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drwexPygment and I tend to like heist flicks. We enjoyed Ocean's 11 and even the sequels though they weren't as good. The idea of an all-female team for this one seemed interesting - lots of plots (from Shakespeare to Star Trek) become fresher and more interesting if you gender-swap things. Sadly, Ocean's 8 doesn't really rise to the opportunity. It's clever, and Sandra Bullock turns in one of the best performances of her career, but it lacks either the depth or the hooks that make a heist film truly excellent. 2.5/5 stars and you really should be a fan of this kind of film.
I blame the writers (Gary Ross and Olivia Milch) mostly. Writing ensemble films is hard and this really isn't an ensemble film, though it should be. It's a Bullock film, with the rest of the crew there to play their parts. We get Bullock in prison, faking her way onto parole. We get Bullock pulling a quick shoplifting scam, then hotel fraud. We get Bullock recruiting people, Bullock explaining the plan, organizing things, and so on and so on. We even get scenes of her talking to a memorial stone behind which might or might not be the body of Danny Ocean, who remains a motivating force even while dead.
For example, when queried by Cate Blanchette's Lou about why she's doing this, Bullock/Ocean replies that it's because this is what she does. Except she also seems to be doing it to prove a point to Danny. Make up your mind? The supporting 7 all are potentially interesting characters but the film doesn't develop them past one note. Amita (not even a last name) is a jeweler who dislikes/argues with her mother. And... ? That's it. Amita's mother doesn't even have a name, just "Amita's mother". I get the feeling that the scriptwriters didn't even bother to think about these characters, who are only there to deliver their few lines. The film suffers for it.
The plot is also almost entirely lacking in tension as well. There's one scene where the guards are closing in on a location and get easily distracted. There's one scene where a mechanical challenge is posed that is almost immediately resolved by a deus ex machina. Part of a good heist film is the sense that the heist team might actually fail. This film ignores that tension in favor of predictability.
The actors are good enough that if they got a better writer I'd still go see a sequel, but with this creative team I'd pass and wait for it to show up on Netflix or similar.
I blame the writers (Gary Ross and Olivia Milch) mostly. Writing ensemble films is hard and this really isn't an ensemble film, though it should be. It's a Bullock film, with the rest of the crew there to play their parts. We get Bullock in prison, faking her way onto parole. We get Bullock pulling a quick shoplifting scam, then hotel fraud. We get Bullock recruiting people, Bullock explaining the plan, organizing things, and so on and so on. We even get scenes of her talking to a memorial stone behind which might or might not be the body of Danny Ocean, who remains a motivating force even while dead.
For example, when queried by Cate Blanchette's Lou about why she's doing this, Bullock/Ocean replies that it's because this is what she does. Except she also seems to be doing it to prove a point to Danny. Make up your mind? The supporting 7 all are potentially interesting characters but the film doesn't develop them past one note. Amita (not even a last name) is a jeweler who dislikes/argues with her mother. And... ? That's it. Amita's mother doesn't even have a name, just "Amita's mother". I get the feeling that the scriptwriters didn't even bother to think about these characters, who are only there to deliver their few lines. The film suffers for it.
The plot is also almost entirely lacking in tension as well. There's one scene where the guards are closing in on a location and get easily distracted. There's one scene where a mechanical challenge is posed that is almost immediately resolved by a deus ex machina. Part of a good heist film is the sense that the heist team might actually fail. This film ignores that tension in favor of predictability.
The actors are good enough that if they got a better writer I'd still go see a sequel, but with this creative team I'd pass and wait for it to show up on Netflix or similar.
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Date: 2018-08-04 12:36 am (UTC)