Jean-Paul’s Rating: 4/5 stars
Bottom Line: Exudes sexy-cool from every pore. A classic crime caper complete with a capable coterie of criminal con artists.
“Ocean’s Eight” has a lot going for it. Nowhere can this be seen more so than in the relationship between Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) and Lou (Cate Blanchett). If con artists are capable of having best friends, Debbie and Lou are best friends. Their interactions are just so casual and organic. You just want to BE there with them. Soak them in. Revel in their interactions and their banter. You won’t have your watch, your wallet, your bank account, and quite possibly your house if you do so, but it would be worth it just to experience them. Cate Blanchett is just wonderful as Lou. She has this casual-cool to her with a sexy I-don’t-give-a-whit strut and a slightly stoned seen-everything-know-everything look. Even the way she chews her gum just exudes confidence.
The story is pretty standard heist film fare. In this case, an overly complicated plot to steal a ridiculously expensive necklace with a hidden other plot of revenge and a few bonus thefts thrown in. It’s fun watching them put it together and it’s fun watching them execute it. It helps that it’s all done under the grandiose backdrop of the Met Gala so it also features wonderful works of art both in the traditional sense and in the fashion sense. The only thing that didn’t quite work for me was the “catch”, that part where a wrench is thrown into the precisely planned caper. In this case, “catch” is both literal and figurative so maybe they did it just for that wink-nod, but it didn’t really add much to the overall enjoyment of the film and it was introduced and cleaned up without much fanfare.
What we have here is a pretty decent heist film and if you like heist films, you will enjoy “Ocean’s Eight”. If you like fashion, you will also probably like “Ocean’s Eight”. If you like an assembly of strong, confident women, you will also probably like “Ocean’s Eight”. In summary, you’ll probably like “Ocean’s Eight” and it is a worthy addition to the franchise. It has also done pretty good at the box office so I have my fingers crossed for more Debbie and Lou antics in the near future.