I will be the first to admit that I expected a bad movie here, one that would try too hard to be like the original Ocean’s trilogy and fail to take off by itself. I will also be the first to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by “Ocean’s 8”. Though not perfect, it was still almost the complete opposite of what I had expected — fast, smart, cool, all while playing its own stylized riffs off of what the original trilogy had left behind.
This sort of popcorn heist flick is unbelievably fun to watch, but only if it isn’t trying to be anything other than a heist flick; of course, there are always the deeper emotional intentions of the leader driving the plot forward, but it’s best when these aren’t fully explored because, after all, we came to see criminals pull off the impossible and we don’t want to be distracted. “Ocean’s 8” rarely takes us away from what we came to see. It almost never distracts its audience from the central plan; in fact, it took me by surprise just how fast the whole thing was moving — about 10 minutes in and they’re already getting all the pieces set for the job. While we do get some of Debbie Ocean’s (Sandra Bullock) rather complicated personal vendetta against an ex-lover (and this is somewhat reminiscent of Danny in “Ocean’s 11”), it only slightly damages the simplicity of the heist, but never takes away from the overall thrill of the con.
Needless to say, none of this would have worked without this particular cast: Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, and a bizzare Anne Hathaway, just to name a few of my favorites. I was fearful that the movie would heap far too much weight on every single actress, but everyone serves their purpose here and rarely adds unnecessary fluff to the story. Every character has their respective moments in the spotlight, but each is nicely balanced with the others so that we never grow tired of anyone (except for maybe the gratuitous cameos during the Met Gala). No character is truly fleshed out, which isn’t really a complaint because, once again,we don’t care about their inner struggles as much as we just want to see them steal $150 million and drop a few quips along the way. Sandra Bullock is especially great to watch as an ever-stoic thief; she doesn’t have that debonair, Clooney-charm, rather she adopts her own delightful persona: the reserved, utterly determined mastermind. One complaint I would have is that, in the heat of robbing the Met Gala, we aren’t shown Bullock’s slick con-woman attitude that much as she is watching her plan come to fruition.
There are moments when not every joke, gag, or impossible use of technology serves for the good of the film — and the entire post-heist act threatens to collapse on itself as it keeps adding new developments to the story that could have probably been handled better (like how we get James Corden as an insurance detective almost spoiling the party) — but it all ends up working just fine in the end, and that’s what ultimately matters when you have a far-fetched plot with such a loaded cast. Being a reboot of a beloved franchise, “Ocean’s 8” could have gotten by if it was exactly like its predecessors, but instead of constantly reminding us of Clooney and his gang, it only explicitly referenced the original trilogy to let us know who Debbie Ocean is. This is not a mirror-image reboot, as many fans would have it, but it is a worthy homage that pleasantly added its own spice to the beloved mix.
