Ocean's 8 (2018) Review

"Do not run a job in a job."

-Lou

After being released from prison on parole, Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) quickly reconnects with her old partner, Lou (Cate Blanchett).  They put together a team of women to steal a necklace worth $150 million from around the neck of celebrity, Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), while she hosts the Met Gala.

What Sucks:

If you think this premise sounds familiar, you're right.  This is very much a soft reboot of the series, and it doesn't really do anything new.  It's Ocean's Eleven with a different setting and cast, but it's not as good.

As with Ocean's 11, there is a big reveal at the end showing how the crew managed to pull off the job.  I won't reveal what that is here, but in 11 the pieces were there to allow you to figure out what was happening, you just had to be able to put them together.  This isn't the case in 8.  There's no way in hell anyone could guess the big reveal in this movie, to the point that it's frustrating.  Not only were we not given enough information, but the final revelation wasn't even clever.  

I guess the biggest problem I had was it was hard for me to connect with the characters and the narrative.  It feels like we were missing some scenes to further develop the characters, and I've heard rumors of such scenes being cut.  I felt disassociated from the story and it was a bit hard to care about what was happening.  Plus not all of the crew was utilized enough.  They had a very talented cast and I wish some of them had more to do.

What Works:

All that said, I really liked the cast.  Everyone is great and very memorable.  Like I said, they don't all get enough to do, but I really liked what they did get.  There isn't a dud among them, but Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway, and Cate Blanchett were the standouts.  The chemistry between Bullock and Blanchett was fantastic and really reminded me of the relationship between George Clooney and Brad Pitt in 11.

The heist scene itself (not the revelation part) was actually really fun.  I was entertained and interested to see how it would play out.  I have no complaints there and that is the most important part of these movies.

I got nervous when James Corden's character showed up.  He doesn't appear in the film until after the heist, near the end of the movie.  I was nervous it would be like Hilary Swank's last-minute, unnecessary, antagonist role in Logan Lucky, but that turned out not to be the case.  He was actually very enjoyable and served a purpose to the story.

Verdict:

Ocean's 8 doesn't break any new ground, the story felt like it was missing a few pieces, and the final revelation was pretty weak, but the cast was great and the heist itself was fun.  Ocean's 8 is nothing special, but it's fine.

 6/10: Ok