Ocean's Eight Steals a Late Review

Ocean's Eight (2018)

Ocean’s Eight was a nice movie. It certainly existed and was fun and I remember sitting through it and smiling. Unfortunately, I won’t remember much else tomorrow. Its ensemble cast performed ably, but nobody besides Bullock or Hathaway stood out or had any real development. Every other character was just an expert in their chosen field and required no growth or depth. Critics are praising Rihanna’s performance as 9-Ball, but she was a cookie cutter hacker with minimal personality who happened to be very pretty. 9-Ball could have been played by any attractive woman and nothing would be lost. It wasted strong casting by being short. Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham Carter barely had anything to do and were flat characters, a far cry from what their capabilities. It may seem like I didn’t like it, but I did. It made me happy with a simple story and a nice ending. It was just unfortunate that the script made some potential clever interactions fall flat and seem slow for much of the first act. Bullock and Blanchett’s characters had a history and could have had some wonderful dialogue, but they dominated the first act with dull exposition that didn’t really affect the final heist anyway. It was subversive, but not in an interesting way. But for as dull as the first act was, the second act was stronger and led to a much more rewarding third act. Ocean’s Eight had a weak start, but came in with an intriguing finish that might set up for some sequels. I give Ocean’s Eight 4 out of 6 gratuitous celebrity appearances/name drops (I was a little disappointed with the lack of Tom Brady, NFL Top 100 #1 for 2 consecutive years, Go Pats!)