Ocean's 8 (Gary Ross)

[TGM]

OCEAN'S 8

Director: Gary Ross

imdb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5164214/?ref_=nv_sr_1)

[MadMan]

Huh Gary Ross directed this. Nice.

[Mal]

mild yay, its good ... though as its unfolding you know this could have been better, so so much better.
The cast of eight is wonderful but they're all underutilized. The script doesn't take any chances and frankly it just feels too easy going to be remotely exciting.

Do a sequel, get a snappier director, and maybe something better will occur on screen.

[Henry Gale]

Yeah, I'm more on the "nay"-leaning side, though still in the mild zone.

I saw it opening night and I don't know if it was my theatre's presentation, the audience, or just the movie itself (the most likely culprit), but the thing just feels too static and lacking the right zest to just be as fun as it needs to be to obscure whatever lack of substance these sort of movies are content with having below the surface. It rarely ever moves in those simultaneously slick, giddy, suave and goofy ways like the original trilogy's films did. At this point I've come to the conclusion that everyone in the cast is quite good here except for Bullock, and her version of cool, calm, stoicism just comes off as detached and like she's about to yawn once the film cuts away from her. Her protagonist, the person whose arguably meant to be the distillation of its core tone, the anchor amongst all the movie's diverse proceedings, and the key emotional propeller of its heist, in the end just feels as if the other characters are turning to the personification of a shrug.

Hathaway unexpectedly came off the most dynamic for me, with Bonham-Carter probably being the second most-fun. Blanchett, Paulson, Rihanna and Awkwafina are also really enjoyable on screen, but like you mentioned, Efron, they don't always feel like they're being given enough to do. Also unfortunate that Corden probably came away with the biggest laugh for me, especially since it was such a minor and clearly unscripted line.


Do a sequel, get a snappier director, and maybe something better will occur on screen.

As much as I think it would make sense for a woman to direct it: Is Gregory Jacobs still looking to be in the Soderbergh-produced sequel game? :cool:

[Peng]

This cast with Soderbergh, or at the very least with Gary Ross or someone not trying to imitate Soderbergh this much, have a high chance of turning this into my favorite Ocean's film. Although I am not the biggest Soderbergh or Ocean's fan, his touch of effortless cool in these films is a tricky balance act, and just feels flat in someone else's hands. But still, this cast. They turn out to exude even more megawatt charisma and sense of camaraderie fun than the Clooney's crew for me, and almost single-handedly overwhelm the blandness of writing and direction enough. Pure pleasure just to watch them work. 7/10

[dreamdead]

The writing makes this a "nay" because it just remains so inert and bland throughout the proceedings. There's little verve or surprise to the heist, and while much of Soderbergh's trilogy had a sense of inevitable victory about them, those films also moved. This one aspires to that mentality, but it's not snappy enough, or lyrical enough in the dialogue, to find the rhythm that the 00's films held.

Instead, while there's interesting characters here (Rihanna, Awkwafina, Hathaway, Blanchett), the film holds them apart from each other too much to let their repartee shine. Instead, as Henry Gale notes, it becomes Bullock's film, and her emotional distance becomes too stoic.

Props for the "two trees" line, but a little more improv might have helped spark up a limp dramatic script.

[Irish]

I'm in the middle and already voting "nay." It's boring as fuck. This movie has no subplots. It's about the heist, but the heist has no juice.

The original movie used romance to invest the audience in the outcome --- we cared less about the money and more about whether Clooney could steal Roberts from Garcia.

"8" doesn't have that, or doesn't seem to, because for some reason Bullock's motivations remain a mystery, at least for the first half.

The only reason I'm still watching is to see if Hathaway swaps dialogue with Anna Wintour, hopefully in a sly "Devil Wears Prada" nod.

[Weems]

Yikes this thing was lifeless.

[Mr. McGibblets]

Continues the Ocean's Thirteen tradition of the gang facing extremely few obstacles and the ones that do pop-up are very easily overcome. The magnet in the necklace particularly was solved within like 1 minute with no issues.

[Grouchy]

Yikes this thing was lifeless.
This.


Continues the Ocean's Thirteen tradition of the gang facing extremely few obstacles and the ones that do pop-up are very easily overcome. The magnet in the necklace particularly was solved within like 1 minute with no issues.
And this.

I only Bonham Carter and James Corden's characters.

[Dukefrukem]

Oof. Tough to watch. I wonder how Gary Ross was hired to do this? Was it a conversation that started like; "Hey Gary, we need a 4th movie in the Ocean's franchise but we don't want to pay Steven Soderbergh so you need to film it like him, make sure it's edited like his films and make sure the score closely matches everything about the first three films. But other than that, have fun!"

The script is really lacking in the problem/solution areas. Simple. Predictable. Not novel. How the group was able to get Helena Bonham Carter's character on board (pure accident). The Rihanna-is-a-good-hacker intro. The Anne Hathaway jealous mocking gibberish. The thief "can i have my watch back?" intro. All bad.