I have an admission to make. I never watched any of the movies in the Ocean's franchise. This is my first one. I am a bit ambivalent toward heist movies. I have never seen the appeal of movies that glorify criminals. But then, I was never much a fan of Robin Hood, either. The big question, for someone who has not frame of reference, is whether this movie stands alone or whether you need the other films for this one to make sense. This one does stand alone. The next question is: Is this film worth seeing?
Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) has been sitting in jail for five years after being framed by her partner-in-crime, Claude Becker (Richard Armitage). She assures the parole board she intends to live a normal, crime-free life when she gets out. In reality, she has spent her entire time in prison planning her next heist. She has designed the perfect heist, having rehearsed it many times in her head. But first she needs a team. Her first call is to long time friend Lou (Cate Blanchett). Together, they begin vetting the rest of the team.
Amita (Mindy Kaling) is their jewelry expert. Tammy (Sarah Paulson) is the fence. Constance (Awkwafina) is the pick-pocket. Nine Ball (Rihanna) is the hacker. The heist also requires a dress designer so that they can get close to their mark, Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), who will be headlining a major fundraising gala. Kluger is not exactly the mark. More precisely, she is the neck upon which they plan to hang a 150 million dollar necklace. The fashion mogul is Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter), a washed-up designer who is heavily in debt to the IRS. Together, they must pull off one of the most complex heists ever attempted, with more than just one cinematic sleight of hand.
This story was mildly entertaining to me. It was horribly contrived and far too complex, but it was fun to watch. The execution was interesting to watch, but there was a lot of build up to get there. The writers do make it feel like we are in on planning the heist, but I often had to stop telling myself "that would never happen." In any event, quite a bit in this bullet proof plan was left to chance. Not quite the perfect heist in my mind. So I struggled with giving this film credibility. I had to enjoy it as pure entertainment and stop gauging the likelihood something could actually happen. This film is way far-fetched. The dialogue was pretty good at times.
The strongest element of this film was the casting. It is chock full of star power. And it happens to feature actresses I really like. I don't know Awkwafina, but she was decent. But I love Bullock, Blanchett, Hathaway, Bonham Carter and Kaling. I used to watch the Mindy show because she cracks me up. The casting provided a nice balance of talent that complemented each other. The performances lent a little bit of credibility to the story, but there are some things you just can't square with talent.
Ocean's Eight is rated PG-13 by the MPAA. The rating is based mostly on language. There is a scene with drug use and some suggestive adult content that doesn't really show anything. There is a bit of sensuality involving handcuffs, but it doesn't go too far. PG-13 is probably a good gauge for this film. Younger viewers might be okay with this film as well. But I would go with the MPAA rating myself. The film has a run time of one hour, fifty minutes.
I take it Ocean's Eight is the girl-power installment in the series. I can't judge it against the other films because I haven't seen them. I happen to like Bullock a lot more than I like Clooney, but he is usually pretty solid as well. As a story, this film had plot holes and quite a bit of contrivance. As entertainment, it held my interest. That makes it a tough film to rate. I wanted to like this film more than I did. But what you see is what you get. There were a couple of decent twists near the end, but one was contrived and the other answered a question I had earlier in the film that felt like one of the whiffs in the writing. Overall, streaming for free on a rainy day...I would say "go for it." 6.5/10.
