Review of Ocean's Eight (2018) by Wayne K — 17 Sep 2018

The idea of taking a movie and simply switching the gender of the principle cast doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If it improves the film I'm all for it, but with Ocean's 8, that sadly hasn't happened.

I love the Soderbergh film from 2001, and I really liked the cast. Hathaway, Blanchett, Bullock, Paulson, Bonham Carter, lots of very likable and talented actresses. But it doesn't add a lot to the films that came before it.

The banter between the characters isn't as engaging, the characters aren't as memorable and the heist itself is just far less impressive. It looks way too easy, so much so that they have to throw a curve ball in at the end to make it seem like it was actually challenging.

The biggest problem the heist faces is resolved in less than a minute. Also, they assembled a crew of females and have them steal... diamonds. Bit obvious isn't it? That would be like the male crew getting together to steal Superbowl tickets.

It's a very slickly made film, with no lags in pacing or drastic shifts in tone, and I loved the cast, but it struck me as more of an experiment than a motion picture. I have nothing at all against films with predominantly female casts, but if your film is going to make a statement about gender equality, why not make it an original story, instead of just a copy and paste premise? I could easily watch it again, and there is a satisfaction to watching the cast pull off the robbery with such finesse, but I can't shake the feeling that trying to ape the mannerisms of its predecessors is what hampers it the most.