Mark Reviews Movies: OCEAN'S EIGHT

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 7, 2018

Considering that it's essentially a copy of a copy of a copy, Ocean's Eight works about as well as can be expected. The film is an all-women reboot of Steven Soderbergh's trilogy about a group of suave thieves and con men that began with Ocean's Eleven in 2001. That film was, of course, a remake of the Rat Pack-starring Ocean's 11 from 1960. Soderbergh's success was to maintain the breezy, give-no-cares attitude of the original, update that attitude with a cast featuring a bunch of current movie stars, and casually tell the story of an elaborate heist with a series of complicated twists and sleights of hand.

Co-writer/director Gary Ross' film tries to imitate what Soderbergh (who serves as a producer here) did with the 1960 movie with the 2001 remake, if that makes sense. We're in strange territory here, with a reboot of a series that began with a remake, so it's OK if things such as logic become fuzzy and things such as quality become relative. In its fuzzy imitating of an imitation, Ross' film is, relatively speaking, pretty good.

The selling point is that all of the major roles of the cast are, indeed, filled with women. There are some heavy-hitters here: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, and Helena Bonham Carter. There's a pair actors who aren't quite as famous or well-renowned but who are recognizable enough and talented in their own right—namely Sarah Paulson and Mindy Kaling. Ross even pulls from the world of music to cast Rihanna and Awkwafina to round out the central cast.

Arguably, there's more current star power and prestige here than when Soderbergh put together his crew for the remake. All things being relative (and some attitudes about women re-rearing their ugly heads in very public ways), it's unlikely that such a case will be made with any regularity.

What's refreshing is that the new cast members get the entirety of their own story (As the new leader says about the job, "There's a little girl out there who wants to grow up to be a criminal. This is for her"). Former ringleader Danny Ocean is dead—or, at least, everyone half-believes that he is (One wonders if any possible sequels will make the mistake of trying to merge the old and new teams). His sister Debbie (Bullock) has been released from prison on a five-year sentence for fraud, and she spent her whole time in a cell devising the perfect heist. It involves the Metropolitan Musuem of Art's annual gala on the first Monday in May, but the plan doesn't call for robbing the joint. For the scheme, she recruits her old partner in crime Lou (Blanchett), who has kept up with the criminal life, and five others.

Even math novices will note that this equals seven criminals, while the title promises eight. The eighth, thankfully, is not Reuben (Elliott Gould), who briefly appears in a sweet and subtle passing of the baton, or any of Danny's cohorts (Although the case could be made that another cameo is the eighth member, that's not quite the point). The identity of the person who makes the gang an octet is one of many of the now-franchise's signature twists.

The rest of the crew includes the pair's old friends: not-so-reformed-criminal-turned-homemaker (who still keeps piles of stolen goods in the garage) Tammy (Paulson) and jewelry maker Amita (Kaling). New to Debbie and Lou are once-revered-and-now-struggling fashion designer Rose Weil (Bonham Carter), expert hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), and pickpocket extraordinaire Constance (Awkwafina).

The target is a six-pound diamond necklace worth $150 million. The mark is actress Daphne Kluger (Hathaway, a hoot as the star who's equal parts ego and insecurity), who has been tapped to host the Met's yearly event. The plan is simple: Convince Daphne to hire Rose to make her dress for the event, get the actress to wear the diamonds to the gala, pluck them from her elegant neck, and escape with no one knowing what really happened. If Debbie can get revenge on Claude Becker (Richard Armitage), the crooked art dealer who sent her up the river to save his own hide, in the process, then that's all the better.

After three previous movies (and the original), we've come expect a few things. We get the star power, naturally. We get the overly convoluted plan, involving a series of necessarily precise movements, disguises, covers, alibis, implementations of technology, frame-jobs, diversions, sabotage, and etc. We get the feeling that the screenwriters (Ross and Olivia Milch) either are fully invested in the plan and its execution or could not care a lick less about that plan's intricacies, as long as it looks and feels intricate. We're always a step or two behind the characters' knowledge, because the point isn't to be invested but to be surprised.

The point is also to let this group of actors have some simple fun, and it's obvious that they are, with Bullock serving as the effortlessly cool leader, Blanchett acting as the (very tiny) moral compass, and Bonham Carter being the anxious newcomer to a life of crime. The other cast members have their moments (Awkwafina is quite amusing as the reliable comic relief, and James Corden turns up in the third act as a plainspoken and surprisingly pragmatic investigator), but just as in the previous movies, the primary aim of the performances is to fit in with the attitude.

While Ocean's Eight might be borrowing a lot from its predecessors, this sequel/reboot gets the attitude right. That's the most important thing.

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