Review of Ocean's Eight (2018) by Gary G — 15 Jun 2018

I love a heist film!

The storyline to a great heist must be very difficult to write. Getting the characters fleshed out enough to tell the story of the event is a challenge. Editing becomes the magic that really puts the audience in to the action and makes them emotionally connected to what happens to the characters.

Ocean's 8 does all of this to perfection. The story is written so carefully and the editing is so tight that not a moment is wasted in this film.

The cast is a triple threat. They are all so smart, beautiful, and funny that the audience cannot help but fall in love with them and care deeply what happens to them in the course of the action. Sandra Bullock as at her dramatic best. Anne Hathaway is gorgeous and adds so many small details to her character through her performance. Rihanna is a chameleon. The filmmakers didn't want the audience to recognize her beauty until the reveal in the height of the action. It worked! Helena Bonham Carter is just so odd. She sticks out of her character so much. Maybe the story should have used her natural oddness for the deception in the plot. (maybe not).

The storyline (and editing) pulls you in the story on a deeply personal level. I really felt like a part of the gang by the end.

Leaving this film (which we saw in a shopping mall theater) I wanted to continue the adventure. I stood in the lobby and observed the different people there. Very carefully plotting....what? A heist? I told my wife I wanted to do a heist and she said no. So I changed it to, "I want to do a caper." As we walked through the shopping mall (a habitat to which I am not native) I kept observing the people and the way they interact with each other and the environment. A caper is what I need right now.

This is what good film can do. It changes you just a little as a result of the adventure.

Ocean's 8 is the best heist/caper film I have seen in a long time. It is better than Solo. It's better than the heist portion of The Last Jedi (remember there is a dumb heist in that one), and it is better edited than Baby Driver. It is as good as The Usual Suspects. That's pretty darn good!