Ocean's Eight | Teen Ink

Ocean's Eight

January 26, 2019
By MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
678 articles 0 photos 8 comments

 Ocean's Eight is a movie revolving around a giant heist. It all starts when Debbie Ocean is finally able to get out of jail. Debbie has been spending the past five years, eight months, and 12 days and counting devising a plan to perform the biggest heist of her entire life. She has spent the time to figure out how she can do it, who can do it, and what to do if something might go wrong. Debbie needs a bunch of the best people in their respective fields, and although everyone seems to be hesitant at first, everyone soon grows to like the plan when they hear that everyone will get a share of tens of millions of dollars. Debbie soon gathers up her partner-in-crime Lou Miller, a top hacker, Nine Ball, a jeweler named Amita, Constance who knows how to steal from the streets, fashion designer Rose, who might end up being the most crucial member of all, and a suburban mom named Tammy who has grown tired of stealing from just trucks. However, even all of them as a group might not be able to be enough to steal one of the world's most valuable necklaces while it is heavily guarded at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 
 Ocean's Eight proves to be a fairly entertaining heist flick that is able to create some enjoyment. The beginning of the movie does a fairly good job of jump starting the movie and introducing audiences to the new characters, but this portion feels slightly formulaic and seems to copy a lot of similar qualities from Ocean's Eleven. The middle of the movie does a surprisingly solid job of progressing things along and introducing new conflicts and characters. However, the enticing ending proves to not be that exhilarating or intriguing, and the actual conclusion of the movie doesn't seem to really feel like it should have been the way the movie should have ended. It's almost like the movie ended too abruptly. Even though there's a shocking twist towards the end, this part doesn't feel as amazing as it could have been, because there really isn't that much development from that portion of the movie. 

 Ocean's Eight is an all female-led movie, and there is an outstanding cast, but it seems like a portion of the plot of the movie seems to contradict itself. Because the whole motivation for the movie is to basically get revenge on an ex-boyfriend, this pro-women movie spends an inordinate amount of time depicting the boyfriend's relationship and context to the other characters, which doesn't really make sense, since the movie wanted to show that women don't need men and are capable of doing everything. Secondly, this part of the plot seems to also copy elements of Ocean's Eleven, since Danny Ocean wanted to get revenge on the man who stole away the love of his life.  

 Ocean's Eight doesn't actually manage to create that much drama, suspense, or intensity, which is definitely a drag. Viewers don't feel that emotionally invested in the movie, and even though jail is certainly a consequence for the characters if they fail, it doesn't seem like any of the characters are really that afraid of it, which doesn't make logical sense. But the movie does have some charm. 

 Although Ocean's Eight is definitely not the best movie in the franchise and does have a few key faults, it is still able to conjure up lots of fun and hilariousness, mostly due to its star-studded cast. Sandra Bullock does her absolute best to carry this movie on her shoulders as Debbie Ocean, and she does a pretty successful job of just that. Anne Hathaway does a superb job of playing the complex Daphne Kluger and is one of the most enjoyable characters to watch. Awkwafina gives a fabulous performance as Constance and is certainly one of the better characters in the entire movie, mostly because of the spectacular performance. The all-women cast is fresh and interesting to watch, and this is definitely one of the more appealing aspects of the movie, but the talented cast isn't even able to completely save the movie from some of its issues. 

 Ocean's Eight does benefit tremendous from having some having some truly vivid visual effects that help to make the movie feel even more slick and clever. The visuals help in aiding the movie to feel even more realistic and does a fantastic job of depicting how the heist is able to be accomplished. The awesome special effects seem to be crucial to the movie's result, and they are a major factor in truly illustrating all of the ins and outs of the crime. 

 Although viewers seem to find some contentment with Ocean's Eight, it seems like critics actually found more satisfaction. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie an actually somewhat impressive 69%, which seems to be a fair score for a movie that has plenty of highlights but also has some problems. However, only 82% of Google users liked the movie, which is actually fairly low. It seems like most thought the movie was well done, but for certain audiences, they were expecting something more. 

 Ocean's Eight isn't perfect or the best movie in the franchise and does stick to the formula that made the others so great, but it is worth watching because it is a creative take on a now classic story. 


The author's comments:

"Don’t you want to do things you’re interested in?" - Debbie Ocean


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