Ocean's 8

 3/4

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Awkwafina, Helena Bonham Carter, Richard Armitage

Rated PG-13 for Language, Drug Use, and Some Suggestive Content

"Ocean's 8" is chill entertainment.  It's not great art and things don't always make a lot of sense, but it is fun.  And really, how could it not be with a cast like this?

The movie is almost entirely driven by its plot.  Character development is next to nil and what personality these women have comes from the charisma of the actresses who play them.

The con: Debbie Ocean (Bullock) has just been released from prison and, despite promises to behave herself, she sets in motion a legendary heist she has been planning for more than five years.

The mark: Actress Daphne Kluger (Hathaway), a young starlet who is the chairwoman for the next Met Gala.

The prize: a diamond necklace she will be wearing that is worth $150 million in cold, hard cash.

Debbie, together with her old friend and partner Lou (Blanchett), assembles a crack team of specialists to pull off the swindle of a lifetime.

This is a movie that is driven mostly by star power.  None of the actors has the chance to do any real acting.  There isn't time.  They show up and say their lines and have fun.  And who can blame them?  Actors like Blanchett and Carter do so much heavy drama that the opportunity to appear in a movie like this must have been irresistible.  What's amazing is just how enjoyable they are to watch in this movie.  Neither gets the chance to do many comedies and it's surprising how funny they are when given the opportunity.

The problem with this movie is that it feels like a trailer for a stronger movie.  It is unfair to expect a movie like "Ocean's 8" to match up to a masterpiece like "Heat."  The Michael Mann epic was as much a dual character study as a heist film.  This is something much more simple, and that's to its detriment.  I often wondered when it was doing to slow down.

The film is also too clever for its own good.  Director Gary Ross bites off more than he can chew in the final act and he loses the thread.  Some of what happens is surprising while some is poorly handled and not well thought out.

Even with all that, I have to admit that I was entertained.  There are some laughs and good suspense.  I'm just not going to remember much of it by tomorrow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Desert Flower

2/4 Starring: Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson Rated R for Some Violent Content, A Scene of Sexuality and Language The problem with "Desert Flower" is not that Waris Dirie's story isn't suited for the cinematic treatment or that the actress playing her isn't acceptable.  The problem is that director Sherry Hormann doesn't do a good job of telling it.  This is a poorly focused film that can't decide what it wants to be about or what it wants to say. As is the case with many a true story, the life of Waris Dirie is too amazing to be made up by a Hollywood screenwriter.  This woman fled an arranged marriage as a child, spent years as a servant to a Somali diplomat in England, survived on the streets, and was discovered by a fashion photographer while working as a janitor.  Then she became a supermodel and UN Ambassador in the fight against female genital mutilation. Waris experienced a lot in her life.  Telling it all in a...
Read more

The Road

3.5/4 Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron Rated R for Some Violence, Disturbing Images and Language "The Road" has to be the most downbeat, depressing and cynical movie I've ever seen.  That's not meant as a criticism, but a fact.  This is a tough movie to get through, but not a chore.  Those who venture in will find their time well spent, albeit not in a necessarily pleasant way.  Then again, if a movie is based off a novel by Cormac McCarthy, "pleasant" isn't a word one would hope to be used to describe it. The film takes place after the world has ended.  How it happened is not explained because it doesn't matter.  But any hope of the Earth recovering from what happened has long since gone.  A man (Mortensen) and his son (Smit-McPhee) are travelling together, trying to "get to the coast."  There are few people left, although considering what many are doing with the goal of survival, that's a good thing...
Read more

My Left Foot

 2/4 Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally, Fiona Shaw, Alison Whelan Rated R (probably for Language and Brief Violence) "My Left Foot" feels like one of those movies designed to win Oscars and nothing else.  In fact, it did win two Oscars for the immortal Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker, but apart from their strong work, there's not much else to remember about this movie.  It's well-acted, but all in all it's pretty dull. Christy Brown (Day-Lewis) is getting recognized for his work in order to raise money for the disabled.  Despite being a talented artist and writer, Christy is not the ideal candidate for the job.  He's an alcoholic jerk who makes no secret of his lust for women nor is he above using his disability to manipulate people into doing what he wants.  Interspersed with his attempts to seduce a woman tasked with looking after him while he awaits his entrance are vignettes from his childhood.  Most notably how his mothe...
Read more