cares who you truly are but 'who' you are wearing. A wonderful sneer at the fashion industry - or, at least, that's how I read it.

There are little stabs here and there that would've been a bit more daring should they've been explored more.

Then there’s the lack of tension. The movie -as all the Ocean's movie do- is a bit lacking in tension. The fun part of any heist movie is the danger that our heroes might get caught (even though you know that that's not going to  happen). However, in every Ocean’s movie you are rooting for the glamorous celebrities so hard that it would be very unlikely that they’d fail (which is why the classic is such a great film).

In Ocean's Eight this danger is even more lacking. From the start you know they'll get away with it and there isn't a single hurdle in the way.

The cast

The cast, overall, is perfectly fine. I could’ve done with some extra fleshing-out of characters. Cate Blanchett, for instance, remains a bit two-dimensional to me. And Sandra Bullock (who actually speaks rather understandable German) is a bit hovering  over it all without a lot of emotional depth. But, in the end, it’s not necessary to bring the story to a successful close.

Hathaway, then, is wonderful as a -not very nice- woman. She’s always cast as a 'goody two shoes’ (even in Colossal) so isn’t it great that she’s a villain for once?

Alas that’s not truly the case in this movie. In fact, Ocean’s Eight lacks a true, bad to the core, villain.

SPOILER: The movie is called Ocean's Eight after all. And yes, thirty minutes in I did do a headcount.

Anyway, I’m voting Anne for Bond-villain sometime in the future.

To tackle another underwritten character I would name Sarah Paulson. Her character is wonderfully conceived as the soccer-mom with a criminal double life. Yet, the movie doesn’t do anything with her character to juxtapose it a bit more. Just a fun scene of her doing something ‘traditionally female’ (like changing a nappy) while conning somebody over the phone would be enough to enrich the character even more.

Mindy Kaling, then, is charming and her introduction-scene is enough to elevate the character. It’s fast, (it reminded me of the fast introduction of characters in The Cabin in the Woods) solid and you know what kind of woman you are dealing with.

She doesn’t get a lot to do after that but her character, due to this one scene, remains the most fleshed out one.

The same goes for Helena Bonham Carter’s character who plays goofy as she is known to. She does need a bit more scenes to find her footing but, even though the movie pretty much forgets her two-thirds in, once she does she lingers as a key factor in the crime posse.

To end with the (‘I’m drowning in her eyes’) Rihanna. She is charming as nine-ball and actually makes you forget that she’s a big-star singer. In fact, she’s actually rather believable as a computer hacker.

What is it with teen-idols playing computer hackers? Selena Gomez, now Rihanna. Who’s next?

But then, it is with the inclusion of her sister that the problems of the movie start. It’s an additional five minutes the flow of the movie doesn’t need. And it gets worse after the heist.

The final act

The final act feels forced and, as a results, bloats the movie when it really shouldn’t. The question: ‘did they get away with it?’ only ever works as (almost) an afterthought. It shouldn’t last more than five minutes.

In Topkapi the criminals got arrested. In Grand Slam the money got stolen. And in the Italian Job there was Michael Caine trying to stay positive. All taking place in approximately five minutes to send the entirety of the movie previous (happily) topsy-turvy.

In Ocean’s 11 it was interwoven into the heist itself- that’s another way to do it.

But as previous, bad, examples show – Now you see me too comes to mind- overdoing it diminishes the effect of the movie and, worse, sometimes even makes the main characters gloating.

So the final act of Ocean’s Eight suddenly spring the insurance investigator (played by Jeremy Corbin) on the viewer and delves into an entirely new story. A story that, to me, could’ve been interwoven in the fabric of the movie previous a lot better.

I often explain the acts of a movie as follows:
It’s Christmas and you are sitting by the tree ready to unwrap your present (act 1),
you try to unwrap the present (act 2),
you admire your gift (act 3)
and –only sometimes- there’s a fourth act that can be anything:
The present is a note that says look in the barn. It’s a music box given by your late grandma. Or it’s just a box with something else in it.

The point being that the fourth act is nothing without the previous three. So it should have a direct link.

Concluding

Now, the Ocean’s movies always get a lot of slack from me because the main characters pretty much get away with everything while sparkling their dazzling white teeth. Gloating in the end is to be expected. And, in this sense, Oceans Eight isn’t going to break the mould.

Still, I would definitely argue that of the three (four) previous movies Ocean’s Eight earns a solid second place after the remake (tied with the classic just because of that brilliant ending).

Each actress is solidly in place as they cheat and charm their way to win the prize of prizes.

Hopefully they will return. Because now that there’s a movie out that proves that a women-powered movie (with all the additional baggage such a movie has to drag along) can work. There’s no point stopping just yet.

Why not steal the crown jewels of England? Those haven’t been cinematically nicked for quite a while now.

Apart from that Sherlock Episode I think we have to go back to The Jokers.