Spoiler ahead!
Ocean’s 8 is the latest film in the series which follows Debbie Ocean, (Sandra Bullock), Danny’s Ocean’s sister. Ocean’s 8 does fall short of Soderbergh’s trilogy, this is most noticeably shown when you look at the films’ screenplays. Soderbergh’s previous films had very intricate heist sequences with everything fitting together elegantly, whereas 8 is a series of events that don’t make sense that come together in a way that leaves you saying, “wait what?”. Furthermore, there are twists that are laughably stupid such as, Anne Hathaway’s Daphne Kluger joining the team. What could have been good character development is instead boiled down to her joining the team because she’s lonely. That is indicative of the fact that the film is poorly written. The characters outside of Debbie are not given much in the way of motivation, feeling one dimensional and shallow. This is best shown through 9 ball, (Rihanna), with it serving to highlight her lack of acting ability and makes her character feel out of place. However, there are also positives. All the cast give good performances, with each actress adding an air of believability to their characters, making them likeable. The two best performances are from Anne Hathaway and a surprisingly funny third act turn by James Corden. Hathaway has all the funniest lines. Whereas Corden excels because he isn’t playing his usual over the top character, instead he plays it mostly straight, to a humour degree.
To conclude if you can ignore the numerous plot holes this is a good film; it is dumb fun and a thrilling ride to boot. Overall this is a good start to a possible new series.
3/5
Another Millennial Reviewer 