Ocean's 8 Review

Official Synopsis: Debbie Ocean gathers an all-female crew to attempt an impossible heist at New York City's yearly Met Gala.

Official Review: Ocean's 8 is the most recent film in the Ocean's franchise. It takes place several years after the conclusion of Ocean's 13 and follows the life of Debbie Ocean, the smooth talking criminal sister of late great Con-Man Danny Ocean. This film opened up with a wonderful sequence that painted the tone of and style of Ocean's 8 perfectly. Within a few moments of the opening sequence I said to myself this movie is going to be a lot of fun. Ocean's 8 lead a very breakneck pace throughout the entire run time never slowing down and always posing to be able to handle the quick transitions while keeping the viewer interested in the story. However, there were times in Ocean's 8 when the film's sprint like pacing called for a sacrifice to be made. Unfortunately, the writers and director chose to sacrifice the character development to make up any lost time they may have had. I wasn't too disappointed by this choice mainly due to the performances of all the actresses on screen. This is an all female cast that had great on screen chemistry and I will say this is instantly one of my favorite performances of Sandra Bullock who played the perfect successor to Clooney's Danny Ocean.

Ocean's 8 was an ambitious film that worked hard to maintain the notable Ocean tone but managed to distance itself from the established franchise enough to prove original. The majority of the film takes place during the heist that Debbie Ocean has planned. While I have seen heist films before there was something refreshing about the way this heist seemed to unfold. I think a large part of this was due to the lack of information in the set up. It was nice to have just enough knowledge to attempt to guess how they did it but be unable to figure it out without the aide of the characters explanations. I was however, slightly disappointed with some decisions made by the writers. Toward the end of the film, one of the decisions that was revealed managed to render one characters involvement almost pointless and proved to make the work of the heist almost all for nothing. Upon my initial exposure to the surprise twist I was far more disappointed but never let down. The entirety of this movie was like that, while there were several things I wish were different or better developed, I was never let down by any decision that was made.

The score of this movie wasn't as creative as I'd like for it to be. It just sort of blended and was pretty forgettable in the long run. As was the cinematography. I was never blown away by the shots of this film and to be honest that was okay with me.

Overall, I had a pretty fun time with Ocean's 8 I was entertained by the performances and consistently had a smile on my face throughout the run time of this film. I do wish that this movie would've slowed down just enough to fit character development in a little bit more and I would've changed a few major plot points to better suit the goal of our main Heroines. None the less this movie was a fine addition to the Ocean's franchise and I am eager to see where they go with Ocean's 9 if they choose to make one.

Grade: B-

Writers: Gary Ross, Olivia Milch

Director: Gary Ross

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Rhianna, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Cate Blanchett, James Corden, Awkwafina and Sarah Paulson

Composer: Daniel Pemberton

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime

Run Time: 1h 50min

Distributor: Warner Bros

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for language, drug use, and some suggestive content.

Content Guide: 

         Language: 1 F-Words, 10 S-words. Some crudities and other profanity.

         Sex/Nudity: Several paintings containing exposed women's breasts, scene of male and female making out. Several suggestive comments.

         Alcohol/Drug Use: Several scenes containing multiple people drinking.

         Violence/Disturbing Imagery: None