Ocean's Eight (2018) - Commercially mandated spin-off sinks

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Eight increasingly diminutive female stars line up on this cinema-red poster for Gary Ross' Ocean's Eight

Danny Ocean's sister is released from prison with a plan: Along with a crew of seven other gifted women she wants to steal a lot of diamonds from the big Met gala in New York.

 

Ocean's Eight is written by Olivia Milch (Dude (2018, story)) and co-writer/director Gary Ross (Pleasantville (1998)). It is a reboot spin-off of the Ocean's franchise begun with Ocean's 11 (1960) and directly related to Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy (2001-07).

Good musical choices, smashing dresses and a fitting lack of regular action, (there is no pasted on car chase or shoot-out, which suits the film well) are worth commending this mildly entertaining film for, - but regrettably its success is still hindered by several problems:

Sandra Bullock (Love Potion No. 9 (1992)) is the protagonist thief, whom we are naturally supposed to root for, but at this point her heavily surgically 'enhanced' face seriously hamper this engagement, just as her friendship, - or possibly more than friendship (?), - with Cate Blanchett's (Knight of Cups (2015)) character, (Blanchett on the other hand is hidden behind enormous bangs (and often also shades) here, - never becomes really exciting. You can enjoy Rihanna (Guava Island (2019)) solely for who she is in real life here, and Anne Hathaway (Bride Wars (2009)) and Helena Bonham Carter (Shadow Play (1996)) are fairly good, but Ocean's Eight is never very funny or really exciting. It also clings to elements of the preceding films with a clumsy scene with Elliott Gould (Puckoon (2002)) SPOILER as well as a tame, lame ending, in which Bullock makes herself a cocktail in front of (George Clooney's) Danny Ocean's gravestone and saying, "You would have loved it!" In this way Ocean's Eight sticks to the shadow of Soderbergh's films, while a revenge motive behind the big heist never really gets us pumped.

Ocean's Eight is failed; it is unnecessary, disappointing and poor.

 

Related post:

 

Gary Ross: The Hunger Games (2012) - A global, teen-centered sci-fi smash

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 70 mil. $

Box office: 297.7 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.25 times its cost)

[Ocean's Eight premiered 5 June (New York) and runs 110 minutes. The film was announced in October 2015. Shooting took place from October 2016 - March 2017 in New York and Los Angele, California. The film opened #1 to a 41.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3-#5), grossing 140.2 mil. $ (47.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 14 mil. $ (4.7 %) and Australia with 13.6 mil. $ (4.6 %). Ross has not returned as a director since, but is returning as co-writer of Desert Warrior (2022). Bullock returned in Bird Box (2018). Ocean's Eight is fresh at 68 % with a 6.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ocean's Eight?