After more than 10 years the Ocean's franchise has returned. This time with Ocean's 8 (technically 9 but we'll get there)
So instead of going for a full-on reboot, they decided to do a soft reboot. By maintaining the already-established Oceans story but simply introducing a new character.
That being the sister of Danny Ocean, Debbie ocean. And for all intensive purposes she might as well be the exact same character.
She has the exact same opening scene as Danny. Sitting in front of a council of.. Social prison reformers?
I don't know what you call these people, but there the ones that determine if you're allowed to be released.
She gives them a similar BS story to Danny. Claiming that she was in a bad place and that she wants to do live a simple life, never going back to her criminal ways.
Literally within 10 minutes of being out of prison, she's back to doing what she knows best.
Stealing expensive perfume out of a random store and then gradually making her way to New York City, where she'll meet the first of her 6 new Associates to help her in the grandest heist of all.
She needs to hire a couple of kooky, but talented individuals to help her steal over a hundred million dollars in jewellery.
This requires the use of Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson and Awkwafina.
All having fairly similar roles to other characters seen in previous Ocean movies.
Like most ocean films half of the run time is dedicated to the set of of the heist, while the other half is dedicated to the heist itself then the aftermath.
Personally I think the setup to the heist is a little slow and not quite as interesting as Ocean's 11 or even 13.
Now part of this is just down to location.
The original Ocean's movies have Las Vegas as their backdrop.
You don't have to do a lot to make that an interesting place.
Just have a few good sweeping shots. Have a few funny bits of dialogue pepper about.
Let the bright lights and ridiculous atmosphere of that ever sparkling city do the rest of the work for you.
Oceans 8 doesn't get that luxury as they're sitting around in New York City and I'm sorry to any New Yorker out there. But your city is incredibly boring to look at.
It's a grey backdrop filmed in such a way that reminds me of mid 2000s romantic comedies. Especially when you have Anne Hathaway as one of your main characters.
Now with all that said. The second-half: ''The Heist itself'' Is absolutely fantastic.
Going right back to form with the original Ocean's movie and keeping you entertained, amused and slightly tense the entire time.
The heists work relatively smoothly. Having the occasional hiccup here and there to keep up the drama and suspense. Ultimately everything works out and the criminals get away with the ridiculous jewellery.
Then you get the second part of the heist. Where it's revealed that they stole even more jewellery with the help of a secretly introduced character. That being Qin Shaobo.
And it's actually his Cameo introduction that makes me want to call this an Ocean's 9 movie. As he's technically promise to cut as well.
Overall Oceans 8 is a surprisingly good.
Their budget is smaller than any other Oceans flick especially when you account for inflation. Most of your money is going towards Starpower so anything else you have has to be used quite sparingly for the most part. It works out relatively well, there's some computer CGI bits that are a little iffy and look like something out of a television show but otherwise it's fine.
It's slow to set up but it pays off all the same.
And it's connected enough to the original ocean movies to give you the amusing reference or even character Cameo. But it's not dependant on those original movies.
You don't have to see any other Oceans film to enjoy this one. And I recommend giving it a shot if you can.
Everyone does a fairly good job and their witty dialogue is just as amusing as anything Clooney did in the original film.
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