Ocean's 8
/"Every con has its pros."
Filmology Rating: 3 out of 4
The summer movie season is usually filled with extravagant superhero battles, over the top explosions, and girls in skimpy bikinis. To put it mildly, big studio summer films appeal to males leaving women to flock to films like Book Club or Mamma Mia that really only appeal to the older demographic. The more modern women need a more stylish film that won’t move at a sluggish pace and Ocean’s 8 might be the perfect film for them to watch in order to escape the summer heat.
Debbie Ocean, played by Sandra Bullock, has spent the past five years in prison planning the perfect heist. She is planning to regroup with some of her old friends, most of whom have a colorful past, in order to pull off a heist at the Met Gala.
As someone who enjoyed the Ghostbusters remake last year, I walked into Ocean’s 8 rather cold. The reason for that probably has to do with the fact that I’m a bigger fan of Ocean’s trilogy than I am of the comedy classic, but I digress. I thought it would be hard for any crew to have the same charisma that the crew had in the trilogy, but I was clearly mistaken. The amount of charismatic charm that oozes off the screen from Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Anne Hathaway cannot be overstated. Getting an ensemble cast together never seems to be like that big of a victory anymore, the actual victory is assembling a cast who has good chemistry together and are actually enjoying the project that they are working on. That is becoming a sticking point with me lately, if the actors aren’t enjoying their time working on the project I have been able to tell in the final product, but with Ocean’s 8 you can easily tell that every single actress is having a blast working on this film.
Within the first few minutes of the film I felt my blood starting to boil, the film was going to hit every single beat that the 2001 film hit. While the film did part from the formula slightly, it started on a rough note for me. I have no interest in watching the same film just with the genders being reversed. Nothing is exciting about that terrible troupe and it is a complete bore to anyone who watched the original film. Keep in mind that I’m also a white male which would categorize me into the privileged, so every aspect that I say about how formulaic the film is should be taken with a grain of salt. The film does indeed move past the formulaic trappings to become an incredibly well acted heist that you are nearly always engaged in and wondering what the actual end game is.
It’s hard to put a description on the directing style of Gary Ross. Ross directed the Oscar favorite Seabiscuit and one of my favorite social commentaries Pleasantville but then he also directed the tonal misfire Free State of Jones. Looking back at those films it would seem that the best word to describe his directing style would be flat, he doesn’t add much distinctive style to his camera work nor does he have a core theme to the stories he is telling. It could be argued that Ross is attempting to tell stories of social injustices after The Hunger Games but that might be a little thin when looking at Ocean’s 8. The Ocean’s films directed by Steven Soderbergh always offered some glitz and glaze with the direction, but Ocean’s 8 seems to be a lifeless recreation of those elegantly crafted capers.
While the film clearly has some lifeless direction, it has one other major problem that stops it from being one of the most memorable capers of the past few years: the film runs out of steam for the final twenty minutes. The moment that James Corden appears I felt the soul completely leave the film. I’m not saying that Corden did the film a disservice, more that the role itself seems to be a complete afterthought. All of the elements that his character has seems overly convoluted, even for a movie in which every element is planned and carefully executed. I’ve been a fan of Corden since seeing him in Into the Woods and love his charismatic charm but even with all of that charm he still can’t help make the film make its mark completely.
While the summer movie season is usually considered to be the time that all the guys get together to go watch the latest rock em sock em robots battle but after Ghostbusters and now Ocean’s 8 I feel that it’s time for the women to take over and give us grand splashy blockbusters that will inspire generations to come.
Rating: See It
-Jonny G