June 12, 2018 2 min to read

Oceans 8

For about fifteen minutes it carries the energy of the original movies - but it devolves quickly into irrelevance.

by Zach Saul

I desperately wanted to love Oceans 8. I still remember how frustrating it was to listen to people talk about how much they hated the gender swapped Ghostbuster’s reboot. I think gender-swapped sequels can and should work. This one however - just felt tired, contrived and didn’t have characters that are remotely memorable. Sandra Bullock, Rihana, Blanchett, Hathaway, and Helena Bonham Carter are talented actresses and capable comedians - but aren’t given enough to work with to stand out or establish chemistry. Instead the result feels like a patchwork quilt that keeps you warm, but doesn’t work as a whole. I didn’t mind the formulaic plot, (a group of women robbing jewels from the MET) - as is true for most heist movies, the reliance on those tropes added to my enjoyment. What frustrated me is that that characters didn’t feel believable - and Debbie Ocean and her band of outlaws felt ordinary, and at times contrived. The original Oceans movies were built on the fragile idea that the thieves weren’t necessarily evil, but hyper specific thrill-seekers. For about half of the Ocean eight - it’s unclear why these women agreed to join at all, and why they continue once hiccups happen. Director Gary Ross missed a crucial detail from the characterization of the original thieves: some of them weren’t sure why they were participating - but all of them knew they had to be thieves because of a deep seeded desire for danger, or just gamesmanship.

In an odd way it felt as though the filmmakers were trying to explain their casting choices as the movie progressed. Amita (Kaling) is recruited from an Indian jewelry factory, Tammy (Sarah Paulson) from a suburban garage, and Constance (Awkwafina) from what we presume is Queens. These moments provide some comic relief, and some jokes do land - the issue is they aren’t providing relief from anything, and we’re left with a group of eight supporting characters and no lead to carry the movie. These women are supremely talented and the writers of Ocean’s 8 should have allowed them create the movies humor and tension a bit more instead of tokenizing them.

The Good: there’s plenty of glitz and glam in Ocean’s 8, if that’s what got you through the door. In isolated sequences the movie really works - and Bullock as Debbie Ocean is believable. The first 10 minutes of the film in a vacuum are fantastic. We watch Bullock swindling her way out of prison, into some fancy perfumes, and then into a fancy hotel room. The twisted logic of a swindler creates a captivating energy and for those 15 minutes Oceans 8 is pretty awesome.

The Bad: The movie runs out of energy as it goes on, and ends in a very sad montage showing what the women spent their money on that doesn’t feel funny or wistful, just poorly thought out. There’s a general lack of energy and chemistry between the cast, and too many times the jokes fall flat, and the hijinxes turn out predictably.