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 Betreff des Beitrags: Re: O8-Reviews
BeitragVerfasst: 16.06.2018, 23:26 
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Ein Extra-Beitrag für einen Beitrag, der sich speziell auf den Plot um Claude Becker bezieht:

Zitat:
The Sweet Revenge of Ocean’s 8

Debbie Ocean’s subplot to ensnare her ex-partner is the most gratifying, true-to-life element of a movie that sells itself on the fantastical.

Hannah Giorgis
Jun 12, 2018


This article contains minor spoilers for the plot of Ocean’s 8.

Ocean’s 8, the Gary Ross–directed installment of the heist franchise, opens with an incarcerated Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) convincing her parole board that her most urgent aspiration is “a simple life” on the outside. As soon as her request is granted though, Debbie retreats into the comfort of her cons. In quick succession, she briefs a corrections officer on how the two will continue her schemes with Debbie on the outside, then heads to Bergdorf Goodman to scam an unsuspecting sales clerk out of high-end makeup.

With her feminine armor thus acquired, Debbie makes a personal pit stop: She swings by a gallery named after her former lover and fellow con artist, Claude Becker (Richard Armitage). Debbie pounces on the unsuspecting art dealer with laser precision and holds him at knifepoint. “You look … ” The visibly shaken Claude stammers, only to be interrupted by a glowering Debbie: “Recently incarcerated.”

Thus begins a minor subplot of the notably female-led Ocean’s 8. It’s soon revealed that the pair had scammed together, until Claude framed Debbie for a shadowy financial crime that landed her in prison for five years. (Meanwhile, Claude only saw his star rise.) The time Debbie spent incarcerated was time she spent devising the plot that forms the film’s central con, and mulling retaliation against Claude: Not only would Debbie assemble a motley crew of female criminals to steal a $150,000,000 diamond Cartier necklace during the annual Met Gala, she would also pin the crime on Claude.

I expected to spend the entirety of my Ocean’s 8 viewing experience entranced by Rihanna, who plays the not-so-different-from-herself hacker Nine Ball. I knew I would take mental notes on the lavish looks. I did not, however, expect to find myself rooting for an Armitage to fail with more energy than I did during Get Out.

Against the backdrop of a conspicuously gender-swapped film in which most men are either bumbling or menacing, Debbie’s open hostility toward Claude is invigorating. Why should she hide it? Where my colleague Christopher Orr found the Claude subplot “unnecessary and moderately tedious,” I found it intriguing—the most true-to-life element of a movie that sells itself on the fantastical. After all, most women sent to jails have experienced forms of gender-based trauma (most often at the hands of a partner). Debbie’s experiences as a rich, white con artist hardly mirror the realities of most incarcerated women, but the source of her catalyzing betrayal—in love and in business—is nonetheless familiar. To watch Debbie then frame Claude for a heist that so gloriously enriches her (and seven other women) was particularly gratifying, the karmic cherry on top of a decadently illicit sundae.

Film has long toyed with the specter of female revenge. Entire series (and films) literally titled Revenge trace (mostly) women returning blows of various forms to the people who have most harmed them. (Bullock’s co-star Rihanna has drawn ire for her habit of killing men in her music videos.) The theater of feminine vengeance is a curious one, born of an oft-unspoken recognition that women are disproportionately targeted by any number of entities inflicting pain. Most stories of this sort begin with a man—father, stranger, but more often, partner—enacting violence either physical or psychological. Jennifer Lopez’s Enough found its main character training to kill her abusive husband; The First Wives Club took a deeply personal approach to the financial con: Its spurned female protagonists target their ex-husbands’ bank accounts.

Ocean’s 8 doesn’t much deviate from this formula; man transgresses, man must suffer. The film never makes light of Debbie’s penchant for revenge, but in a vehicle as swanky and fun as Ocean’s 8, male atonement is simply more entertaining to watch than it has been in many other films. (Audiences seem to agree: The film dominated at the box office its opening weekend.) If Claude is an underwritten character, his flatness at least serves to underscore Debbie’s feminine dominance in the revenge subplot. Debbie doesn’t kill, maim, or even really address Claude much at all; she merely renders him helpless. It’s nearly impossible not to laugh at the visual humbling of a handsome man blubbering to police about how he couldn’t possibly have stolen high-priced jewelry because he was too busy kissing world-famous actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway).

For what it’s worth, Debbie’s lust for vengeance doesn’t escape critique in Ocean’s: Her desire to frame Claude for the Met Gala heist initially causes tension with her partner-in-crime, Lou (Cate Blanchett). And the film doesn’t recommend framing trifling ex-lovers for elaborate burglaries any more than it recommends committing those crimes in the first place. Still, there’s a sweet satisfaction in watching as Ocean pulls it off. The gala heist may have been an adventure in avarice, but the framing capped it with style. If, as a wise woman once said, the best revenge is your paper, then Debbie Ocean absolutely got hers—and made a man pay in the process.


https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/06/the-sweet-revenge-of-oceans-8/562622/

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 Betreff des Beitrags: Re: O8-Reviews
BeitragVerfasst: 16.06.2018, 23:58 
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Reviews aus dem UK und noch mehr aus den USA:

Zitat:
Jewel in the Ocean's crown: There are giant waves of fun as Rihanna joins Sandra Bullock in an all-girl reboot of the Rat Pack's classic crime caper, says BRIAN VINER

By Brian Viner for the Daily Mail

Published: 22:59 BST, 14 June 2018 | Updated: 23:59 BST, 14 June 2018


Frank Sinatra and his alpha-male Rat Pack cohorts would be tickled, or possibly aghast, to see what their 1960 crime caper Ocean's Eleven started.

First, there was the well-received 2001 remake with George Clooney in the Sinatra role as wise-cracking heist mastermind Danny Ocean, followed by a pair of shakier sequels.

And now there's an all-female gang doing the crime-capering, with Sandra Bullock (playing Danny's sister, Debbie), Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and popstar Rihanna all in lively form.

Another knee in the crotch on behalf of those screaming gender inequality in Hollywood, or just a contrivance to squeeze even more dollars out of a franchise that was becoming tired? I'll let you decide.

Either way, the good news is that this is the best of the Ocean-going films since 2001.

But first, some caveats. Unlike the fabulous diamond necklace at the heart of the story, the film is not without flaws.

The character development could be better (ie, there could be some) and James Corden, joining the action late, is miscast as an astute insurance investigator.

He's a talented fellow and all that, but I don't think he's quite the actor he and everyone else seems to think he is.

Somehow, playing a facetious clever-clogs, as he does here, he's more of an irritant to the audience than he is to the characters, which isn't the idea at all.

At any rate, Oscar Isaac, a very classy actor indeed, played a similar part in last year's Suburbicon (directed by Clooney, coincidentally) and effortlessly stole all his scenes. Corden, just as effortlessly, rather botches his.

Those are the negatives. But looking beyond them, Ocean's 8 is great fun, a giggly, escapist joyride of a picture slickly marshalled by The Hunger Games director Gary Ross, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Olivia Milch.

Incidentally, she is the daughter of David Milch, the hotshot TV producer who created hits such as NYPD Blue and Deadwood. And Ross's father was Arthur A. Ross, the screenwriter behind Creature From The Black Lagoon.

Hollywood family trees teem with inter-marriage and myriad connections just like those of European royalty, which aptly enough brings us to the plot, because European royalty is the theme of the Met Gala, annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and highlight of the year for all New York City socialites, which Debbie and her gang are targeting.

The film begins with her getting out of jail after serving five years for fraud, and diving straight back into a life of shoplifting and petty scams.

But she has something bigger in mind. Danny is dead and she needs to live up to the family's reputation for grand larceny.

So she hooks up again with her old accomplice Lou (Blanchett), a leather-jacketed rock chick.

The script hints coyly at a past lesbian love affair between the pair, but personal lives play second fiddle, maybe even third fiddle, to the intricacies of Debbie's scheme to get rich.

Her former boyfriend, an oily English art dealer played by Richard Armitage, who helped to send her to prison and with whom Debbie has vowed to get even, is more a device than a character.

The all-girl group of swindlers are trying to steal expensive jewellery from stars at the Met Gala like Anne Hathaway

Lou runs a nightclub these days, and watering down the vodka is the height of her dishonesty. She quickly buys into Debbie's ingenious plan to steal the famous $150 million 'Toussaint' necklace, which is kept deep in the vaults of the jewellers, Cartier.

Naturally, to pull off the heist, they need assorted criminal talents, but they also need a stooge. Hathaway plays spoilt, self-absorbed actress Daphne Kluger (sending up all spoilt, self-absorbed actresses beautifully), who is identified as little more than a mannequin.

At the insistence of the eccentric Irish fashion designer dressing her (Bonham Carter, deliciously over the top, recalling the excesses of her fairy godmother in 2015's Cinderella), Daphne will wear the necklace to the gala.

With some brilliant jiggery-pokery, Debbie and her team must then pinch it from under the noses of a formidable security detail.

That's the plan, which also relies on the expertise of a computer hacker (Rihanna), a pickpocket (Awkwafina), a fence (Sarah Paulson) and a jewellery-cutter (Mindy Kaling), making the titular Ocean's 8.

Additionally, the film throws us a few 24-carat celebrity cameos (Anna Wintour, Serena Williams), which is another reason not to take it the slightest bit seriously. If you go along with that, an hour and 50 minutes will pass very enjoyably indeed.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5846005/Oceans-8-jewel-franchises-crown-says-Brian-Viner.html


Zitat:
Ocean’s Eight movie review: revenge of the women

by MaryAnn Johanson

Thu Jun 14 2018, 10:27pm | 2 comments

Ocean's Eight green light
MaryAnn’s quick take…

I’m “biast” (pro): I’m desperate for movies about women; love the cast
I’m “biast” (con): nothing

Oh, thank goodness. I was dreading discovering that Ocean’s Eight was yet another pointless retread, a cheap knockoff devoid of spark or life, nothing more than cinematic chum soon to be tossed into the Netflix mix to tempt us to log in on a Friday night. But it’s not! It’s fun, breezy, occasionally witty, features some wonderfully subtle comic performances from a great cast, and is perfectly suitable light diversion from the shitshow that is the world at the moment.

Okay, yes, this movie is a retread. It is a knockoff. It can’t hold a candle to Soderbergh’s 2001 Ocean’s Eleven; it hasn’t got the insouciant verve. But then again, what can and what does? And let us also remember that that movie, glorious as it would have been at any moment in time, arrived in the wake of enormous disaster that had stunned us, and offered us cheery, inconsequential-in-the-best-way distraction. I’m not saying our love for that movie is unfair, but I do suspect that our memories of seeing it that first time will always be colored by what a blessed relief it was.

Am I praising with faint damns? Possibly. Am I letting myself be unreasonably distracted in another moment of enormous disaster? Could be. But Ocean’s Eight has something that the other Ocean’s films did not have: the freshness of an all-female primary cast. (For the millionth goddamn time: this shouldn’t be enough to make a movie feel fresh. But it still is.) And it has something else that even other movies with all-women casts — especially those that come out of Hollywood and are intended for mainstream entertainment — mostly do not know how to cope with: Ocean’s Eight is very much about women and things that many women like — fashion, celebs, jewelry, revenge against men who’ve wronged us — without ever demeaning those women, infantilizing them, or ridiculing girly interests. (It does quite the opposite, in fact.) We’ve seen the likes of that crap too often recently: looking at you, I Feel Pretty and Book Club. (“Book clubs are the worst!” one of the women exclaims here, by way of saying that being part of a smart, stylish crime gang is a helluva lot more fun to have with your girlfriends. But that’s surely a coincidence.)

Unlike many other movies about women, this one does not demean or infantilize us, nor does it ridicule girly interests.

Con artist Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock: Our Brand Is Crisis, Minions) and her shady pal Lou (Cate Blanchett: Thor: Ragnarok, Truth) embark on a plan to snatch $150 million worth of antique diamonds off the neck of a starlet at the annual glitzy Met Gala in New York. As a heist caper, Eight is, it’s true, nowhere near as deliciously tricksy as what Debbie’s brother Danny and his gang pulled off in Las Vegas. (We get a snippet of news about Danny’s whereabouts as the film opens, and I was instantly like, Nah, he scammed that… moments before Debbie voices the same doubts.) But what Eight might lack in plot twistiness it more than makes up for in overt commentary about how the low regard in which our society holds women will work to their benefit; it becomes meta commentary on Hollywood’s lack of respect for women, too. In order to pull off their robbery, Debbie’s team will assume the sorts of invisible helper roles that women perform every day that keep the world running, and that make events like the Met Gala happen, from administrative interns to kitchen staff. These are the women who “get ignored,” Lou says to justify why she doesn’t want any men on the team, “and we want to get ignored.” Ocean’s Eight makes a sly, bitter joke — and an act of cultural revenge — out of how these ingenious women make themselves very, very rich by taking on “approved” roles, with their own, and contrary, agenda also at work, one that no one would guess at because, hey, women can’t be criminal masterminds, can they?

To see so many brilliant, competent female characters, played by such a delightful cast having a ball, none of whom are chasing men or romance, all in one movie, is such joy! There’s Amita (Mindy Kaling: The Night Before, Inside Out), a jeweler, who will deal with the diamonds themselves. There’s Tammy (Sarah Paulson: The Post, Carol), a successful fence, who will help them move the score. Constance (Awkwafina: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising) is master sleight-of-hand, which makes her a great pickpocket and snatch-thief. “Nine Ball” (Rihanna: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Home) is their hacker extraordinaire. Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter [Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero, Alice Through the Looking Glass], very much sending herself up, delectably) is the fashion designer who will dress the unwitting eighth member of the gang, diva actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway: Colossal, The Intern). No spoilers, but what screenwriters Gary Ross, who also directed (as he did Free State of Jones and The Hunger Games), and Olivia Milch do with Daphne’s character plays with assumption about famous women, especially women famous for being beautiful in public, to marvelous satiric effect. And Hathaway’s performance is an absolute gem; if Bonham Carter is sending herself up, Hathaway launches her own public persona into cunning comedic orbit. (I feel like the fact that Blanchett gets to use her own Australian accent onscreen for the first time in a long time, at least in a big movie, is a criticism of how we don’t let women be themselves onscreen.)
Anne Hathaway’s performance is an absolute gem. She’s not just sending herself up: she launches her public persona into cunning comedic orbit.

I mean, gosh, there’s even a really funny — and insightful — line, which I wouldn’t dream of spoiling, when Debbie is talking about her former relationship with asshole socialite art dealer Claude Becker (a sensationally hideous Richard Armitage: Pilgrimage, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies), and why he deserves to be set up as their fall guy for the heist. (They maneuver it so that he’s Daphne’s date for the Met Gala.) She’s explaining what she saw in him, despite the fact that he’s a spectacular jerk, and it’s a terrific illustration of a modern woman’s expectations about what a man needs to bring to a romance nowadays.

There are plot holes here, but I can forgive them. My one big complaint about Ocean’s Eight, one I can’t find a way around: the presence of James Corden (Peter Rabbit, Trolls) as the insurance investigator brought in after the theft of the necklace is discovered. This character should have been played by another badass woman. But maybe I’m just getting greedy. Ocean’s Eight did that to me. If we can get all these fabulous women onscreen, why can’t we get one more? Why can’t get movies like this one all the time… just like men get?


https://www.flickfilosopher.com/2018/06/oceans-eight-movie-review-revenge-women.html


Zitat:
OCEAN’S 8 — Review by Susan Granger

Posted by Susan Granger on Jun 13, 2018 | 0 Comments

Opening with a scene reminiscent of Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven (2001), this caper comedy introduces the late, lamented Danny Ocean’s younger sister Debbie (Sandra Bullock), leaving prison after five-years, eight months and 12 days behind bars. Swinging into action, Debbie purloins beauty products from Bergdorf Goodman, forges a posh Manhattan hotel registration, liberates a suitcase off a bellman’s cart and contacts her cool wing-woman Lou (Cate Blanchett) to explain an intricate scheme she’s been working on during her incarceration. Continue reading…

“Why do you need to do this?” Lou asks. “Because it’s what I’m good at,” Debbie answers.

She’s after serious ‘bling,’ namely Cartier’s Toussaint, a dazzling, six-pound diamond necklace, worth $150 million, which will be around the neck of vain, It Girl actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) at the upcoming Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Gala. Their job is to exchange it for a perfectly crafted cubic zirconia copy.

But that involves a team effort, so she recruits Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter), a career-crazed couturier; Nine Ball (pop star Rihanna), an intrepid hacker; Tammy (Sarah Paulson), a proficient fence; Amita (Mindy Kaling), a diamond expert; and Constance (Awkwafina), a pickpocket/hustler.

Why an all-woman crew? As Debbie notes, “A ‘him’ gets noticed; a ‘her’ gets ignored. And, for once, we’d like to be ignored.”

Helmed by pedestrian director Gary Ross (“Pleasantville.” “Seabiscuit”), who collaborated on the superficial, gender-flipped script with Olivia Milch, there are lots of cameos, including Heidi Klum, Kim Kardashian, Katie Holmes, Dakota Fanning, Hailey Baldwin, Maria Sharapova, Olivia Munn, even Anna Wintour.

Early on, Debbie is determined to wreak vengeance against her smarmy ex-boyfriend, Claude Becker (Richard Armitage). And after the jewel heist, James Corden appears as a savvy insurance investigator.

FYI: In a mausoleum scene, one stone reads “Helga M. Meyer,” that’s the maiden name of Sandra Bullock’s late mom.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Oceans 8 scores a sparkling 7, an adventurous, fun chick-flick.


http://awfj.org/blog/2018/06/13/oceans-8-review-by-susan-granger/


Zitat:
In Ocean’s 8, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend

The latest in the heist series pays lip service to women's equality, but the gang can't quite get its message straight.


By Josephine Livingstone
June 12, 2018

“A him gets noticed, a her gets ignored—and for once, we want to be ignored.” Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) is defending her decision to draft only women into her heist squad. Over five years in prison, she has plotted to steal a $150 million diamond necklace at the Met Gala. Women will never be the prime suspects, Debbie’s argument goes, and besides—they’re doing this for all the little girls out there who dream of growing up to be career criminals. Amid this flurry of faux-feminist (fauxminist?) gags, Ocean’s 8 runs on two core questions: Will this gang of plucky gals make off with the loot? And will Gary Morris produce a film to rival Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 Ocean’s Eleven, the one that started this whole franchise? The answer, predictably, is yes and no.

We start with a parole meeting, which sees Debbie waltz out of jail in the evening dress she was wearing when she was caught for art fraud. Ocean’s Eleven began the same way, with Danny Ocean (George Clooney) in black tie. While Danny formed a leadership duo with Rusty (Brad Pitt), Debbie hooks up with the reptilian Lou (Cate Blanchett). As Debbie’s plan gains momentum, the pair are joined by Constance the sleight-of-hand master (Awkwafina), Nine Ball the hacker (Rihanna), Tammy the fence (Sarah Paulson), Rose Weil the designer (Helena Bonham Carter), Amita the jeweler (Mindy Kaling), and, eventually, Daphne the movie star (Anne Hathaway). From an industrial-minimal Brooklyn warehouse, the gang get planning.

The movie features various callbacks to the previous films. Tammy gets pulled out of retirement just like Saul does, except her “retirement” is suburban momhood. Lou does a lot of saying “I’m out.” Debbie closes out the movie wearing a suit and an undone black bowtie, just as Danny ended Ocean’s Eleven.

But from the start we realize that this movie is not going to have that Soderberghian panache. For one thing, the super-glossy, super-detailed quality that is predominant in Hollywood movies today strips this heist movie of the ‘70s atmosphere of its predecessors. There are no split-screen shots until the end of the movie. The soundtrack is pretty good, but it’s far subtler than Soderbergh’s in-your-face use of Perry Como, Quincy Jones, Handsome Boy Modeling School, and Debussy.

Perhaps it’s unfair to compare this reboot to that first movie. Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen were pretty bad, too. But so much is recycled here—the comic duo in the lead, the camaraderie—that it’s impossible to avoid. And as I re-watched the 2001 movie right after seeing the new one, it became abundantly clear that certain changes to the plot formula of the Ocean’s recipe had robbed this movie of a lot of magic.

First, the stylized Italian Job vibe is gone in favor of something lighter, more natural. But second and more importantly, there is no villain. In every one of the three male Ocean’s pictures (for want of a better term), an antagonist set the terms for the heist team’s redemption. In the first movie, it was Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). In the second, it was Benedict again, plus François Toulours (the divine Vincent Cassel). In the third, Willy Bank (Al Pacino!). But here there is only one useless bloke on the sidelines named Claude (Richard Armitage), the informant who put Debbie in jail.

Director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, The Hunger Games) has said that this movie is “about camaraderie, not antagonism.” That theme is presumably supposed to play into the idea of solidarity between women, a playful job where the stakes are all cash, no heartbreak. Although this movie is fun, the subtraction of rivalry makes for a movie that is inevitably less riveting. Ocean’s Thirteen was not a perfect movie, but the premise was. The team was hitting Willy Bank’s hotel in revenge for his double-cross of their friend Reuben (Elliott Gould). They did it for a pal. They did it for love. And diamonds are just not as good as revenge.

The heist itself is cool, involving a lot of fancy tricks and undercover work. The team communicates over iMessage, which seems like very bad OPSEC, but otherwise the mechanics of the operation are believable. Still, this leads to the third element missing from this heist plot: an obstacle. Every other movie has featured several stumbling blocks, moments where the viewer is unsure whether the team will succeed. Although there is a minor hiccup at the end, the movie otherwise runs on very smooth wheels. They hatch the plan, they execute the plan. That’s it.

Sandra Bullock is a very fine comic actress, but the pairing with Cate Blanchett doesn’t quite fire up the way that the Clooney-Pitt duet did. Blanchett looks fantastic, however. With her shaggy blonde cut and slinky suits, she looks like a cross between Kim Deal, Nico, and John Travolta. She rides a motorcycle and gives great eye contact. It’s a very queer performance and, even though it’s not funny, it’s among the movie’s most enjoyable.

The funniest performances come from Awkwafina, who skateboards to great effect, and—in a bizarre twist—Anne Hathaway. I wouldn’t have believed Hathaway could steal a scene from Mindy Kaling or Helena Bonham Carter, but the role of flinty narcissist with hidden smarts is perfect for her. In other surprises, James Corden does a very funny turn as an insurance investigator (“I’ve seen a racehorse thrown into a tree shredder ... for money”). The only reprised cast member from the other Ocean’s movies is Shaobo Qin as Yen, the acrobatic “grease man.”

There’s something about seeing a gang of women so uniformly hot and young-ish that is disappointing. The Ocean’s Eleven cast featured one late-middle aged and one truly elderly gentleman. Here, we see a gang of diverse but simultaneously homogenous women. That contrast serves to undercut the lip service to feminism done by the script. It would have been great to see, say, Joanna Lumley in this. There are some wonderful lines sprinkled throughout this movie, as when Tammy takes leave of her son by explaining that mommy has to go on a “very special work trip.” But otherwise, Ocean’s 8 is full of diamonds and lacking in sparkle.


https://newrepublic.com/article/148980/oceans-8-diamonds-girls-best-friend


Zitat:
Review
'It's by a Blogger': Jezebel's 10 Reviews Ocean's 8


Jezebel Staff
Wednesday 12:59pmFiled to: Ocean's GR8


Because we are women and therefore simple creatures who are easily enticed by a movie with a cast of all women, the Jezebel staff had been hotly anticipating Ocean’s 8 for awhile. For months, we would walk past promotional posters (“Every Con Has Its Pros,” they read) and would think, Good tagline! We’d then proceed to spend the rest of our lives on a New York City train while thinking about Ocean’s 8.

So of course, 10 of us decided to spent a nice Tuesday night in the city watching this fancy heist film starring Rihanna, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Awkwafina, Mindy Kaling, Sandra Bullock, and Sarah Paulson. The fashion! The jewels! The crime! The cameos! The movie? It was fun and ultimately fine. Similar to our Fifty Shades endeavors, we wrote about our experience. Here it is.

Cast and Performances—Harron Walker

It’s pretty fair to say that most of us would’ve bought a ticket to Ocean’s 8 just to watch the cast do stuff together on the big screen, regardless of how good the movie actually turned out to be. (Shout out to casting director Debra Zane!) Thankfully, Ocean’s 8 turned out to be pretty good, but it’s definitely aware of the fact that a lot of us want nothing more than to watch its stars be themselves, or at least a heightened version of who we imagine them to be.

There’s a meta element to everyone’s performances, save for Sarah Paulson’s Long Kiss Goodnight-style homemaker with a past, which makes sense given the fact that her public persona (a wonderful actress I want to see more of) doesn’t translate as well as those of the other women. It seems as if director Gary Ross rests on amplifying what we already like about the cast to fill in the gaps in character development that the film’s tight, under-two-hour runtime wouldn’t allow: Helena Bonham Carter’s fashion designer is an eccentric weirdo with a taste for the post-punk Victorian. Sandra Bullock’s heist leader is a no-nonsense boss lady with the driest of wits. Rihanna’s hacker is too cool to be there (and, for a few brief minutes towards the climax when she gets out of her hackerware, the hottest person onscreen slash ever). And Awkwafina as a hammy, scene-chewing pick pocket artist is…extremely Awkwafina!

Anne Hathaway’s cloying good girl actress definitely skewers the Anne we all loved to hate a few years ago.

Even the cast members who delve a little deeper into characterization use some element of their cult of personality to do so: Anne Hathaway’s cloying good girl actress definitely skewers the Anne we all loved to hate a few years ago, and Cate Blanchett’s lighter-flicking, Fosse-limbed Shane Who Won’t Leave You At The Altar seems tailormade to satisfy the CarolHive, to say nothing of the barely sub subtext between Blanchett and Bullock’s characters. This approach mostly works, except in the case of Mindy Kaling’s jewel appraiser, who wants nothing more than to move out of her mom’s place and live that romcom life. It’s true that she isn’t given that much to work with, but neither were Rihanna or Awkwafina, who both managed to create something dynamic by film’s end. Kaling’s character is definitely necessary to Ocean’s 8—it’s a movie about a jewel heist, after all. She just wasn’t that memorable.

The Audience—Katie McDonough

I entered the theater nervous that there wouldn’t be enough seats for all of us in the row we had reserved, but to my great relief there were enough. I sat next to Megan. From my vantage point in the last row, I could see very little except the back of each seat, tops sturdy and curved like a gravestone. I stood for a moment. At the front of the theater, I could see a ponytail peeking out from the seat cushion. I knew that this person, like me, was ready to be empowered by crime. In terms of audience reaction, people laughed a lot at a Tinder reference. [Ed Note: It’s a scene in which Mindy Kaling’s character swipes through Tinder with guidance from Awkwafina.]

We all liked the jokes and visual gags premised on society’s underestimation and erasure of women. Harron and Julianne laughed very hard, I think in a disdainful way, at a Banksy joke. Speaking for myself as an audience member, I liked that Cate Blanchett dressed like Mick Jagger, but did not like it when Rihanna took advantage of Paul and his love of Wheaten Terriers. I wanted the movie to end after the heist was done, when everyone was wearing cool dresses and looking triumphant. Instead, James Corden showed up.

The Script—Ellie Shechet

The script for Ocean’s 8 was fine, nothing to write home about. I’m speaking from a more literal perspective, as I took like three notes and really have very little to say here (Clover, can you guys please stop assigning me the script for these blogs, thank you so much?). Did I laugh uproariously? No. Did I cringe? Only a few times, like when James Corden yelled, “So you’re saying your company does nothing to prevent someone like BANKSY [from breaking into the museum]?” or when we learned, during a crime brainstorming session, that “Anna has to approve everything.” (You don’t say?)

I remember almost nothing Sandra Bullock said as Debbie Ocean, except it was all delivered very quickly with the tepid half-smile of a lady who loves to do crime. The script in this film was heroically and exactly just good enough to allow the film’s more exciting elements (the planning, the heist, Anne Hathaway’s acting as Daphne Kluger) to shine. [Ed. Note: The best line of this film, hands down, is the headline for this post, and it comes when Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter) is reading reviews of her fashion show.]
I felt much anxiety during the actual heist and its aftermath, which was another sign (for me) that it was a good one.

The Heist—Megan Reynolds

In my mind, the hallmarks of a good heist include but are not limited to: ingenuity, surprise, execution, and whether or not I feel any anxiety during the heist’s execution. I don’t know if this is what actually makes a good heist, because I lack the strategic planning and the poker face to pull one off myself. Working with these arbitrary rules, I have decided that the heist in Ocean’s 8 is a very good heist indeed.

Divulging the details of the heist will only ruin the actual experience of watching it, but here is the general outline: there are seven women who want to use Anne Hathaway cosplaying the worst version of herself to steal a big necklace from the Met Gala. There are many montages of preparing for the heist: buying special items, like Snapchat glasses that talk to a 3D printer, and many gowns. I felt much anxiety during the actual heist and its aftermath, which was another sign (for me) that it was a good one. Part of the thrill is wondering whether or not they’ll pull it off. But maybe the real hallmark of a good heist is the feeling of satisfaction on getting one over.

How It Stacks Up to the Original—Clover Hope

As you have likely read, the plot of Ocean’s 8 begins with a nod to Danny Ocean, aka George Clooney, who is fictionally dead, RIP, but his criminal spirit lives on in his sister Debbie Ocean, aka Sandra Bullock. She is him in this sequel (or rather, she’s her own woman), the master heist coordinator with a solid plan and a calm demeanor. Directed by Steven Soderbergh and itself a Rat Pack remake, Ocean’s Eleven was the ultimate ensemble heist film led by Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Julia Roberts. While Ocean’s Twelve took a dip in quality, Ocean’s Thirteen brought the ship back, from what I recall.

From the start, the Gary Ross-directed Ocean’s 8 swipes the template of the original (and I guess any caper film): there’s the presentation of the heist plan, the introduction of the players, the planning of said heist, a couple of hiccups along the way, an Anna Wintour cameo, poof, swipe, PUKE, and the heist is pulled off with a few wise cracks in between. It’s a fun, intended-to-be-dazzling adventure.

Here’s my gripe. Awkwafina plays a pick pocket artist, Mindy Kaling is a jewelry appraiser, and Helena Bonham Carter plays a fashion designer, which all works for getting the Met Gala job done. And perhaps I’m living too much in the past here, but what I loved about the original films was how each heist member’s specific talents were impressively executed. They somehow made a freaking contortionist acrobat (the Amazing Yen) part of the plan, had an explosives expert, mechanics, etc—and all that made for a fascinating heist. While the Ocean’s 8 version was indeed fun, I think they could’ve used a more oddball profession, someone whose singular skill would play well for the plan. The coolest job to me was (no bias) Rihanna’s hacker position and how it played into the real fact that privacy doesn’t exist. WATCH YOUR FOOTPRINT.

The fact that the acrobat from the original Ocean’s (played by Shaobo Qin) had to reemerge at the end of this movie seems to confirm that’s what was needed. It kinda sucks that ultimately they depended on a man to finish the job, but at least it was more like they were using him. In all, it’s hard to top the original. Ocean’s 8, while it got the job done, could’ve been much flyer.
She truly did immerse herself in this character.

Rihanna—Claire Shaffer

She was amazing, and she deserved so much better. That’s basically my opinion on the movie in general, but no more so than Rihanna. If you’re going into Ocean’s 8 expecting a sequel to “mahalo, motherfucker,” you’ll be thoroughly disappointed. However if, like me, you are pleasantly buzzed on canned rosé by the time RiRi shows up, you’ll find yourself softly “whoo”-ing when she appears onscreen, along with everyone else in the theater.

Rihanna plays an unassuming stoner-hacker named Nine Ball, whose real name is revealed to be Leslie. This, the movie tells us, is her only flaw. Like everyone else, she does the crime without a hitch, but unlike everyone else, she is stuck in front of a computer monitor inside a (very bougie) halal truck throughout most of the heist. There are many unbelievable and absurd things in this movie, but Rihanna stuck in a halal truck during the Met Ball takes the cake. Even in this alternate world where Rihanna, Queen of the Met Ball, does not exist, I have a feeling that had she walked onto the red carpet, Anna Wintour would have whipped around and whispered, “Oh….oh, her. Who is she?”

When Rihanna does finally arrive at the ball, glammed-up in celeb disguise along with the rest of the team, she’s basically wearing a more subdued, red version of her “Wild Thoughts” outfit. Boring and not on theme?? She truly did immerse herself in this character. It’s a shame because, while the movie goes out of its way to spoof the public personas of several of its stars – Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter – it gives others, like Rihanna and Mindy Kaling, very little to do. Ri-Ri’s centerpiece of the movie is when she disguises herself as a janitor in the New York Times building. When everyone gets their $38 million and is fantasizing about what they’ll use it for, Nine Ball’s dream is to…open a billiards bar named Nine Ball’s. Still, on the slim chance that this bullshit leads to her starring in her own heist movie, it’ll all be worth it.

The Empowerment—Joanna Rothkopf

The uncomplicated Ocean’s 8, which I uncomplicatedly enjoyed, is all a-freakin’-bout signaling how empowering it is. There are basically no men in the first 10 minutes of the movie (other than a disembodied voice), and the men that do appear later are either ex- or potential boyfriends, uptight diamond protectors, or James Corden. Plus: these women know how to steal for themselves! Cate Blanchett has razored bangs! The song “Bossy” by Kelis plays for like one whole verse!

Within the script—which unfortunately focuses less on its perfect cast and more on executing a flawless heist—there are two moments when I bellowed an involuntary, guttural “YAS”: When Sandra Bullock’s Debbie Ocean says why she wants an all-woman heist team (“A him gets noticed and a girl gets ignored. For once we want to be ignored”), and when she says the pseudo-thesis statement of the movie: “Somewhere out there is an 8-year-old girl lying in bed, dreaming of being a criminal. Do this for her.”

The movie receives further empowerment points for allowing the women to fulfill their dreams with their earnings (Rihanna gets her own bar! Cate Blanchett gets to motorcycle down the PCH, but did we even know her character loves motorcycles! Awkwafina gets to join the co-op board!), and from Anne Hathaway’s divine line reading of, “Oh, look at you,” while staring in the mirror. Negative points for having the heist revolve around getting revenge on an ex-boyfriend. B+
I fell out of my freaking seat when Anne Hathaway’s character, Daphne Kluger, applied HER OWN MAKEUP for the Met Gala.

The Supporting Cast—Prachi Gupta

In a movie that has eight leads, there’s not a lot of room for supporting characters. It feels like a stretch to call Dakota Fanning, for example, a supporting character because she appeared in maybe two scenes, essentially just playing herself (a celebrity named Penelope Stern). So I’ll focus this review on the few recurring characters whose presence actually moved the plot forward. There was Claude, Debbie Ocean’s former lover interest, James Corden, who plays insurance claims agent John Frazier, and a team of interchangeable white men who all work for Cartier and speak varying degrees of French.

Claude (Richard Armitage) is a tall, almost handsome con-man who is, I think, meant to seem alluring to beautiful, rich, women, but I found him very boring and frankly did not understand why any of these wealthy, accomplished women would be into him. Conversely, he wasn’t quite unlikeable enough, either—I wasn’t rooting for his downfall, I was really just ambivalent about our tall, two-drinks-in, kind-of-hot Claude. Then there was Frazier, and I am surprised to say that I liked Corden in this role and only thought about Carpool Karaoke once while watching him. In fact, I wish there was more of Corden earlier on to build tension. He and Debbie clearly have a history, so it’s jarring to meet him at the end when there’s really no time to establish a strong connection. At least, unlike dear Claude, Frazier has a personality.

The Cameos—Sheena Raza Faisal

Two Ocean’s 11 characters make quick cameos, just in case you somehow forgot that this film is part of the Ocean’s franchise; Rueben (Elliot Gould) shows up to dissuade Sandra Bullock’s character Debbie from her heist plan in the beginning, and the Amazing Yen (Shaobo Qin) appears at a crucial moment to help the team out with his acrobatic skills. Dakota Fanning shows up for a hot second, which was maybe the most unexpected cameo out of the whole film. How is she these days? Everything good with her?

And we got a whole bunch of celebrity appearances in the Met Gala scenes; Kim Kardashian, Kylie and Kendall Jenner on the red carpet, Serena Williams, Common, Heidi Klum, Katie Holmes, Olivia Munn, Gigi Hadid in the bathroom line, and various other models who I do not know by name but might possibly follow on Instagram. My favorite cameo of the night, though, was the halal cart that doubled as remote operations center for Rihanna’s character Nine Ball. My least favorite sort-of-cameo was Banksy, because, what???

The Costumes/The Met Gala—Julianne Escobedo Shepherd

Look, I know a film series about a jewel heist is not humping for realism, but I fell out of my freaking seat when Anne Hathaway’s character, Daphne Kluger, applied HER OWN MAKEUP for the Met Gala. The idea that a famous actress who is the honorary celebrity host of fashion’s biggest night would be doing her own face in a robe right before someone plopped a $150 million necklace on her swan body is how you know that Ocean’s 8 was written and directed by a man. It’s simply not accurate, unbelievable, and contributes to the erasure of the hard work of makeup artists, who possess a noble craft that’s just as important to a red carpet than the fit of a gown. A deeply infuriating omission!

Otherwise, the costuming was aight. Hathaway, after doing her own lips (travesty!) in a Max Factor red, got to wear a demure hot pink gown with a long cape; the effect was quite deliberately Grace Kelly-esque—which it had to be, considering any Met Gala guest wearing a gauche diamond necklace with a dated drop-pendant design in 2018 is definitely going for retro, or for irony. Helena Bonham Carter, playing washed-up fashion designer Rose Weil, wears a giant bouquet of flowers atop her head, splitting the difference between Vivienne Westwood and Sarah Jessica Parker, and therefore realistic.

Sandra Bullock is entrusted with some extremely hideous sheer cut-out dresses, I guess meant to call back to Sopranos-style mob molls, but which are distracting. Cate Blanchett gets to wear pantsuits, though, which is only right, and Rihanna looks at home in a red taffeta gown that her character, Nine Ball, surprisingly does not accessorize with a crocheted tam in Rasta colors. We only get a glimpse of Awkwafina and Mindy Kaling in their Met Gala gowns, but we do get some screen time with Kim Kardashian, wordless, spray-tanned, sculpted, and wearing what appears to be the pelt of a llama.

The fashion was fine.


https://themuse.jezebel.com/its-by-a-blogger-jezebels-10-reviews-oceans-8-1826772352


Zitat:
Ocean’s 8 - Five Reasons You’ll Love It

With takings of almost $1.2 billion across three movies, the Ocean’s trilogy was always red meat for a Hollywood hungry for bankable franchises to reboot, but the new take that arrives this week has its own distinct flavour.

The movie stars Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, Rihanna and Helena Bonham Carter, with Richard Armitage and James Corden in supporting roles.

Gary Ross, director of the first Hunger Games movie, takes charge of the reboot, working from a screenplay from Queen & Country writer Olivia Milch.

There are cameos agogo, with the likes of Anna Wintour, Alexander Wang, Kim Kardashian, Maria Sharapova, Derek Blasberg, Lauren Santo Domingo, Zayn Malik, Kendall Jenner, Katie Holmes, Olivia Munn, Adriana Lima, Hailey Baldwin, Serena Williams, Kylie Jenner and Zac Posen all among the brief appearances you will see in the film.

The movie follows Bullock's Debbie, the estranged sister of Danny Ocean, George Clooney's original mastermind of the series. After being released from prison Debbie attempts to pull off the heist of the century at New York City's star-studded annual Met Gala. Her first stop is to assemble the perfect crew.

It arrives in cinemas on Monday (June 18th) and will be available to pre-order on DVD from hmv’s online store in the coming days, but before all that, we caught an early screening and can offer five reasons why you’ll love it...



It’s a lean, punchy thriller…

Coming in at 110 minutes, the movie moves at quite a click, especially as we need to meet all eight of these new heist queens, but the breezy pace and light touch make for a snappy and taut thriller.



The whole team are well cast…

Bullock and Blanchett lead the way here, but there's a good balance in the rest of the cast, from Rihanna's wise-cracking hacker Nine-Ball to Awkwafina's loudmouthed street hustler to Sarah Paulson's elegant Tammy and Anne Hathaway's bratty actress Daphne Kluger, it's a well-cast and well put together team.





Richard Armitage is a dashing villain...

The Hobbit star plays Claude Becker, a slippery, but very charming art dealer and former boyfriend of Debbie Ocean, a relationship that ended rather badly. With Debbie now out of prison, he's in her sights, can he stay out of trouble...




The Met Gala sequence is a slick marvel...

With the skinny running time, we don't spend a lot of time to getting to know the characters, instead, it all builds to the central heist. Glitzy, glamorous and beautifully shot, it's a huge amount of fun to watch it happen.



Things are set up nicely for another round...

We won't spoil the ending, but there's definitely potential for a sequel after this movie. The formula laid down by the original Ocean's trilogy is quite simple, just add another member to the crew and keep going. Ocean's 9 and Ocean's 10 are still up for grabs and we'd love to see this crew back together again.



Ocean’s 8 is released into cinemas on Monday (June 18th) and will be available to pre-order on DVD from hmv’s online store in the coming days.


https://www.hmv.com/video/ocean-s-8-review


Zitat:
Ocean's 8 review: heist caper assembles the best gang imaginable, then forgets the plan

3/5

Tim Robey, Film Critic

14 June 2018 • 7:33pm

Dir: Gary Ross. Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Richard Armitage, Elliott Gould, 12A cert, 110 mins

Time’s up on all-male heist shenanigans in Ocean’s Eight, which proves that Y chromosomes in a glitzy, star-led ensemble caper are thoroughly surplus to requirements.

What else does the film prove? That Sandra Bullock is just as fit to front an Ocean’s film as George Clooney, if not rather more so? That Anne Hathaway’s comic skills and game self-parody are well worth showcasing in bitchy roles? That Cate Blanchett absolutely rocks in cheetah-print coats and biker leathers?

All of this, handily. It doesn’t prove that Clooney’s Danny Ocean is dead, but it pretends he is, in circumstances unexplained, when his sister Debbie (Bullock) sob-stories her way out of prison at the start.

The point is: she’s our substitute. And her attitude to small- and medium-scale larceny is not quite the same as Danny’s watchful waiting game. Hours after waltzing through the gate of that jail, where she’s spent five years paying a seething penance for art fraud, she’s back in business with some high-end shoplifting.

Speaking of which, how does a $150m diamond necklace sound? Getting this up from Cartier’s vaults requires a tool kit far more unique than just your usual bag of explosives and drills. It needs Anne Hathaway’s neck. She’s an entitled Hollywood diva, Daphne Kluger, whose headline appearance at New York’s Met Gala is the opportunity Debbie has been waiting for.

The key partner in this crime, though, is not the oblivious Daphne, but Debbie’s old associate Lou (Blanchett), a bad-ass club fixer who’s reluctant to her get hands dirty.

And so the gang, in customary fashion, comes together, adding bespoke pieces of the jigsaw one at a time. First they need a once-reputable fashion designer (Helena Bonham Carter, all tragic frizz and Dublin accent) to bag the commission and incorporate the necklace into Daphne’s ensemble. A diamond expert (Mindy Kaling), pickpocket (the rapper Awkwafina), and hacker extraordinaire (Rihanna, not looking energised) are next on the list, and a social planner (Sarah Paulson) has to make certain that Daphne’s seated right where they need her.

The fun of this particular plan, which is at least as promising in the set-up phase as any of its franchise bedfellows, is how alarmingly public it is. They have to get the necklace off of Daphne, while she’s sitting at a table near Katie Holmes (the real one) and every camera in New York is trained their way.

There’s no getting around the fact that the movie peaks in this fleet and enjoyable section, which ought to be a climax but somehow isn’t. After that, a lot of the sure-footed development gets scratched out. There’s a lot of fuss about a magnet that’s needed to remove the necklace... but wait, the security guys later accept it just having fallen off?

Listing further plot holes would only be spoiling the elements that do work. Blanchett gets one delightfully neat and tidy job to perform in a kitchen, partly because there’s no one who wouldn’t believe her as a jet-set nutritionist. Your growing concern, though, is whether writer-director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville), not quite as wily as a Steven Soderbergh, was really the man for this job – and not just on a gender basis.

It goes without saying that he gets an awful lot of assistance from his cast – milking their moments, and surely spit-balling their way through an average script as often as possible. Bullock’s impressive bond with an audience, giving us dry asides that feel like meta-commentaries, is as much of a boon as ever. Plus, there’s brassy music, by a never-better Daniel Pemberton, which beefs up the David Holmes grooves from the first trilogy, putting a lot of wind in the film’s sails.

More of a minus is James Corden, whose overeager turn as a wise-cracking insurance adjuster could have been a great chance for a more seasoned, preferably less effortful, cameo player.

The whole aftermath is a little duff, a lazy clean-up operation which leaves more loose ends flapping than it ties. Top-tier heist films – from this batch, Ocean’s Eleven is the only one – manage to build and build, outdoing themselves with each new flourish, every daredevil reveal. Ocean’s Eight dresses its cast to kill, jumps off the trapeze with all the usual moves, and then forgets about its encore.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/oceans-8-review-heist-caper-assembles-best-gang-imaginable-forgets/


Zitat:
Jewelry Heist Movie 'Ocean's 8' Gets Plenty Of Sparkle From A Stellar Cast
26:01



June 7, 20185:00 AM ET
Linda Holmes


Steven Soderbergh's Oceans Eleven was released in December 2001. It arrived early in a long winter in which debates bubbled along over what people wanted from entertainment in the post-Sept. 11 environment. Would they seek out simple diversions? Or something uplifting? Perhaps one of the reasons the film became so beloved is that it was the right movie at the right moment: irresistibly stylish, almost meaninglessly exciting, a heist film about incredibly charismatic men stealing unthinkable amounts of money from the least sympathetic victim imaginable — plus George Clooney winning the girl, too. It was silly, but also ... oh, it was all so dashing.

Ocean's 8 does not benefit from Soderbergh's mischievous, coiled-spring direction. Director/co-writer Gary Ross, who directed The Hunger Games and Seabiscuit (and, not for nothing, is a multiple Oscar nominee), makes softer films with fewer flourishes, notwithstanding a couple of moves that salute — or, if you like, lift from — Soderbergh. The script, which he wrote with Olivia Milch, doesn't have the pop of the best parts of Ocean's Eleven, so it relies heavily on its stellar cast.
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How fortunate it is that the cast is so thoroughly up to the task.

Ocean's 8 revolves around eight terrific women: Sandra Bullock, fully out of the enormously endearing stumbly ingenue mode in which she first became famous; Cate Blanchett, operating without her regal carriage as a glam vision of petty crime; Anne Hathaway, playing the superficial star she was once accused of being (and delivering unto every doubter of her considerable comedic talent a knee in the gut); Mindy Kaling, playing a clever jeweler and doing entirely without the fizzy sparkle that's sustained her onscreen work since The Office; Sarah Paulson, sending up the Hollywood vision of the demure suburban mother; Helena Bonham Carter, somehow both embracing her daffy aesthetic and being utterly outside it; Rihanna, perhaps the current queen of the real Met Gala, here comfortably astride the line between that image of herself and a different one entirely; and Awkwafina, a real-life rapper who will also be appearing in Crazy Rich Asians later this year and who, I suspect, will soon have her own studio comedy film.

The heist plot in Ocean's 8 is much less byzantine than the casino-heist plot in Ocean's Eleven: The women will infiltrate the Met Gala and steal a Cartier diamond necklace so valuable that it's been in a vault for decades. How to get it out? They dupe Daphne Kluger (Hathaway), a hot, seemingly awful young actress who's been tapped as the event's celebrity host, into wearing it, and then they take it right off her neck. The team is led by Debbie Ocean (Bullock) and her BFF (?) Lou (Blanchett), who recruit the rest.

A side note: Why do I say "BFF (?)"? Because Bullock and Blanchett have such frankly hot chemistry in a couple of scenes that it's easy to wonder whether Debbie and Lou either have, or had in the past, what we might gauzily call A Thing. But that's never acknowledged, and to read it into the film raises the uncomfortable problem of Representation That Isn't — of queer characters who are only queer in the minds of others, not in their own actions or words. Either way, the two have either a very sexy friendship or a very sexy more-than-friendship.

Bonham Carter is a fashion designer, Kaling is a jeweler, Paulson is a fence, Rihanna is a hacker (named Nine Ball, with an actual nine-ball tracking ball for her computer, which is very cool), and Awkwafina is a pickpocket. All will play a role, as will an art dealer named Claude (Richard Armitage), whose relationship to the whole thing takes a while to play out.

What adds so many funny grace notes to Ocean's 8 is how much it is about Hollywood, and about actresses, while embracing its status as what we might call an "except with women" movie:

Ghostbusters — except with women.

The Karate Kid — except with a girl.

And now, Ocean's Eleven — except with women. (Honestly, it should be Ocean's Fifteen, given that the wage gap means Debbie can get more women for the same price her brother hired 11 men.) (Just kidding, ha ha!)

Hathaway's performance, in particular, cannot be read without reference to the brutal public treatment she has absorbed in real life over ... being too earnest? Being too happy about winning an Oscar? Back in 2013, this reached the absurd point where a New York Times article concluding that people essentially despised her for no good reason at all was nevertheless titled "What Is Anne Hathaway Doing Wrong?" Anne Hathaway is here, in Ocean's 8, to tell you that you don't know squat about her, that she has heard every mean, nasty, cranky, ungenerous, sexist thing that can be said about her, and her response is ... comedy. Great, fearless, elegant, bright-eyed comedy that dares to ask the question, "I'm not this person — but what if I were? Wouldn't that be hilarious?"

Late in the film, there is a series of cameos that may not stand out to a young slice of the audience, but will be familiar to anyone who has been watching actresses on screen for a long time. And it's when you see those cameos that the full sweep of the film's comment on the Hollywood female image — a comment that's never heavy-handed, but feather-light — lands.

It's no coincidence that there are no boyfriends or husbands of any significance — other than Paulson's, because her adorable family is part of her cover. It's common for entire casts of men to care little about romantic relationships, but less common with casts of women. Are any of them in relationships? Are any of them interested in men? Women? Not during this caper. They're interested in money, just like they would be if they were men.

But at the same time, it's also no coincidence that Ocean's 8 was placed at one of the most famous events there is for the performance of celebrity femininity. The Met Gala is where every stitch of clothing is critiqued, as either too much or not enough. It is where actresses like the fictional Daphne and the real Hathaway go to be devoured for their missteps. But there is a moment, of course, when the plot dictates that we must see most of these actresses in their gala drag. And when you have watched them all play flesh and blood people and then you see them slip into a crowd of uncomfortably dressed stiffs, it invites an intriguing mental reversal. This glamour, this fancypants presentation, this is boring. This is mundane. What is interesting is watching these women work, scheme, crack wise with each other. The way the film manages to drool over the Met and the poshness of everything while still ultimately deflating it as little more than a lovely moment to play dress-up is quite smart.

There is still a very real concern for fashion. In particular, Blanchett's style here — platinum blunt cut, feathery bangs; slim-cut, but often wide-legged suits — it is an entirely different fantasy. It has nothing to do with the brand of femininity that the gala reveres. It is a punk-inflected, angular, indelible look that people will be copying for years. And if you know anything about Rihanna, you know that her look is never less than fully considered. Here, she has a sort of army-jacket chic that's so persuasive that it's almost — almost — possible to believe she could disappear into a crowd. (Although as one of my friends noted just after the film ended, it is perhaps the plot's greatest required suspension of disbelief that one must assume an inconspicuous Rihanna.) And she and Awkwafina are both so, so funny that you'll leave eager to see them closer to the center of the next project.

The shortcomings of the film's style, and in particular the mostly bland direction, will likely dull both reviews of it and reception of it by audiences — particularly given how central style was to Ocean's Eleven. But the charisma of the cast is tremendous, it's still a breezy and adventurous heist movie, and particularly in the performance from Hathaway, it's timely, in its way, just as its predecessor was.


https://www.npr.org/sections/monkeysee/2018/06/07/617478831/jewelry-heist-movie-ocean-s-8-gets-plenty-of-sparkle-from-a-stellar-cast


Zitat:
The 'Ocean's 8' lack of conflict is the most important part of its fantasy


Since its box office–topping release, Ocean’s 8 has delighted some moviegoers and caused others to respond with a not-resounding shrug.

The shruggers point to the film’s lack of conflict as an issue with the story, alluding to the fact that the lady criminals in the movie experience few setbacks in their quest to steal millions of dollars worth of diamonds, and that the setbacks they do encounter are solved easily.

“This movie is boring,” they say, “because there is no tension or concern whether they’ be able to pull off the job.”

Ocean’s 8 is good precisely because there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that this group of women will be able to perform their shiny, elaborate heist. Whatever tension is lost in that surety is replaced with a different, rarer cinematic delight: the joy of knowing that highly competent women will succeed virtually uninterrupted and win their prize at the end of the day.

Do these people know how orgasmic it is to watch a bunch of women complete a task without anyone bothering them? It’s a female-oriented fantasy on par with the acquisition of a $150 million dollar necklace, a wistful “if only” scenario as far fetched as successfully framing one’s bullshit ex for grand larceny.

The heist in Ocean’s 8 is planned over a course of delightful autumn days where Cate Blanchett can wear either a silk bomber jacket or a zippy velvet coat and feel equally comfortable. Sandra Bullock emerges from prison with perfect beach waves and spends her first night as a free woman in a bubble bath surrounded by fancy candles.

Nothing in this movie is about how hard it is to be a woman (or a criminal), and the buttery ease with which the titular 8 scam their way through New York’s most expensive neighborhoods is a direct aspirational parallel to the suit-wearing, cigar-smoking bad boy vibe present in the Ocean’s 11 series from which Ocean’s 8 was spawned.

Women just want to have a day where their skills are applied successfully and nobody gives them shit.

Men want to feel like they are kings of every room they walk into. Women just want to have a day where their skills are applied successfully and nobody gives them shit. The bubble bath is optional.

This theme of competency is compounded when Sandra Bullock as Debbie Ocean comments on the all-women makeup of her chosen crew. “A him gets noticed,” Debbie explains. "A her gets ignored. And for once, we’d like to be ignored.” She weaponizes the virtual invisibility of women at various points in her plan and manipulated the social and racial expectations of her marks.

When Rihanna’s Nine Ball disguises herself as the cleaning staff at a securities firm, no one bothers to question why a black woman with dreadlocks is emptying trash cans even as she plants a listening device to snoop on their meetings. Awkwafina’s Constance blends in with the wait staff at the Met Ball because of and not in spite of her race.

Even in one of the film’s big twists, when it is revealed that Anne Hathaway’s Daphne Kluger has decided to join the crew, she uses the expectation that she is an empty-headed actress to shield her newfound friends from prosecution. These are all women who understand how and why they are slotted into the categories the world places them, and they use that to pull off a flawless crime.

There is no big conflict because the conflict already exists everywhere, at all times, around every woman in the crew, and they bend it to their will instead of letting it stop them from getting what they want.

In John Mulaney’s comedy special New In Town, he jokes that there could never be a female version of Ocean’s 11. “Ocean’s 11 with women would never work because’ two would keep breaking off and start talking shit about the other nine," he says. "Or not even talk shit, just say weird passive aggressive things while they break into the casino.”

To be fair, it’s a much funnier joke in context. But the fact remains that Ocean’s 8 worked precisely because the common depiction of women as catty or incompetent was subverted and transformed into a strength.

Watching eight hotties turn those expectations around, use them to their advantage, and succeed wildly is all some moviegoers – many of them women – need to appreciate the perfect crime.


https://mashable.com/2018/06/14/oceans-8-lack-of-conflict-fantasy/?europe=true#DWNDowDePSqf

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Zitat:
A villain was intentionally left out of Ocean's 8 — because that would take away from watching the ladies work

Rachel Paige
June 11, 2018 2:00 pm

There are spoilers ahead for the best movie of the summer, Ocean’s 8. So if you haven’t seen the movie yet please go see it right now. I’m asking politely.

The first Ocean’s Eleven movie, the one that introduced us to Danny Ocean & Co., centered around Danny getting back at a man named Terry Benedict. Danny wanted to take him down for a variety of reasons, one of them being that his ex wife, Tess, was now dating the casino mogul. So Danny orchestrated this elaborate heist to rob him clean and also steal his girl back — and it’s a plot that loosely carried over into the other two Ocean’s movies, Twelve and Thirteen. Danny and his crew go up against someone — a bad someone — to steal some stuff and take this someone down. They eventually win.

And now, with Ocean’s 8, we’ve got a crew of ladies who are looking to steal some stuff because…well, they’re good at stealing stuff. There is no antagonist working against them, unless you count society. Debbie Ocean (played by Sandra Bullock) spends a few years in jail in which she reflects on her life and also manages to plan the perfect heist. These eight ladies aren’t going up against anyone to prove a point or take a stand. They’re simply really damn good at what they do and realize that when they work together, they can bank a ton of money in a very short amount of time. With that reasoning, why wouldn’t you just decide to steal from the Met Gala?

And while, yes, Debbie *is* technically looking to get back at an ex who wronged her in the past, she’s not stealing from him. Getting him in trouble with the law is simply an added bonus. Leaving a villain out of the movie was always intentional and all came down to one simple fact:
It was way more exciting to see these women work together and steal shit than introduce another character that would have taken away from the fact we all just wanted to watch these women work.

“I think we realized that these women were who we wanted to spend time with, it was the team that was the most excited, and their plan and how intricate it was, and everything was going to happen the way they needed it to and the revelations and surprises,” the co-writer of Ocean’s 8, Olivia Milch, explained to HelloGiggles over the phone. “It just sort of occurred, to us and also in our experiencing watching and telling the story, that they were who we cared about and who we wanted to spend time with — and not say that the villain or the attack isn’t important to that.

“I think that’s something that we talk a lot about is like, we want to see a group of women do shit and have that be their role, that be their attention,” Milch said. “That’s really what it’s about. [It’s about them] pulling off the heist. So that I think is very exciting to get to spend time with them doing that, kind of regardless of how the obstacles are met in various ways.”

Introducing someone else simply as a road block to hinder them wasn’t necessary.

“In a sense, it was too limiting to make a particular [character] an antagonist,” Gary Ross, the film’s director and co-screenwriter jumps in. “What all these women were doing together as a [group was] bigger than that.”

So see, you don’t necessarily need a bad guy or a vengeance to do what you’re good at and steal a bunch of stuff. But okay, don’t steal stuff, because that’s bad. Leave that to Debbie Ocean and her band of professionals.


https://hellogiggles.com/news/oceans-8-villain/


Zitat:

'Ocean's 8' Steals the Jewels—But Not the Show
3.5 STARS
—Dir. Gary Ross
By Caroline A. Tsai, CRIMSON STAFF WRITERa day ago


“Do women have to be naked to get into the Met?” asks the most iconic of 30 posters by the Guerilla Girls. In 1989, the anonymous feminist collective surveyed the ratio of female to male nudes showcased in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and compared it to the ratio of female to male artists whose art hung on the walls of the Met galleries. The results? “Less than five percent of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85 percent of the nudes are female,” the poster reports—data that has admittedly shifted, but only incrementally, over the past few decades.

The women who prowl the halls of the Met in Gary Ross’s “Ocean’s 8” are less preoccupied with the artwork on the walls, and more with the Hollywood royalty on display at the annual Met Gala, an event one character aptly terms “the most exclusive party in the world.” Their ambitions are decidedly more artful than artistic, though a similar reclamation of power is at work here, too. After Debby Ocean (Sandra Bullock), sister of George Clooney’s Danny Ocean of the original Ocean’s franchise, talks her way out of jail, her first move is to slip effortlessly back into her material life, first by swindling cosmetics from a Bergdorf saleswoman, then by hustling a luxury suite at a New York hotel, the first of many steps to her elaborate plan to pull a complicated jewelry heist during the Met Gala. Debby’s star-studded squad includes her wisecracking former partner in crime, Lou Miller (Cate Blanchett, in an array of various leopard-print and glittery costumes), along with five other heist specialists (including, but not limited to, Mindy Kaling as Amita, an expert jeweler, Sarah Paulson as a stay-at-home mommy whose restlessness leads to truck hijacking, and Rihanna as a professional hacker). Together, Debby’s team works to plant Cartier’s $150 million Toussaint diamond necklace on Daphne Kluger (a scowling Anne Hathaway, who’s more Miranda Priestly than Andy), a snotty Hollywood starlet.

Gary Ross’s all-female spin-off of Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 original buzzes with a unique energy of its own. It’s a joy to watch these actresses work, like a feminist buddy comedy dream-casted by Twitter fandom. They all banter cleverly, exchanging one-liners. “Honey, is this a proposal?” Lou quips, to which Debby deadpans, “Baby, I don’t have a diamond yet.” Cast members have been known to gush about the affectionate on-set atmosphere in press junket interviews, a comfort that manifests clearly in their characters’ easy rapport. It makes the heist itself moot—whether or not they succeed is of little consequence when we’re just here for the witty repartee. Or as Amita complains in one scene, “Can’t we just go? Do we have to steal stuff?”

Amita has a point. A sensible director might have cut “Ocean's 8” off 20 minutes early. But Ross drags out the film’s third act until its energy fizzles out, using James Corden as an insurance investigator in a half-baked attempt to reinvigorate a plot sorely lacking in conflict, as if the director suddenly realized that it might be implausible for his characters to simply get away with the crime. Of course it isn’t plausible. Neither is the conceit of the film itself, from the scheme to 3D-scan a necklace and remotely print a zirconium model, to the act of hauling up the necklace from the Cartier vault to begin with. Ross ought to know that the most compelling caper isn’t whether Debby and Co. get found out, or even how they pull it off, but why they choose to do it—and what it means for the impenetrably deified upper social strata.

Following recent fascination for individuals on the margin who can talk their way into elite circles on the seat of their pants, “Ocean’s 8” is a film of its time—one whose currency is beauty, wealth, and above all, status. A Met Gala camera shot lingers purposefully on the Kardashians, America’s de-facto royal family, whose fame is the go-to symbol of ersatz class and rich-quick wealth generated seemingly out of thin air. Who’s in and who’s out has never been more glaringly apparent, and “Ocean’s 8” does best when it speculates how much of “being in” is performative: how easy it is to infiltrate the Met Gala unnoticed or to talk Cartier out of its crown jewels, all the while undermining the cartoonishly ostentatious institutions themselves. (It should be noted that it takes a little more than sleight of hand for A-listers to believably pose as outsiders. Bullock, Blanchett, and Bonham Carter—it’d be a shocker if those household names weren’t already on the invite list.)

It’s a shame that any all-female cast film has to be a capital-S Statement—on female-driven narratives, on women being funny or serious enough, on whether they can make it big at the box office (which “Ocean's 8” has done superbly, but this is besides the point). Films can suffocate under the weight of insurmountable expectations (the 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot, widely considered a box office bomb, comes to mind), and frustratingly, each victory or failure is heavily symbolic. A victory is an outlier, a failure is evidence that women can’t head mainstream films without being relegated to another genre like “chick flick.” Surely it was never a talking point whether 1984’s “Ghostbusters” or 2001’s “Ocean’s Eleven” would be enough to sustain the future of male-driven movies.

When it comes to “Ocean’s 8,” it’s a promising gesture toward more of its kind, but as a film in itself, it struggles to ascend beyond blockbuster fodder that’s only semi-witty. It’s a 3D-printed zirconium model of what it could have been: Exciting, but just not the real thing. Although perhaps the most telling part of “Ocean’s 8” is not the heist, but its metaphorical subtext. Women want a seat at the table, even if it means breaking in uninvited.


https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/6/16/oceans-8-review/


Zitat:
In Praise of How the Women of ‘Ocean’s 8’ Eat
With pierogies and popcorn, the slick heist movie bucks a sexist Hollywood trope

by Melissa Buote Jun 15, 2018, 11:02am EDT


There's a scene in Ocean’s 8 where a bandit named Lou (played by Cate Blanchett) saunters across a street toward her boss, Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), in a sequin jumpsuit, a heavy drip of diamonds in her cleavage and on her ears. She’s a scintillation given human form: a dark shimmer of greens and teals, like the glittery lovechild of David Bowie and a mermaid. It’s a moment of triumph, the culmination of their grand heist that oozes glamour and straddles a few numbers in the upper half of the Kinsey scale — basically, this victorious strut defines the movie. But it’s not the best moment.

That honor goes to a scene in Ocean’s 8 that takes place at Veselka, the venerable diner in Manhattan’s East Village. Debbie is eating from several plates of food on the table, explaining the heist to Lou, talking through bites of Ukrainian food. She pushes her fork around her plate to pick up some potato. Once a haystack pile of crispy-edged latkes sits on her fork, she swirls her knife around to scoop up sour cream and then pats at the pile, dabbing and spreading the cream around until she is satisfied with the forkful she’s put together. Her bite punctuates a sentence. For the entire scene her focus is split between filling her partner in on the details of a heist and having her lunch. The scene ends with Debbie offering Lou a bite. She pops out the gum she’s been grinding on throughout the scene and eats the potatoes, shrugs one of those universal “yeah, that’s great” shrugs, picks up a fork, and eats some more.

At its core, this is a humdrum scene, an unfailingly simple way to portray a natural interaction between friends — it’s just two people sitting at a table, eating. But, considering the way that women are typically portrayed in blockbusters, it is a wild moment, because this is a scene where women are eating. And they are eating for no goddamned reason at all.

People love to talk about food in movies. But when we talk about food in movies, we tend to be talking about writing, imagery, and narrative. Food drives the plot in movies like Eat Drink Man Woman, Chef, Volver, and Soul Food. It fleshes out characters, helping to define everything from morality to sexuality in movies like American Psycho, The Breakfast Club, and Blue Is the Warmest Colour. It pushes the story forward in movies like Phantom Thread and Snow White.
"“Whether it’s a fantasy or a mob movie, a romance or a heist, eating makes a character seem like a real human being.”"

Eating in movies is different. The food doesn’t really matter, be it a sandwich or a bowl of soup or a chicken wing or an apple. Perhaps an apple is the best example, though, because eating in movies almost works like gravity: It brings a performance down to earth and helps tether it to reality. Whether it’s a fantasy or a mob movie, a romance or a heist, eating makes a character seem like a real human being.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that Ocean’s 8 has great eating scenes. Ocean’s Eleven, the Steven Soderbergh-helmed debut of the contemporary Ocean’s movie franchise, after all, is essentially a masterclass for eating in movies. Like Ocean’s 8, it’s just a heist movie, only the cast is all men — Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Don Cheadle, to name a few — and the Ocean is Danny, played by George Clooney. There is no real reason for Brad Pitt to be eating in every scene; he just is. Legend has it that he decided that his character, Rusty, was eating all the time because he was too busy with the heist to sit down for meals. So, he eats: a cheeseburger, a lollipop, cotton candy, nuts, and shrimp. In Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen he eats some more.

Brad Pitt is essentially the poster child for eating in movies. He is so known for it that there is a Brad Pitt Eating: The Mashup YouTube video, a definitive — though outdated — food diary that spans all of his movies through 2011, and someone even wrote a cookbook based on his on-screen meals. When it comes to eating and drinking in movies, the only thing you can count on as much as Brad Pitt chomping his way through a scene is Leonardo DiCaprio raising a toast, as if every movie he is in is just part of a long, freeform video for Kanye West’s “Runaway.”

Whether eating on film is Pitt’s very natural answer to the question “What do I do with my hands?” or oral fixation run amok, the choice instantly humanizes each character, because we can all relate to eating.

Think of John Travolta crushing two slices of pizza stacked on one another in a classic fold as he struts down the street in Saturday Night Fever, or Chris Pine casually eating an apple while his James T. Kirk beats the Kobayashi Maru simulation in Star Trek. Or think about the kids in Harry Potter eating and talking together in what is essentially their school cafeteria, giving us a common ground in their magical surroundings. And family dinners humanize mafiosos in everything from The Godfather and Goodfellas to Pulp Fiction.

The banality of eating, though, seems to primarily be the dominion of men in the movies. It’s rare to see scenes where women eat thoughtlessly, in a way that is just a basic statement of a woman as human. One is the opening of Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly eating a pastry and holding a takeout coffee cup while wandering the street outside the jewelry store. Another is Julia Roberts as Vivian, the vivacious sex worker that Richard Gere’s character, Edward, picks up the night before in Pretty Woman, plucking at the crust of a croissant and then tearing the chewy innards out during the couple’s first breakfast together. And a third is Viola Davis chewing around her quips and frowns, punctuating sentences with bites of medium-rare steak as Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad. None of these scenes need to show women eating, and eating has nothing to do with being a woman. They are just eating.

More often, when we see a woman eat in a movie, we are seeing a reflection of the character’s sexuality or morality. In Marie Antoinette, Kirsten Dunst (the queen) and Rose Byrne (a duchess) cram pastel petit fours and piles of whipped cream in their faces in a scene that plays like a magazine spread about indulgence. Movies like Bullock’s own Two Weeks Notice and Miss Congeniality use eating as a shorthand for loneliness, while Bridget Jones’s Diary — and every other movie that shows a woman eating out of an ice cream container — uses eating to signify that a woman is pitiful. Movies from Bridesmaids to The Witches of Eastwick only really show women eating to set up punchlines. Woman on Top, Flashdance, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High use the hoary old Lolita chestnut of food-as-fellatio trope with a chile pepper, a lobster, and a carrot, respectively. And, of course, who could forget that scene where Kim Basinger basically has sex with the contents of a fridge in 9½ Weeks.

Perhaps the best way to show the difference between how men and women eat onscreen is to look at the famous Katz’s Deli scene from When Harry Met Sally. Harry (played by Billy Crystal) is eating the hell out of his sandwich, his mouth almost always full as he talks around each bite. Sally (Meg Ryan) spends half the scene slapping slices onto a pile as she disassembles her sandwich until it’s basically just two slices of bread, then takes a few nibbles and fakes an orgasm. The lady in the scene might want to have what she’s having, but it would be nice, even if just a little more often, women could have what he’s having: the sandwich.

This is probably why the eating in Ocean’s 8 feels exceptional — and it’s not just that scene at Veselka. Debbie Ocean and Nine Ball (played by Rihanna) eat hot dogs and fries. In the midst of a team meeting, the street hustler, Constance (Awkwafina), breezily snacks from a big metal bowl full of popcorn she has cradled on her lap. During the heist, there is a sudden cut to a plate of food that Lou tops with a liberal dollop of hot sauce before handing it off to Nine Ball. Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) eats a bunch of soup, too. (Spoiler alert: There is a reason for the soup. Though there is no reason for it to be vegan!) And while there is no actual eating, there is a long scene recruiting one of the titular eight that takes place as a character places what is a very terrible Subway sandwich order.

There’s no rhyme or reason for any of it (except, spoiler alert cont’d, the soup). It’s just eating, just a shrug asking, who wouldn’t want to go eat some pierogi while they plan a bank heist? It’s easy to classify Ocean’s 8 as a cut-and-dry gender-swap reboot of a hit series — one that leans hard on the Jem and the Holograms feminine tropes of glamour and glitter, fashion and fame. But in the ways it obeys the conventions of the Ocean’s franchise, in not letting the fact that the characters are women interrupt the subtle through-line of the prosaic, thoroughly human act of eating that runs from Eleven to Thirteen, number 8 helps rewrite the rules for how Hollywood portrays women on screen. It’s almost like... despite our genders, we are all human. And if you spend five years, eight months, and 12 days planning a heist, it’s only human to plan dinner, too.


https://www.eater.com/2018/6/15/17460672/oceans-8-eating-veselka-pierogies


Zitat:

‘Ocean’s 8’ doesn’t try to be more than what it is

By Ron & Leigh Martel on June 14, 2018 Movie Reviews by Reel People

The #MeToo movement of smart, empowered women deliver a somewhat light but entertaining start-of-the-summer blockbuster. Unlike Ghostbusters (2016), It feels like a natural extension of George Clooney’s “Oceans” trilogy rather than just a “female” version of the familiar series. The cast performs without apologies or excuses needed.

Led by Sandra Bullock as Danny Ocean’s estranged sister Debbie, and Cate Blanchett as her longtime partner, the all-star cast and almost endless list of cameos brings a smile to your face at almost every turn. We hoped for more laughter, tension and pizzazz, but did enjoy this mildly pleasant film for many reasons.

On the eleventh anniversary of “Ocean’s Thirteen,” this feature does not venture too far from the “Oceans” formula. Gary Ross (“Hunger Games”) takes over for Director Steven Soderbergh. The first third presents an introduction to the characters, the middle is the actual heist and final reel presents a “how they did it” including a plot twist.

The story begins with Debbie Ocean pleading to the parole board for a simple life if released from prison. Once out, she immediately cons her way into a lavish lifestyle at others’ unknowing expense. For five years, she’s been working on a new heist. Wasting no time, she needs a team of notorious specialists to make it happen.

Other than Lou (Blanchett), her longtime partner, the new team will include Amita (Mindy Kaling), Tammy (Sarah Paulson), Nine Ball (Rhianna), Rose (Helena Bonham Carter) and Constance (Rapper Awkwafina). Each member of this impossible missions team is cool, self-assured and eager to put her skills to good use (and reward).

This year’s heist of the century is to steal a 150 million dollar Cartier necklace at the star-studded Met Gala in New York City. Although heavily guarded, part of the plan is to arrange for the elegant and arrogant superstar Daphe Kluger (Anne Hathaway) to be wearing that jewelry. Apparently, the devil wears Prada. Who knew?

The primary cast collectively has earned four Oscars, two Emmys, eight Grammy’s and six Golden Globes. In addition, the various cameos include Katie Holmes, Olivia Munn, Kim Kardashian, Carl Reiner, Dakota Fanning and Marlo Thomas, as well as Kylie and Kendall Jenner. There is also small parts for Elliot Gould and Shaobo Quin, the only cast members from the prior “Ocean’s” series.

Director Ross, who also wrote the story, doesn’t effectively use all his talent, but each lights up the screen and entertains the audience. With a weaker cast, Ocean’s ship might not have sailed, but they are all slick, quirky and charismatic. More important, they have a wonderful chemistry with each other and making it look fun.

Ignoring the shameless product placement, including Vogue and even Subway sandwiches, we heard the Mary Tyler Moore TV theme song and “Boots are Made for Walking” in the soundtrack. James Corden could have hosted a carpool karaoke, as he makes a marvelous insurance investigator. Richard Armitage (“The Hobbit”) makes a credible scoundrel; while Jennifer Lawrence turned down a role due to scheduling conflicts.

“Ocean’s 8” is 110 minutes and rated PG-13 for language, drug use and suggestive content. Give credit to a movie that doesn’t try to be more than what it is. It’s mostly style over substance, but with runways filled with glamorous people dressed to the nines and lots of flashy jewelry to lust after, girls just want to have fun. Are we right ladies?

Bullock has grown from the girl next door to a strong-willed leader with gravitas and swagger. She even gets to speak her native German in a few scenes. Sure, the movie doesn’t have the power we were expecting, but it’s best to not overthink this cinematic delight, just enjoy these crazy eights for what they are. After all, every con has its pros.

Ron’s Rating: B
Leigh’s Rating: B



http://fridayflyer.com/article/2018-06-14/oceans-8-doesnt-try-to-be-more-than-what-it-is/#


Zitat:
Friday 15 June 2018 1:50pm

Ocean's 8 review: This all-female reboot doesn't live up to 11, but it'll give 12 and 13 a run for its money

Dougie Gerrard


This latest addition to the Ocean’s franchise swaps out George Clooney’s merry band of conmen for an equally merry, but now female, group of criminals.

This isn’t revolutionary, of course: the all-female reboot idea was first trialled two years ago with the Ghostbusters remake, a leaden film that was most notable for the geysering plume of online misogyny it inspired. Thankfully, Gary Ross’ film has largely avoided such a reaction – the benefits of being second over the top into the fanboy firing line, I suppose.

It stars Sandra Bullock as Debbie Ocean, the sister of Clooney’s now apparently deceased lead Danny. Her target is a $150m necklace, which she plans to nick at the Met Gala, the biggest night in American fashion. Debbie’s scheme involves stealing the jewels from around the neck of Daphne Kluger, a slightly dopey actress gamely played by Anne Hathaway.

As is tradition, she assembles a crack team of heisters, led by her trusted deputy Lou, a dud role that Cate Blanchett does her best to enliven. Our scurrilous anti-heroes include a jewellery expert (Mindy Kailing), a hacker (Rihanna) and a fashion designer (Helena Bonham Carter) they recruit to make Kluger’s Gala dress.

Debbie, however, has an ulterior motive for the con: to frame Claude Becker (Richard Armitage), her former partner – and partner-in-crime – whose testimony sent her to prison.

Unfortunately, the film fails to establish a convincing relationship between Debbie and Becker, either as lovers or nemeses, and their scenes feel shabby and tired. This is perhaps a failure of nerve on Ross’ part, given that without this side-mission the main body of his film would’ve contained no substantial speaking parts for men.


The heist itself is over fairly quickly, and Ross’ script as a whole is incredibly ­­­economical, sometimes to a fault. The only bit of fat on it is a flabby final chapter involving James Corden as an insurance fraud investigator tasked with tracking down the jewels.

Corden’s a funny one – not funny in the comedic sense, but more as an anthropological artefact, a study in just how far a British accent and a bit of geezerish charm can get you in America. He gets the best lines, too, delivering them with all the zeal you’d expect from the fourth best actor in Gavin & Stacey.

Miscasting aside, Ocean’s 8 is alright. It’s fun to watch Bullock and Blanchett banter with one another, and Rihanna looks to have real chops. It’s not Eleven, but it would run Twelve and Thirteen pretty close.


http://www.cityam.com/287642/oceans-8-review-all-female-reboot-doesnt-live-up-11-but


Zitat:
Honor Among Thieves in Ocean’s 8

Courtney Westerhof • June 15, 2018

Despite their criminal tendencies, the con women of Ocean’s 8 manage to model certain aspects of Christian community.

Eight truly can be great when it comes to the women in the new Ocean’s film. In Ocean’s 8, Sandra Bullock plays Debbie Ocean, the sister of George Clooney’s character from 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven (itself a remake of a 1960 Frank Sinatra movie). Ocean’s 8 plays appropriate homage to its predecessor, with similarly retro cinematography, editing, and music. But now it’s time for the ladies to attempt the ultimate heist, one that Debbie has been planning in prison for the past five years, eight months, and 12 days.

In the same manner as its predecessors, Ocean’s 8 follows Debbie and her partner Lou (Cate Blanchett) as they assemble a group of con women and thieves to pull off a considerably brazen robbery. This time the target is a $150-million necklace, which will be adorning the neck of actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) as she attends the prestigious Met gala. Ocean’s 8 features a great mix of actresses, showcasing a variety of ages, ethnicities, body types, and talents. Some are Oscar winners (Hathaway, Blanchett, Bullock), others are television stars (Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling), and others are recording artists (Rihanna, Awkwafina). The diversity on screen is a good reminder that there is strength and power in our differences.

Each of the characters has a special skill they bring to the group. Rihanna plays a tech genius, Kaling a jeweler, and Awkwafina a pickpocket. Each of them is vital for Debbie’s plan to work. They also value and support each other. When Helen Bonham Carter’s Rose runs into a snafu during a reconnaissance mission at Cartier, Kaling’s Amita steps in to bail her out. Similarly, Lou supported Debbie when she first came to her with the seemingly crazy idea for this heist. There are no catfights in this group, no drama; only strong women working together to get a job done.

The diversity on screen is a good reminder that there is strength and power in our differences.

As the film proceeds, it creatively blends together scenes of the group plotting together at Lou’s safe house with montages of them off working, both alone and in pairs, on their various parts of the plan. It makes for a good analogy for the ways that we, as the body of Christ, sometimes need to come together and at other times go our separate ways. We need to be together to worship, study Scripture, and pray. Other times we have to be on our own, out in the world, doing the work that God created specifically for us and our individual gifts and talents. Consider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.”

Without giving away too many spoilers I’ll note that Ocean’s 8, like any good heist film, features a plot twist that catches most of the characters off guard. It involves a second plan, one that has been transpiring in the background and kept secret. This reminded me of the overarching plan that God has for our lives as described in Jeremiah 29. It’s difficult when we don’t know God’s plans for us. We make our short-term plans and live day to day, but we never get the full picture of what is in store for our future. Just as the rest of the group has to trust Debbie and her plan, we also have to trust God and his plan. The Heidelberg Catechism testifies to this when it says: “I trust God so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul...”

In the end, trusting Debbie’s plan—even the parts they weren’t aware of—meant the group was rewarded beyond their imaginations. We similarly know that we can trust God, because no matter the suffering we experience here on earth our reward will be great in heaven.

Yes, the characters in Ocean’s 8 are thieves. They don’t seem to have taken up their criminal professions as a means for survival. They don’t appear to pass along their profits to help the less fortunate or show any remorse for their actions. They are, nevertheless, an example of what a good community should look like: a supportive family using their God-given talents to work together, while trusting in the wisdom of the one in whom they believe.


https://thinkchristian.reframemedia.com/honor-among-thieves-in-oceans-8

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Zitat:
All-woman heist caper ‘Ocean’s 8’ will steal your heart

Published on June 16, 2018 at 9:13 pm
By James Preston Poole

A cast entirely made up of A-list actresses, a heist and a dash of humor — what’s not to love?

“Ocean’s 8,” the latest installment of the “Ocean’s” franchise, may appear to be nothing more than a remake of 2001’s “Ocean’s Eleven” on the surface, simply starring all women. But don’t be fooled; this is a fully fledged new entry into the series that more than earns its place amongst the others.

The film initially follows a classic setup similar to the original. Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), the sister of now-deceased criminal Danny Ocean (George Clooney), gets out of prison on parole and immediately calls up her best friend Lou (Cate Blanchett) to plan a score. The score this time, though, is no bank heist: it’s robbing a valuable set of diamonds off the neck of actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway).

Bullock more than matches Clooney with a cool, commanding presence, offset by the roguish charm Blanchett brings to the table. Together, they lead an outstanding cast of characters that includes neurotic soccer mom Tammy (Sarah Paulson), gifted jewelry maker Amita (Mindy Kailing), snarky hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), brash pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina) and eccentric fashion designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter).

These women are an absolute joy to watch, functioning as a cohesive unit of unique individuals and rivaling the crews in the other films. There’s not a soul to dislike in this bunch, but it’s Hathaway’s character who really steals the show. As the vapid mark the group is pursuing, she gets the biggest laughs and is a far more quirky character than we’re used to seeing her play.

The cast is the film’s ace in the hole, something director Gary Ross (“The Hunger Games”) understands very well. Despite lacking the frenetic style of the previous films, “Ocean’s 8” still brings a sense of slick style while giving the audience chances to breathe. It is possible that the pace may be too slow for some, as it does take a while to get going, but despite this slower tempo, the plot’s buildup is never boring.

A huge part of this is owed to the writing. Never relying on one-liners, the screenplay gives everyone in the core group a distinct part to play while keeping the plot moving along. The heist itself is extremely compelling, a dynamite set-piece that’s ingenious in just how low-key it is. The film makes a diamond necklace getting passed around while the gang evade authorities more compelling than it has any right to be.

“Ocean’s 8” does stumble a bit in its third act. The addition of an insurance fraud investigator played by James Corden feels extraneous, mostly because Corden simply cannot keep up with the other performers. In spite of this small flaw, the film throws a series of exciting twists and turns at the audience that ends everything on a great note.

There’s a lot to love in “Ocean’s 8.” So much that it couldn’t all in one review. If this is a one-off in the franchise, then it’s perfectly satisfying on its own, but if there is to be a sequel, consider me there.

“Ocean’s 8”

Runtime: 110 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Score: 4/5


http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/06/16/all-woman-heist-caper-%E2%80%98ocean%E2%80%99s-8%E2%80%99-will-steal-your-heart


Zitat:
Film
Ocean's 8 12A

Fri 13 – Thu 19 Jul
Synopsis

This film is the spinoff you’ve all been waiting for, and perfectly timed with the start of The World Cup taken into consideration… In Ocean’s 8 Sandra Bullock plays Debbie Ocean (sister of George Clooney’s Danny) who upon release from prison plans an elaborate heist.

To do it she’ll need a crack team and that calls for an A-List cast starring; Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kayling and Rihanna amongst others, as the band of thieves that are put to the task. Expect laughs and hijinks galore in this hilarious summertime comedy. The perfect antidote for an abundance of football.

Dir: Gary Ross

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett

USA 2018, 110mins


https://www.phoenix.org.uk/film/oceans-8/


Zitat:
Sunday 17 June 2018

Ocean's 8 movie review: All-female Ocean's not that greight


Paul Whitington

June 16 2018 7:00 AM

Ocean's 8 movie review: All-female Ocean's not that greight
Independent.ie

Slick, glossy and entirely forgettable, Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's 11 films traded on the suave appeal of George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and depicted an idealised underworld in which a brotherhood of impossibly handsome criminals found violence distasteful and often stole for lofty, high-minded reasons. They were based on an equally fanciful 1960s Frank Sinatra/Rat Pack movie, and there were three of them, but by the time Ocean's Thirteen arrived in the summer of 2007, the formula had begun to look a little stale.

Slick, glossy and entirely forgettable, Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's 11 films traded on the suave appeal of George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and depicted an idealised underworld in which a brotherhood of impossibly handsome criminals found violence distasteful and often stole for lofty, high-minded reasons. They were based on an equally fanciful 1960s Frank Sinatra/Rat Pack movie, and there were three of them, but by the time Ocean's Thirteen arrived in the summer of 2007, the formula had begun to look a little stale.

Do we need an all-female version? It matters not because we have one, and Sandra Bullock leads an impressive ensemble of actresses, playing Debbie Ocean, younger sister of Clooney's character, Danny. He would appear to be dead, at least one hopes so because they've taken the liberty of burying him, but even his sister has her doubts, and mutters "you better be in there" when she visits his grave. A similarly slippery customer, Debbie has just been released from prison following a five-year stint for an elaborate con.

Has she learnt her lesson? Not at all: on her first afternoon out she robs a new outfit from a department store, cons her way into a fancy Manhattan hotel room and looks up her old friend and partner in crime, Lou (Cate Blanchett), who runs a small warehouse manufacturing watered-down vodka.

'Go big or go home' seems to be Debbie's motto, who has no time for such minor crimes and she tells Lou about her ambitious plan to steal a $150m Cartier diamond necklace. A grand ball is held each year at New York's Metropolitan Museum: if Cartier can be persuaded to lend it to one of the glamorous attendees, Debbie and her gang will swap it with a 3D printed fake and make off with the real sparklers. What could possibly go wrong?

Their plan will involve a mark, a histrionic actress called Daphne Kluger (played with commendable gusto by Anne Hathaway), and a fashion designer willing to take part in the scam. Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter) is desperate enough: she used to be a big cheese in the 1990s but has just endured a disastrous launch of her new collection when Debbie and Lou approach her with their proposition.

She grabs at it like a drowning woman and persuades Kluger to let her dress her for the Met ball. The real necklace will be swapped for the fake one during the evening, and a team of expert robbers and hackers will ensure the sting goes according to plan. Steven Soderbergh's Oceans films blended smooth edits, split screens and an easy-listening soundtrack with tongue-in-cheek all-star casts. Elliott Gould is the only survivor from the original ensemble and shows up early on playing Danny Ocean's sage advisor Reuben Tishkoff to give Debbie and Ocean's 8 his blessing, as it were.

A strong cast here includes Sarah Paulson, whose character Tammy is a suburban mother with a garage full of fenced goods, Rihanna, who mutters her way through the film playing a master hacker, and Richard Armitage as a preening art dealer whose fulsome confession got Debbie imprisoned.

Sticking closely to Soderbergh's tried and tested formula, director Gary Ross unfolds this slender tale competently. Slick, know-it-all heist criminals who are always three steps ahead of the law can easily come across as smug and irritating, and Ocean's 8 is afflicted by a slight monotony of tone: it burbles along pleasantly enough without ever quite reaching a climax. It is, though, perfectly enjoyable, and seems to suggest that women are much better team players than men, less likely to become distracted by comparing the size of their genitals, more likely to get the job done.

Helena Bonham Carter is a lot of fun as the eccentric fashion designer, who's Irish by the way (the accent is variable), and James Cordon turns up late on playing a perhaps intentionally annoying insurance investigator.

But it's Anne Hathaway and her shouty, attention-seeking actress who ultimately steals the show.
Ocean's 8 (12A, 110mins) - 3 stars


https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/movie-reviews/oceans-8-movie-review-allfemale-oceans-not-that-greight-37012081.html


Zitat:
BitchWatch: 20 Bitch Approved Movies You Should Watch This Summer
by Dahlia Balcazar
Published on May 31, 2018 at 10:02am


When summer hits, you can find me in one of two places: Sitting by the pool reading a book or watching a movie in a cool dark theater. And that moment when you walk out of the theatre into the warm nighttime summer air, talking about the movie you just saw, wondering if you should go get ice cream next—it’s the best! Going to a summertime movie is also the best date—whether with a partner or a BFF. But summer is also the time when blockbuster movies come out, and picking the tasty wheat from the chaff can be hard. These 20 movies are sure to make you swoon all summer long.

[...]


5. Ocean’s 8
OCEAN'S 8 - Official Main Trailer
{ Warner Bros. Pictures }
Release Date: June 8, 2018

We have literally been waiting for this movie for years. Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) wants to pull of the heist of the century, just like her scheming brother, Danny Ocean, so she’s cooked up an ingenious plan to rob New York City’s star-studded Met Gala. But first she needs the right crew: Amita (Mindy Kaling), Tammy (Sarah Paulson), Lou (Cate Blanchett), Constance (Awkwafina), Nine Ball (Rihanna), and Rose (Helena Bonham Carter). Crime! Fashion! Rihanna! This is the perfect summer movie.

[...]


https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/bitchwatch/best-movies-summer-2018


Zitat:
Sunday, Jun 17th 2018 4PM 21°C 7PM 19°C 5-Day Forecast

An absolutely top-notch all-female cast including Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway couldn't save Ocean's 8 from being one big flop

By Matthew Bond for Event Magazine

Published: 22:02 BST, 16 June 2018 | Updated: 22:23 BST, 16 June 2018


Ocean's 8
Cert: 12A 1hr 50mins
Rating:

Just like Hannibal Smith in The A-Team, I love it when a plan comes together. But if I’m absolutely honest, there’s also a certain pleasure in watching a plan fall apart too.

Which is exactly what happens with Ocean’s 8, the fourth instalment of the glossy and hugely popular caper franchise and the first to feature an all-female leading cast.

I mean, this is a film that just had so much going for it, beginning, of course, with perfect timing. What could be better for these #MeToo times than a feisty all-female cast. And an absolutely top-notch all-female cast at that – Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway… that’s three Oscar- winners for starters, backed up by the classy/popular likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna and Mindy Kaling.

Yes, it’s a slight shame it’s directed and co-written by a man, Gary Ross, but he’s made some nice films along the way – Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, the first Hunger Games. Surely he couldn’t have made a mess of this. Could he?

Well, someone has. Because for all the glitz of its cast and the glamour of New York’s annual Met Gala, Ocean’s 8 is a film that struggles to make it out of first gear. None of the three principals – Bullock, Blanchett and Hathaway – really turns up, with Bullock opting for a laid-back, super-cool performance that may not be actively bad but is certainly wrong, while Hathaway just gives one of the dullest performances of her, until now, ever-more-impressive career. Mind you, it’s a terrible part. As for Blanchett, her trashy blonde bob is more memorable than anything she actually says or does.

Bullock’s part, by contrast, should be a nice one; after all, she’s playing Debbie Ocean, sister of the now apparently late Danny, the pivotal figure played by George Clooney in all three previous Ocean’s films. Bullock is a big star and can certainly carry a film, as the likes of The Heat, Miss Congeniality and many others have shown, but here she distinctly underplays it, as Debbie emerges from jail armed only with a conwoman’s cunning and an audacious plan.

She’s going to steal a spectacular piece of diamond jewellery from the star-studded fashion fundraiser, the Met Gala. But first, of course, she’s going to need a gang.

Which is where nightclub owner Lou (Blanchett), near-bankrupt fashion designer Rose (Bonham Carter) and ace computer hacker ‘Nine Ball’ (Rihanna) come in, along with four lesser others and our first indication of the general level of humour we can expect.

‘What’s your real name?’ barks Debbie. ‘Eight Ball,’ comes the reply.

Oh dear. Don Cheadle’s cockney accent was funnier than that.

Apart from duff performances, there’s an extraordinary lack of tension in what ensues. Debbie says she’s been planning the ambitious heist for years and has ‘run it’ in her head a thousand times, so much so that now, pretty much whatever happens, they don’t get caught.

Disappointingly, in terms of tension levels, she seems to be right. Whatever obstacles do emerge – and genre convention dictates they must – are effortlessly overcome, often within seconds. The massive diamonds – worth more than $100 million – draped around the pretty neck of socialite and Met Gala regular Daphne Kluger (Hathaway) look doomed.


IT'S A FACT

The Hobbit/Spooks star Richard Armitage took over the role of art curator Claude Becker from Damian Lewis at very short notice.

But so is Ocean’s 8. Yes, there is some fun to be had as the plan finally plays out, real-life celebrities such as Anna Wintour make fleeting appearances, and Ross and co-writer Olivia Milch belatedly start to deliver one or two decent lines.

Sarah Paulson, perhaps the least well known of the ‘eight’, does her career no harm at all as Tammy, suburban mother and underworld fence. But even as the end approaches, strange things start to happen, collectively smacking of a film that has had a difficult time in the run-up to release.

Matt Damon’s much-vaunted cameo never materialises, meaning the only franchise regulars to make fleeting appearances are the peripheral figures of Reuben (Elliott Gould) and the acrobatic Yen. Which surely isn’t quite what we were hoping for.

Throw in a bizarre late appearance by James Corden as a Thomas Crown-style insurance investigator, a clunky and distinctly uninvolving revenge subplot involving hunky Richard Armitage, and a couple of stonking late plot twists that border on the ridiculous, and you have a film that, even for an avowed Bullock, Blanchett and Hathaway fan like me, has to go down as one of the disappointments of the summer. Shame.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-5840387/Oceans-8-review-Eight-huge-stars-one-big-flop-ocean.html

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Zitat:
Ocean’s 8 review – all-girl gang doesn’t quite deliver the goods

Simran Hans
@heavier_things

Sun 17 Jun 2018 08.00 BST

3 / 5 stars 3 out of 5 stars.


This all-girl riff on Steven Soderbergh’s deliciously slick Oceans trilogy is a fun-enough spin-off that centres around a revenge heist orchestrated by Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), sister of George Clooney’s Danny. Her team comprises Ocean’s partner (Cate Blanchett, who has very little to say or do here), a has-been, tax-evading fashion designer (Helena Bonham Carter, playfully described as “big in the 90s – big Edwardian collars”), a diamond expert (Mindy Kaling), stoner-hacker “Nine Ball” (a drily hilarious Rihanna), a pickpocketing, motormouthed teenager (comedian Awkwafina) and Sarah Paulson’s bored stay-at-home mum as the “fence” or go-between. Their plan is to steal a Cartier necklace from the unsuspecting neck of Bambi-eyed actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) at the Met Gala and pin the blame on Debbie’s art dealer ex-boyfriend.

Some things work well, such as Hathaway, whose finely tuned facial expressions are the best thing about the film by a country mile; elastic smile and saucer eyes one minute, features furrowed like a wily cat’s the next. Ditto for Blanchett’s jackets, which range from buttery motorcycle leathers and green velvet to leopard-print fur, silk bombers and immaculately tailored pantsuits in sky blue and Willy Wonka plum.

And, as might be expected of an Oceans film, things move smoothly; to its credit, there’s very little fat here. However, while glossy efficiency might be the grease needed to pull off a heist, it’s not quite enough to oil the wheels of an ensemble movie. The characters work as individual moving parts for hire, but don’t gel as a group. It feels like a wink to the snapped tiara at the end of Mean Girls when the dismantled jewel is divvied up between the women, but the pack mentality that made Soderbergh’s Oceans so much fun is missing.


https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/17/oceans-8-review-sandra-bullock-cate-blanchett-anne-hathaway-rihanna

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Zitat:
Ocean's 8

Kinostart
21.06.2018
Genre
Komödie
Produktionsjahr
2018
Produktionsland
USA


„Ocean’s 8“-Kritik: Genderswap nach Plan und ohne Gefühl

Teresa Otto 14.06.2018 18:06

Was George Clooney vorgemacht hat, versuchen die Damen rund um Sandra Bullock in „Ocean’s 8“ nachzumachen. Doch gelingt der neue Coup mit weiblichem Touch?

Die „Ocean’s“-Trilogie konnte durch zweierlei punkten. Erstens Starpower: Elf männliche Superstars wie George Clooney, Brad Pitt und Matt Damon vereinen sich, um den herrlich bösen Andy Garcia auszurauben. Zweitens: Coolness.

Nun versammelt Danny Oceans Schwester Debbie (Sandra Bullock) getreu dem Gender-Swap-Motto das weibliche Gegenstück, die „Ocean’s 8“. Ihr Ziel: Seltene Diamanten-Ketten vom Luxusjuwelier Cartier. Der Schauplatz: Die Met Gala, die glamouröseste Veranstaltung der New Yorker High Society.

Debbie Ocean wird nach fünf Jahren Knast auf Bewährung frei gelassen und macht sich sofort an die Umsetzung ihres (Rache-)Plans. Die alten Tricks hat sie natürlich nicht verlernt, sie denkt an jedes Detail, und kann eigentlich nur von sich selbst gestoppt werden.

Feminismus oder Klischee?

Weiblichkeit wird hier zumindest äußerlich Groß geschrieben, doch das führt eher zu Klischeeüberflutung. Die Mädels, die sich um Mastermind Sandra Bullock scharen, sind allesamt Experten auf ihrem Gebiet.

Allrounderin Lou (Cate Blanchett) als rechte Hand von Debbie ist die Coole – alias Brad Pitt. Anders jedoch als Herr Pitt, schaut sie passiv von der Seitenlinie zu. Nicht mal die oft parodierten Snack-Einlagen haben es in die neue Variante geschafft.

Diamanten-Expertin Amita (Mindy Kaling) hat indische Wurzeln und eigentlich nur Dollarzeichen in ihren Augen. Designerin Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter) ist längst von der Industrie abgeschrieben und braucht dringend Cash.

Hackerin Nine Ball (Rihanna) ist ohnehin schlauer als der Rest. Taschendiebin Constance (Awkwafina) soll die Coole von der Straße darstellen. Wer eine Inkarnation von Matt Damon erwartet, wird jedoch bitter enttäuscht. Und Tammy (Sarah Paulson) kauft sich einfach alles, was sie will. Ihre Familie erklärt sie es mit einem lässigen „Ebay“ und schwört natürlich, dass dies ihr letzter Job sei.

Doch Moment! Wer richtig mitgezählt hat, wird feststellen, dass Nr. 8 im Bunde, Oscarpreisträgerin Anne Hathaway als Supersternchen Daphne Kluger, fehlt. Sie ist Anschlagsziel und geladenes Dummerchen vom Dienst, das die toughen Mädels berauben wollen. Selbst der Twist, dass hinter ihrer Fassade doch mehr Grips steckt, überrascht hier nur bedingt.

Anne Hathaway schafft es dennoch wegen ihrer überdrehten Art die Lacher auf ihre Seite zu ziehen und bleibt im sonst eher faden Ensemble der heimliche Star der Gaunerinnenbande.

Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend?!

Die Devise der „Ocean’s 8“ lautet offenkundig Prunk und Tüll, statt Pokern und Coolness. Vorbei sind die Zeiten, als der Alt-Regisseur Steven Soderbergh den Raubzug mit schneller Schnittfolge im Finale aufgedröselt hat. Bei Nachfolge-Regisseur Gary Ross besteht die Gefahr nun darin, dass die „Ocean’s 8“ nach getaner Arbeit wegen eines Formfehlers doch noch ins Gefängnis wandern sollen.

Die Durchführung des Coups ist hier zu keiner Sekunde gefährdet. Während man sich in den Vorgängern darauf verlassen konnte, dass die ganze Operation jeden Moment aufzufliegen droht, kann man sich hier nur wundern, ob die Met-Gala mit ihren Superstars und kostbaren Schmuckstücken überhaupt überwacht wird.

Zugegeben, schaut man einen „Ocean’s“-Film im Kino, konnte man stets den Ausgang genau vorhersagen. Style war hier schon immer mehr Wert als Logik und Tiefe. Durch die neue, weibliche Zielgruppe werden jedoch alle möglichen Typen und Klischees heraufbeschworen. In Wahrheit zählt nur die Oberfläche: „Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend“. Auch die vorprogrammierten Cameos rund um Katie Holmes und Heidi Klum hauen genau in diese Kerbe.

Ein wenig mehr Finesse für kleine Charakterzüge hätten dem Skript sicher nicht geschadet. Immerhin versammelt es die drei Oscar-Preisträgerinnen Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett und Anne Hathaway. Doch jede Einzelne im „Ocean’s 8“-Ensemble war in ihrer Karriere stets mehr wert als der Schmuck, den sie um ihren Hals trug.

Fazit:

Kurzweilig und dröge versammelt Regisseur Gary Ross die „Ocean’s 8“ zu einem planmäßigen und aalglatten Reboot mit Damenfokus. Witz und Charme verspüren höchstens die It-Girls unter den Zuschauern. Normalsterbliche vermissen Logik und Charaktertiefe, bekommen dafür einen Coup nach Plan ohne Gefühle präsentiert. Einzig Anne Hathaway konnte zeigen, aus welchem Holz sie geschnitzt ist. Die restliche weibliche Starpower wird auf ihre zugewiesene Expertise reduziert.


https://www.kino.de/film/oceans-8-2018/news/ocean-s-8-kritik-genderswap-nach-plan-und-ohne-gefuehl/


Zitat:
Ocean's 8


Einleitung

11 Jahre nach Steven Soderbergh's letztem Oceans Film, bringt Gary Ross (Die Tribute von Panem) mit Oceans 8 einen weiteren Film in die Kinos. Der von Sandra Bullock und Cate Blanchett angeführte Film stellt quasi ein Reboot der Reihe (auch Steven Soderberghs Oceans 11 war ein Reboot) dar. Oceans 8 läuft ab dem 21. Juni 2018 in den deutschen Kinos. Ob sich der Gang ins Kino lohnt, erfahrt ihr in den folgenden Absätzen.

Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) kommt frisch aus dem Gefängnis und plant schon den nächsten Coup. Sie will während der New Yorker Met Gala den Raub des Jahrhunderts auf die Beine stellen, doch zunächst muss sie die richtigen Teamkolleginnen dafür zusammenstellen: Lou (Cate Blanchett), Nine Ball (Rihanna), Amita (Mindy Kaling), Constance (Awkwafina), Rose (Helena Bonham Carter), Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) und Tammy (Sarah Paulson) sollen sie bei ihrem Vorhaben unterstützen.

Kritik

Oceans 8 beginnt mit einer unterhaltsamen Montage, die den Zuschauer die Hauptfigur Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) näherbringt. Dabei wird die Figur ausreichend charakterisiert und darüber hinaus sind diese Szenen recht witzig inszeniert.

Jedoch plätschert der Film anschließend lange Zeit vor sich hin. Ohnehin dient nahezu die gesamte erste Hälfte nur für den Zweck, dass Team zusammenzuführen und die einzelnen Charaktere vorzustellen. Dieses Unterfangen gelingt jedoch nur bedingt gut. Denn in viel zu viel Spielzeit wird zu wenig erzählt. In einer schnellen Montage werden die Teammitglieder eingeführt und sie bekommen eine kleine Motivation verpasst. Dabei wirken die Charaktere für den Zuschauer niemals wirklich greifbar oder menschlich. Zudem wird der Großteil der Räuberbande zu Stichwortgebern, ohne jegliche Persönlichkeit, degradiert. Außerdem geht der Zusammenschluss zum Team viel zu schnell.

Der Raub ist recht unterhaltsam geworden. Auch wenn der eigentliche Akt zu kurz, recht spannungsarm und zu einfach ausfällt. Dennoch schafft es Regisseur Gary Ross ein paar Lacher einzubauen. Jedoch ist der Raub zu gewöhnlich und ohne besondere kreative Einfälle inszeniert. Während Steven Soderbergh in seinen Oceans Filmen, gute Regieeinfälle, eine spannende Inszenierung bot und die Albernheit des Plots zelebrierte. Auch ist der dritte Akt viel zu lang geraten und dient lediglich zur Exposition der Zusammenhänge. So schleichen sich in den ohnehin recht spannungsarmen Film, weitere längen ein.

Die Handlung in Oceans 8 bietet absolut nichts Neues und besteht aus Versatzstücken bekannter Elemente. Dem Film fehlt es an jeder Ecke an Persönlichkeit und Esprit. Dabei kommt in Oceans 8 von Anfang bis Ende keine Spannung auf. Es wirkt vieles Lustlos und Ideenarm. Dazu kommt, dass Gary Ross seinen Film risikolos, uninspiriert und ohne jeglichen Sinn für seine Charaktere inszeniert. Dabei verkommen die Charaktere des vielversprechenden weiblichen Casts um Sandra Bullock zu Kopien der Figuren, die von Clooney, Pitt und Co. in Oceans 11-13 verkörpert wurden.

Darstellerisch ist Oceans 8 wie schon erwähnt hochkarätig besetzt. Jedoch können die Schauspielerinnen nur wenige Akzente setzten, da ihnen das weniger gelungene Drehbuch nur wenige Möglichkeiten bietet.

Hauptdarstellerin Sandra Bullock macht ihre Sache zwar recht solide und hat einige gelungene Szenen, jedoch wirkt sie über den Großteil der Laufzeit recht unmotiviert. Cate Blanchett ist leider fehlbesetzt und zeigt eine vollkommen überdrehte Performance, die nur wenig zu überzeugen weiß. Dabei sind die Rollen von Bullock und Blanchett zu nah an den Charakteren von George Clooney und Brad Pitt geschrieben. Zudem wirken sie oftmals wie deren Kopien. Die beste Leistung kommt von Anne Hathaway, die zudem auch die beste Rolle bekommen hat. Ihr sieht der Zuschauer auch an, dass sie sehr viel Spaß dabei hatte. Die witzigsten Szenen gehen auch an Hathaway.

Die restlichen Darstellerinnen Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna und Helena Bonham Carter sind größtenteils Stichwortgeber oder fehlbesetzt. Außerdem bekommen einige von ihnen unnötige Szenen (Stichwort Tinder oder Garage), die das Tempo noch weiter rausnehmen.

Fazit

Letztendlich ist Oceans 8 ein durchschnittlicher Film geworden. Die vielversprechende Prämisse und der gute Cast werden hier in keinster Weise genutzt. Leider plätschert der Film ohne wirkliche Höhepunkte vor sich hin und kann nur mäßig unterhalten. So ist Oceans 8 ein Spin-Off/ Remake, dass es nicht gebraucht hätte.


5/10


https://www.movie-infos.net/datenbank/Entry/223-Ocean-s-8/


Zitat:
Sie wollen nur stehlen
Funktioniert «Ocean’s 8» mit Diebinnen anstelle von George Clooney? Kritik in 8 Punkten.


Matthias Lerf
Redaktor Kultur
@MatthiasLerf 17.06.2018


Danny Ocean, der von George Clooney gespielte Dieb aus «Ocean’s 11 bis 13», ist tot. Gut, ob das wirklich stimmt, weiss man bei diesem Gauner nicht so genau, vielleicht ist der Hinschied auch Teil eines genialen Coups, aber es gibt auf alle Fälle ein Grab. Davor sitzt seine Schwester Debbie Ocean, gespielt von Sandra Bullock. Sie plant – wer hätte das gedacht? – elf Jahre nach dem letzten Film ebenfalls einen Überfall. Los gehts.

1. Cate Blanchett

George Clooney blieb ja in den von Steven Soderbergh inszenierten Filmen von 2001 bis 2007 nie ­allein. Sein Adjutant auf den Diebeszügen war Brad Pitt. Dieser hatte allerdings meist nicht allzu viel zu tun, weshalb er sich in «Ocean’s 11» einen effizienten Tick zulegte und ständig etwas in den Mund stopfte: Hamburger, Glace, Oliven, was gerade verfügbar war. So blieb er nicht unbemerkt. Im neuen Film spielt Cate Blanchett diese Rolle. Sie hat aber viel zu viel Klasse, um mit billigen Fressticks aufzufallen. Ihr bleibt deshalb nur . . . nur . . . ja was denn? Die grossartige Schauspielerin wirkt im weiblichen Ganovenstück höchst unterbeschäftigt. Schade.

2. Die Bande

«Ocean’s 11» war ursprünglich ein Gaunerstück, in dem 1960 die Bande um Frank Sinatra und Sammy Davis Jr. – das sogenannte Rat Pack – unterwegs war. Eines der Vergnügen des Remakes von Steven Soderbergh war die Rekrutierung der neuen Gang. Das funktioniert jetzt bei den Frauen ebenfalls bestens: Eine Computerhackerin (Sängerin Rihanna) auswählen, eine Taschendiebin (Rapperin Awkwafina) auf der Strasse auflesen, eine alte Bekannte (Sarah Paulson) von der Hausfrauenarbeit erlösen, eine vergessene britische Modeschöpferin (Helena Bonham Carter) reaktivieren. Witzig.

3. Kein einziger Mann

Alles Frauen? Selbstverständlich, Männer würden sich automatisch in den Vordergrund drängen, Frauen dagegen ignoriere man leicht, das sei besser für den geplanten Diebeszug, findet Sandra Bullock. In Ordnung so.

4. Dogma

Als es vor zwei Jahren ein «Ghostbusters»-Remake gab, mit lauter Geisterjägerinnen in den Männerrollen, hatten die Frauen von Anfang an keine Chance. Nichts, aber auch gar nichts konnten diese den (männlichen) Fans des ursprünglichen Films recht machen. Sandra Bullock und ihre Komplizinnen dürfen da ­lockerer antreten. Das Erbe der alten Filme wiegt in diesem Fall nicht so schwer, «Ocean’s 11» war zwar gut, aber die Fortsetzungen – seien wir ehrlich – lieferten schon ­damals nicht viel mehr als eleganten Abklatsch. Eine Chance für die Diebinnen!

5. Gary Ross

Steven Soderbergh, der immer noch sehr inspiriert arbeiten kann, wenn er mag, wirkt in diesem Film allerdings nur noch als Produzent mit. Regie führt ein Routinier, der zum Beispiel den ersten Teil der «Hunger Games» auf die Leinwand brachte (und dann abgelöst wurde) oder gepflegte Dramen wie «Seabiscuit» drehte. Und tatsächlich: Gary Ross inszeniert das alles, als handle es sich um ein Schulungsvideo für angehende Diebinnen, fadengerade, sehr erklärend und ohne jede Überraschung. Schade.

6. Bellagio-Fontänen

Das Schöne an Soderberghs erstem «Ocean’s»-Film war, dass es darin völlig unerwartete Momente gab wie jenen, in dem die Diebe minutenlang vor dem Las-Vegas-Hotel herumstanden, dem berühmten Springbrunnen zusahen und Debussys «Claire de lune» lauschten. Das hatte eigentlich nichts zu suchen in einer Diebeskomödie, machte sie aber unverwechselbar. Auch «Ocean’s 8» bietet mit der jährlichen Gala im New Yorker Metropolitan Museum eine optisch attraktive Plattform zum Verweilen. Sie wird aber kaum genutzt. Das Schrägste im neuen Film ist, dass eine der Diebinnen einer anderen die Datingplattform Tinder erklärt. Ungenügend.

7. Roger Federer

Das Schweizer Tennis-Ass kommt auch vor, aber nur im Ton. Zu sehen sind dafür die Spielerinnen ­Serena Williams und Maria Scharapowa. Da muss irgendwo ein Tennisfan am Werk gewesen sein. Das hat aber mit den Diebinnen nichts zu tun.

8. Anne Hathaway

Fazit: «Ocean’s 8» bleibt harmlos. Zwei positive Überraschungen gibt es trotzdem. Ab und zu flucht Oberdiebin Sandra Bullock fuchsteufelswild deutsch im englischsprachigen Film (sie hat die Kindheit in Deutschland verbracht). Und Anne Hathaway spielt zuerst die verwöhnte Hollywood-Diva, was bereits ein Genuss ist. Aber dann zeigt ausgerechnet sie, der doch der Ruf als biederer Streberin anhaftet, noch ganz andere Facetten. Darum ist klar: Sollte «Ocean’s 9» jemals kommen, müsste dieser Film um sie gebaut werden.

«Ocean’s 8»: ab Do im Kino (SonntagsZeitung)


https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sonntagszeitung/sie-wollen-nur-stehlen/story/14922680

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Bullock statt Clooney: «Ocean's 8» setzt auf geballte Frauenpower


16. Juni 2018 14:20 Uhr

George Clooney machte es als Gauner in der «Ocean's»-Trilogie vor. Jetzt werden Danny Ocean & Co. durch ein reines Frauenteam um Sandra Bullock ersetzt: Sie wollen Diamanten bei der Met-Gala rauben.

Von dem charmanten Gauner Danny Ocean, gespielt von George Clooney, ist in «Ocean's 8» nicht mehr viel übrig. Sein Marmorgrabstein hat die Inschrift 1961 - 2018, seine gerissene Schwester Debbie (Sandra Bullock) gibt nun den Ton an.

Doch gleich die erste Szene in der neuen Gangsterkomödie ist eine Hommage an die Hit-Trilogie von Steven Soderbergh, der als Regisseur von 2001 bis 2007 für seine drei «Ocean's»-Filme Stars wie Clooney, Brad Pitt und Matt Damon für große Diebesfeldzüge vor die Kamera holte.

Genau wie Danny in «Ocean's Eleven» sitzt nun Debbie Ocean in Knastkleidung vor einem Bewährungsausschuss und bittet um ihre Entlassung. Sie wolle «ein ganz normales Leben» führen, säuselt sie, wenig später geht es auf hohen Absätzen in die Freiheit. Clooney stolzierte damals im Smoking aus dem Gefängnis heraus.

Von wegen normales Leben: Fünf Jahre, acht Monate und zwölf Tage hinter Gitter hatte sie Zeit, den perfekten Raubüberfall zu planen. Doch «Ocean's 8» ist keine Fortsetzung mit den üblichen (männlichen) Verdächtigen. Der Heist-Krimi setzt ganz auf Hollywoods Frauenpower.

Männer fallen auf, Frauen werden gewöhnlich übersehen, und daher ist ein rein weibliches Team für ihren kriminellen Plan genau das Richtige, erklärt Debbie ihrer alten Komplizin Lou (Cate Blanchett). Zusammen trommeln sie eine bunte Crew zusammen: die gewiefte Hackerin Nine Ball (Sängerin Rihanna), Modeschöpferin Rose (Helena Bonham Carter), eine Juwelierin (Mindy Kaling), eine fingerfertige Taschendiebin (Rapperin Awkwafina) und eine Hehlerin (Sarah Paulson).

Abräumen wollen sie bei der Met-Gala, dem jährlichen Glamour-Event im New Yorker Metropolitan Museum, am Hals von Hollywood-Star Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway). Dort hängt eine Diamantenkette im Wert von 150 Millionen Dollar.

Die Spendengala der Superstars ist die perfekte Filmkulisse. Tatsächlich durfte das «Ocean's 8»-Team vor Ort in dem berühmten Museum drehen. Der Ball wurde mit prominenten Stammgästen nachgestellt, so laufen in Gastrollen Kim Kardashian, Katie Holmes, Serena Williams, Vogue-Chefin Anna Wintour und Heidi Klum über den roten Teppich. Auch Debbies Diebinnen werfen sich in Schale, um hinter den Kulissen mit cleveren Tricks das streng bewachte Collier zu entwenden.

Bullock, die eine deutsche Mutter hat, tarnt sich mit blonder Perücke und perfektem Deutsch als ausländischer Stargast. Das sorgt in der englischen Originalfassung für besonderen Witz, wenn Debbie Heidi Klum auf Deutsch Komplimente macht und sich mit «Finger weg» und ähnlichen Sprüchen aus brenzligen Situationen rettet. In der synchronisierten deutschen Fassung geht das leider verloren.

Wie es sich für einen typischen Heist-Film gehört, spitzt sich der Plot bis zum packenden Showdown langsam zu. Bei «Ocean's 8» unter der Regie von Gary Ross («Die Tribute von Panem – The Hunger Games») geht es leider weniger prickelnd zu, als bei Steven Soderberghs Vorgängern. Der Plan läuft zu reibungslos ab. Einen echten Bösewicht, der den Frauen gefährlich werden könnte, gibt es nicht. Soderbergh ist zwar als Produzent an Bord, doch es fehlt sein flotter, lässiger Stil, den er Clooney & Co. verpasste.

Bullock bemüht sich unter vielen Schichten Make-up um ein cooles Image, doch wirkt dabei etwas starr. Nur im Doppel mit der tatsächlich lässigen Blanchett gewinnt das Frauenduo an Fahrt. Die große Überraschung ist Hathaway als das Glamour-Starlett Daphne Kluger. Süffisant spielt sie die verwöhnte, eitle Schauspielerin, die immer im Mittelpunkt steht - bis sich das Blatt wendet.

Männer haben in «Ocean's 8» nicht viel zu sagen. Neben ihrem Raubzug nimmt Debbie noch an ihrem Ex-Freund (Richard Armitage) Rache, der ihre Haftstrafe verschuldet hatte. Nicht viel besser ergeht es dem britischen Komiker James Corden, der als Versicherungsschnüffler auf der falschen Fährte ist.

Nach vollbrachter Tat gönnt sich Debbie am Grab ihres Bruders Danny einen Martini. Dieser Coup hätte dir gefallen, sagt sie mit souveräner Stimme. Recht hat sie. «Ocean's 8» mag einige Regieschwächen haben, doch mit geballter Frauenpower räumen Bullock & Co. unterm Strich unterhaltsam ab.

Ocean's 8, USA 2018, 110 Min., FSK ab 0, von Gary Ross, mit Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna
dpa


https://www.stern.de/kultur/film/bullock-statt-clooney--ocean-s-8--setzt-auf-geballte-frauenpower-8130192.html


Zitat:
"Ocean's 8" diese Woche im Kino: Lohnt sich das Kinoticket?

18.06.2018, 10:30
| von Anna Schmid

Diese Woche startet der vierte Teil der "Ocean's"-Reihe mit Sandra Bullock und Kate Blanchett in den Hauptrollen in den Kinos. "Ocean's 8" erzählt von einer betrogenen Betrügerin, die mit ihren Freunden einen der größten Juwelendiebstähle aller Zeiten plant. Ein Film, der nicht nur gagtechnisch überzeugt.

Ocean's 8: Acht Meisterdiebinnen und der größte Juwelenraub der Geschichte

Sie heißt Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) und hat den Raub seit über fünf Jahren akribisch geplant. Auf der Met-Gala will sie eines der wertvollsten Schmuckstücke der Welt stehlen: Eine Halskette im Wert von 150 Millionen US-Dollar, getragen von der hübschen, aber einfältigen Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway).

Um ihren Plan umzusetzen, stellt Debbie ein Team von sieben Meisterdiebinnen zusammen. Da ist zum Beispiel Nine Ball (Rihanna), die jedes Computersystem schneller hackt als man ihren Namen (der eigentlich Leslie ist) sagen kann. Oder Amita (Mindy Karling), eine Juwelierin, die aus einer Kette im Handumdrehen Ringe oder Armbänder machen kann.

Der Diebstahl der Juwelen ist allerdings nicht Debbies einziges Anliegen. Denn ihr ehemaliger Freund und Galeriebesitzer Claude Becker (Richard Armitage) sorgte vor fünf Jahren dafür, dass sie festgenommen wurde. Höchste Zeit, ihn dafür büßen zu lassen.

Obwohl die Story von "Ocean's 8" sicher keine Innovation ist – so ziemlich jeder Heist-Film funktioniert nach dem gleichen Prinzip – überzeugt das Spin-Off auf ganzer Linie. Das hat weniger mit der Geschichte an sich zu tun als mit der hochkarätigen Besetzung von "Ocean's 8".
Sandra Bullock spielt Debbie Ocean als eine intelligente und taffe Gaunerin, die nach über fünf Jahren Gefängnis einen genauen Plan davon hat, wie ihr Leben in Zukunft aussehen wird. Sie kennt bereits die richtigen Leute oder sucht sie sich, um den Coup, den sie sich so lange zurechtgelegt hat, in die Tat umzusetzen.

Für ihre Rolle haben sich die Macher des Films ein witziges Zusatzfeature einfallen lassen: Da Sandra Bullock in Deutschland geboren wurde, tarnt sich Debbie Ocean auf der Met-Gala als deutsches Sternchen und redet (in der Originalversion) auf der Veranstaltung auch nur auf Deutsch. Das führt bei manchen Met-Gästen zu Missverständnissen und bei den Zuschauern zum ein oder anderen Schmunzler.

Aber auch die anderen Charaktere sind in "Ocean's 8" äußerst unterhaltsam und individuell gestaltet. Im Gegensatz zu vergleichbaren Heist-Filmen stützen die Nebenfiguren nicht nur die Protagonistin, sondern sind jede für sich so individuell, dass man sich auch ohne Debbie Ocean an sie erinnert.

Sehenswerter Heist-Film für jedes Alter

Einziger Kritikpunkt an "Ocean's 8" bleibt die Geradlinigkeit des Films, die zu wenig bis kaum Wendepunkten in der Handlung führt. Selten gibt es Momente, in denen man denkt „Jetzt werden sie erwischt“ oder „Jetzt fliegt alles auf“. Die einzige wirkliche Überraschung liefert eine der Hauptfiguren - welche das ist, wird natürlich nicht verraten.

Insgesamt ist "Ocean's 8" aber dennoch ein sehenswerter Film für jedes Alter. Mit vielen guten Gags, hochwertiger Besetzung und einer alles in allem unterhaltsamen Story kann das Spin-Off aus der Ocean-Reihe punkten. Selten war die Met-Gala so spannend und ein Jahrhundertraub so glamurös wie bei "Ocean's 8".


https://www.chip.de/news/Oceans-8-in-der-Filmkritik-So-gut-ist-das-Spin-Off-mit-Sandra-Bullock_141684240.html

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Interessante Info zu Richards Rolle. Da scheint es sicher nicht bei einer Watsch'n zu bleiben :blackwings:
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Review der 'Welt' - mit Foto von Claude Becker und der Bildunterschrift:

Zitat:
In den Nebenrollen (und wo auch sonst?): James Corden und Richard Armitage (r.)



Zitat:
Sandra Bullock & Co. „Ocean’s 8“ und die Trottel vom Patriarchat
Stand: 15:25 Uhr | Lesedauer: 5 Minuten

Von Hannes Stein
Korrespondent

Was ihr Bruder kann, kann sie schon lange: Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), die Schwester von Gauner Danny Ocean (George Clooney), ist aus dem Knast entlassen worden und stellt ein Team von Meisterdiebinnen zusammen.

Quelle: Warner Bros. GmbH
Den Blockbuster „Ocean’s 8” sollte man nicht verpassen. Erstens sind weibliche „heist movies“ selten. Zweitens ist Sandra Bullock super. Drittens hat man die Klos im Metropolitan Museum nie schöner gesehen.
0

In einer Szene dieses wunderbaren Films spricht Sandra Bullock Deutsch. Nun sind ihre Fans natürlich längst darüber informiert, dass Bullock – die in Nürnberg, Wien und Salzburg aufgewachsen ist – die Sprache ihrer Mutter (die Deutsche war) immer noch perfekt beherrscht, übrigens mit leicht fränkischem Akzent, was die Sache noch charmanter macht.

Allerdings sollten ihre Fans auch darauf achten, was Sandra Bullock in jener Szene von „Ocean’s 8“ sagt. Bei ungenauem Hinhören handelt es sich um puren Wortsalat – Bullock (oder genauer gesagt: die von ihr dargestellte Debbie Ocean) muss lediglich eine Museumswärterin aufhalten, während im Hintergrund ihre Kolleginnen ein paar Kronjuwelen abräumen.

Die Sache ist aber die: Debbie Ocean erzählt auf Deutsch von ihrem (selbstverständlich nicht existenten) Ehemann. Sie habe keine Ahnung, wo der sei, stößt sie atemlos hervor, er sei leider schon ein bisschen vertrottelt, neulich etwa habe er seine Pantoffeln im Tiefkühlfach aufbewahrt. Auf die hohe Signifikanz dieser Äußerung kommen wir später zurück.
Heist – eine Begriffsklärung

„Ocean’s 8“ ist beides in einem: ein „heist movie“ und eine Parodie darauf. In einem „heist movie“ – eine Eindeutschung dieses Fachbegriffs ließ sich leider auch durch heftigstes Googeln nicht ermitteln – geht es um ein Team von schlauen Gangstern, die gemeinsam einen Raubüberfall durchziehen, meistens, um eine vergangene Schmach zu rächen.
OCEAN'S 8 Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' first look at "Ocean's 8" from one of New York City's most iconic locales: the subway. In Summer 2018, the tide will turn as (L-r) Debbie Ocean (SANDRA BULLOCK) attempts to pull off the heist of the century at New York City's star-studded annual Met Gala. Her first stop is to assemble the perfect crew: Lou (CATE BLANCHETT); Nine Ball (RIHANNA); Amita (MINDY KALING); Constance (AWKWAFINA); Rose (HELENA BONHAM CARTER); Daphne Kluger (ANNE HATHAWAY); and Tammy (SARAH PAULSON).
Eins, zwei, drei … acht: Das Ensemble fährt U-Bahn

Quelle: © 2017 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC., VILLAGE ROADSHOW FILMS NORTH AMERICA INC. AND RATPAC-DUNE ENTERTAINMENT LLC

Verschiedene Male droht die Sache ernsthaft schiefzugehen, aber am Ende gewinnen doch die Guten (also die Gangster), weil sie deutlich mehr Grips im Schädel haben als ihre Feinde, die lediglich brutal sind.

Hinter dem „heist“ (dem Überfall) steht ein Mastermind, ein Drahtzieher, der alle Eventualitäten bedacht hat. Filmkritiker haben schon früh erkannt, dass es sich beim „heist movie“ um ein selbstbezügliches Genre handelt: Der Mastermind steht für den Filmregisseur.
Schaumbad vorm Central Park

Der Schatz, um den es geht, ist das Kunstwerk, das auf Zelluloid gebannt werden soll; die Fallen, in die das Gangsterteam beinahe tappt, sind die Schwierigkeiten, die beim Drehen eines Films unweigerlich auftreten; und es geht um sehr viel Geld.

Müssen wir noch darauf hinweisen, dass ein „heist movie“ immer eine betont männliche Angelegenheit war? Das Besondere an „Ocean’s 8“ ist aber nun, dass der Raubüberfall von sieben oder vielmehr – wie sich am Schluss herausstellt – acht Frauen veranstaltet wird. Das Vergnügen steigert sich dadurch gewaltig.

„Ocean’s 8“ hat zwei Stars. Der erste von ihnen ist, wie oben schon zart angedeutet, Sandra Bullock: Gleich zum Auftakt des Films lässt sie verschiedene Kosmetikartikel mitgehen, dann schleicht sie sich mit einem Trick in ein Hotelzimmer ein, für das sie keinen Cent bezahlt hat, und genehmigt sich erst mal ein luxuriöses Schaumbad mit Blick auf den Central Park – dies rief in Manhattan spontanen Szenenapplaus im Kino hervor.
Stars, Stars, Stars

Sandra Bullock ist nicht nur eine hervorragende Schauspielerin, die die Kunst beherrscht, mit einem sanften Heben ihrer Augenbrauen Welten in Wallung zu versetzen; es scheint auch, dass sie nie in ihrem Leben attraktiver war als jetzt, mit 54 Jahren.
Film bricht Rekorde: Tribut an die Frauenwelt

Der achte Teil der Ocean's-Reihe feierte ein grandioses Start-Wochenende. Kein Wunder, die weibliche Besetzung lockte die Fans in die Kinos und sorgte für Rekordzahlen.

Quelle: Zoom.in

Der zweite Star des Films ist das Metropolitan Museum. Es wird in „Ocean’s 8“ mit solcher Liebe zum Detail vorgeführt wie ein Braten, den sich ein Gourmand in den Rachen zu schieben gedenkt. Nie haben wir seine Säle, seine Gemälde, seine Skulpturen in solcher Pracht erstrahlen gesehen wie hier – vor allem an die Toiletten in der ägyptischen Abteilung werden wir nach „Ocean’s 8“ immer mit besonderer Rührung denken. (Nein, nein. Mehr wird an dieser Stelle nicht ausgeplaudert.)

Neben Sandra Bullock und dem Metropolitan Museum gibt es noch ein paar ausgezeichnet besetzte Nebenrollen. Wen sollen wir zuerst erwähnen? Rihanna als kiffende, lässig-geniale Hackerin, die merkwürdigerweise „Nine Ball“ heißt?
„Ocean’s 9“, bitte

Oder Cate Blanchett, die mit kühlem, blondem Understatement eine Kriminelle in genieteten Lederjacken spielt? Oder Sarah Paulson als brave Vorstadtmami, die das riskante Hobby hat, dass sie in ihrer Freizeit gern Leute beklaut?

Oder Awkwafina als Kaugummi kauende, akrobatische Taschendiebin? Oder Helen Bonham Carter als verkrachte Modedesignerin? Oder Mindy Kaling als Spezialistin für Diamanten? Oder Anne Hathaway als brünettes Dummchen, das zu guter Letzt doch erheblich intelligenter ist, als wir zunächst vermutet hatten?

Die Wahrheit ist: Sie sind alle hervorragend, und man würde ihnen auch noch fünf Stunden lang beim Pläneschmieden, Museenausrauben und Davonkommen zuschauen. Als Nächstes wünschen wir uns bitte „Ocean’s 9“ mit all den genannten Schauspielerinnen plus Julia Roberts. Und den Prado, wenn’s recht ist. Zur Not nähmen wir auch mit dem Louvre vorlieb.
Männchen, Männchen, Männchen

Zur Handlung von „Ocean’s 8“ gibt es wenig anzumerken. Sandra Bullock spielt Debbie Ocean, die Schwester von Danny Ocean (George Clooney), den wir aus verschiedenen Vorgängerfilmen kennen. Er tritt in diesem Film allerdings nicht auf, weil er leider verstorben ist. Debbie Ocean musste gerade mehr als fünf Jahre im Knast abbrummen, weil sie von einem ehemaligen „boyfriend“ hereingelegt wurde.
Ocean's 8 (L-R) JAMES CORDEN as John Frazier and RICHARD ARMITAGE as Claude Becker in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' "OCEAN'S 8," a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Fünf Jahre sind eine lange Zeit; da kann man sich ein perfektes Verbrechen ausdenken, das außerdem noch den edlen Zweck erfüllt, sich an besagtem „boyfriend“ zu rächen. Der Wahrscheinlichkeit wird nicht erlaubt, ihr hässliches Haupt zu erheben, und so erfahren wir am Ende zu unserer Verblüffung … aber sehen Sie selbst.

Ist „Ocean’s 8“ ein feministischer Film? Selbstverständlich. In einer Szene am Anfang tuscht Sandra Bullock sich die Wimpern und doziert: „Wir tun das hier nicht nur für uns. Nein, wir müssen auch an das achtjährige Mädchen denken, das zu Hause liegt und davon träumt, eine große Verbrecherin zu werden.“

Das Großartige und Wunderbare, das Utopische besteht nun aber darin, dass das Patriarchat in diesem Film gar nicht mehr als ernsthafter Gegner gilt, den die Frauen mit vereinten Kräften niederringen müssten. Die tyrannischen Männchen, die in „Ocean’s 8“ auftreten, sind nicht bedrohlich, nur lächerlich. Sie erinnern – um auf Sandra Bullocks deutschen Wortschwall zurückzukommen – an einen vertrottelten Gatten, der seine Pantoffeln aus Versehen im Tiefkühlfach der Geschichte vergessen hat.


https://www.welt.de/kultur/kino/article177888020/Ocean-s-8-mit-Sandra-Bullock-Die-Trottel-vom-Patriarchat.html

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 Betreff des Beitrags: Re: O8-Reviews
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Drei Sterne von der 'Neuen Zürcher Zeitung':

Zitat:
«Ocean's 8» – jetzt gehen die Frauen auf Beutezug
Diamanten sind der Mädchen beste Freunde: In der spassigen Fortsetzung von Steven Soderberghs Gauner-Trilogie macht sich eine Bande gewiefter Räuberinnen im Metropolitan Museum daran, Juwelen zu erbeuten.

Tobias Sedlmaier 20.6.2018, 15:30 Uhr

Wenn gleich zu Anfang eines Films ein Häftling bei der Entlassung gefragt wird, ob er sich gebessert habe, dieser nickt und ewige Gesetzestreue schwört, so kann man sicher sein, dass anschliessend exakt das Gegenteil des treuherzig Versprochenen folgt. So war es 2001 in der Heist-Komödie «Ocean's Eleven», einem Remake des gleichnamigen «Rat Pack»-Films von 1960, und so ist es auch 2018. Nur dass bei «Ocean's 8» kein graumelierter George Clooney als Danny Ocean einen All-Star-Cast an männlichen Gaunern anführt, sondern die Geschlechterrollen diesmal umgekehrt sind.
Frauencrew

Sandra Bullock spielt Debbie Ocean, die Schwester von Danny, der anscheinend, symbolisch für ein dominantes Männerbild in Zeiten von #MeToo, gerade das Zeitliche gesegnet hat. Wobei sein Grab womöglich ebenso leer sein könnte wie die Tresore in Las Vegas nach einem seiner Raubzüge. Genau wie ihr Bruder sass auch Debbie jahrelang im Gefängnis, was sie keineswegs daran hindert, ihre Verbrecherkarriere fortzusetzen, im Gegenteil: Der ganz grosse Coup, geplant in der Zelle, steht erst an. Ein 150 Millionen schweres Diamantcollier von Cartier soll bei der Party des Jahres, der New Yorker Met-Gala, direkt vom Hals seiner Trägerin erbeutet werden.

Neben Debbie, die sich als Drahtzieherin elegant im Hintergrund hält und vor allem mit geschickten kleinen Manövern wie dem Ergaunern von Parfums oder Hotelzimmern hervorsticht, haben sich fast ausschliesslich Frauen für die Crew versammelt: Cate Blanchett als Vermittlerin, Rihanna als Hackerin oder Helena Bonham Carter als schräge Modedesignerin etwa. Dabei füllen alle ihre angelegten Rollen sehr gradlinig aus, nur Anne Hathaways Charakter als oberflächlich dümmliches Diebstahlopfer erhält einen mehr oder weniger überraschenden Kniff.

Heist-Movies, also Filme, bei denen das Entwenden eines Objekts im Vordergrund steht, zelebrieren zumeist eine möglichst umständliche, aber originelle Vorgehensweise. Ähnlich wie bei Rube-Goldberg-Maschinen geht es nicht um Effizienz, sondern um Stil. Rohe Gewalt wie bei der Mafia hat keinen Platz in diesem Diebesspiel. Die «Ocean's»-Trilogie von Steven Soderbergh (der diesmal als Produzent fungiert) hatte eine sich mit jedem Teil steigernde Bluff-Maschinerie für die Zuschauer aufgestellt, deren kunstvoll gebasteltes Verhältnis zwischen Zeit, Raum, Mensch und Bewegung man eigentlich erst im Nachhinein versteht.

Insofern ist die Durchführung selbst das eigentliche Highlight, nicht die Vorbereitungen. Auch «Ocean's 8» nimmt erst im letzten Drittel so richtig an Fahrt auf, der Galaabend im Metropolitan Museum ist grossartig inszeniert. Zuvor wird mit Videoclip-Ästhetik und nicht immer treffsicher lustigen Sprüchen ein wenig davon abgelenkt, dass die Frauen nicht mehr zu erzählen haben als die Männer. Dabei gäbe es durchaus Ansatzpunkte; an einer Stelle etwa fällt die Frage, warum Frauen besser für die Raubzüge geeignet seien. Die Antwort: Sie werden meistens ignoriert.
Motivationen spiegelbildlich

So ein Statement liesse sich klug weiterspinnen, doch «Ocean's 8» beschränkt sich sehr darauf, eine grundsolide Handlung ähnlich der von «Ocean's Eleven» zu übernehmen. Sogar die heimlichen Motivationen der Ocean-Familie tauchen spiegelbildlich wieder auf. War Julia Roberts noch die Ex-Frau, für die Danny kämpfen musste, ist es in «Ocean's 8» Debbies Ex-Freund (Richard Armitage), an dem Rache geübt wird. Eine eigenständigere Geschichte hätte dem Film gut zu Gesicht gestanden.

So reiht sich «Ocean's 8» in die aktuelle Liste von weiblichen Wiedergängern wie «Ghostbusters» oder «Girls' Night Out» ein, bei denen die Emanzipation mehr auf der Besetzungsliste als inhaltlich sichtbar wird. Allerdings zumindest mit spürbarem Erfolg beim Publikum: In den USA muss sich die Diebinnenbande in den ersten Wochen beim Einspielergebnis keineswegs vor ihren männlichen Kollegen verstecken. So kann Debbie Ocean am Schluss womöglich zu Recht am Grab ihres Bruders sagen: Dir hätte es gefallen.

★★★☆☆ Kinos Abaton, Arena, Capitol, Corso, Houdini, Kosmos in Zürich.


https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/oceans-08-entwurf-ld.1394819

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Noch mehr deutschsprachige Kritiken (mit Urteilen von 4,5 von 5 bis schwach):

Zitat:
"Ocean's 8" Das Schaulaufen glamouröser Gaunerinnen
Mit gutem Willen ließe sich der weibliche Reboot der "Oceans"-Reihe als Akt der Gleichberechtigung sehen. Stimmt, die Damen stehen ihren männlichen Pendants in ihrer Holzschnitthaftigkeit in nix nach.

Von David Kleingers

Mittwoch, 20.06.2018 12:33 Uhr

Bekanntlich erledigen Frauen so ziemlich jeden Job effizienter als Männer. Das erklärt vielleicht, warum "Ocean's 8" als weiblich besetzter Reboot der Komödienreihe um eine Gaunerbande weniger Personal braucht als seine Vorläufer.

In denen ließ Regisseur Steven Soderbergh mindestens elf Gentleman-Gangster mit nonchalanter Leichtigkeit spektakuläre Coups landen, wobei es allerdings vorrangig darum ging, eine prominente Darstellerriege um George Clooney, Brad Pitt und Matt Damon möglichst lässig in Szene zu setzen.
Diesem Grundprinzip folgt auch die Neuauflage unter der Regie von Gary Ross ("Pleasantville", "The Hunger Games") mit schon fast sklavischer Treue, und führt Sandra Bullock als Debbie Ocean ein. Die Schwester des angeblich verstorbenen (zuvor von Clooney gespielten), kriminellen Masterminds Danny Ocean kommt zum Auftakt auf Bewährung aus dem Gefängnis, wo sie fünf Jahre wegen Betrugs einsaß.

Keineswegs geläutert hat Debbie die Haftzeit zur Planung eines verwegenen Raubzugs genutzt: Auf der jährlichen Gala des Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will sie direkt vor den makellosen Nasen der versammelten Schönen und Reichen ein auf 150 Millionen Dollar geschätztes Diamantcollier von Cartier entwenden.

Nur die allererste von vielen auftretenden Herausforderungen dabei: Dafür zu sorgen, dass das Schmuckstück überhaupt erst vom Safe des Juweliers an den Hals der blasierten Schauspielerin und Galamoderatorin Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) gelangt. Niemand schafft das allein, weshalb Debbie das Vorbild ihres Bruders feministisch ummünzt, und ein schillerndes Team aus Frauen mit verschiedenen Fertigkeiten rekrutiert.

Schaulaufen der Stars

Von der Trickdiebin über die unvermeidliche Hackerin bis hin zur exzentrischen Modedesignerin sind schließlich allerhand Talente gefunden, wobei die einzelnen Rollen allenfalls knapp umrissen werden. Aber für das Selbstverständnis des Films ist die Besetzung ohnehin wichtiger als eine detaillierte Figurenzeichnung, schließlich ist das Schaulaufen der Stars das eigentliche Kapital im "Oceans"-Konzept.

So haben neben Sandra Bullock und Anne Hathaway auch Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna und Helena Bonham Carter ihre bisweilen durchaus amüsanten Minutenauftritte in einem strikt funktionalen Plot. Der versucht gar nicht erst, seine Herkunft von Reißbrett mit vorgeschobener Originalität zu kaschieren: Der Konvention des heist movie folgend geht es bei der kriminellen Operation nicht um das Ob, geschweige denn um das Warum, sondern um das möglichst raffinierte Wie.
________________________________________
"Ocean's 8"
USA 2018
Regie: Gary Ross
Drehbuch: Olivia Milch, Gary Ross
Darsteller: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter
Produktion: Village Roadshow Pictures
Verleih: Warner Bros.
Länge: 110 Minuten
FSK: ohne Altersbeschränkung
Start: 21. Juni 2018
________________________________________

"Ocean's 8" erfüllt diese Vorgabe routiniert und ist somit kein bisschen schlechter als seine männerbündelnden Vorläufer. Nur leider waren schon die nicht besonders herausragend, weshalb das Gefühl einer verpassten Gelegenheit vorherrscht: Wo vorher Männer Casinos ausraubten, stehlen nun Frauen Juwelen, ansonsten begnügt sich der Film damit, Altbekanntes in neuen Gewändern zu präsentieren. Und einige sanft-ironische Spitzen gegen überkommene Geschlechterrollen sind letztlich zu wenig, um dem Glanz auch etwas Substanz zu verleihen.

Auf Nummer sicher

Brav eingehegt zwischen den Erwartungen des Publikums an das vertraute Format und dem jeweils eigenen, populären Image spielen die Damen um Sandra Bullock so auf Nummer sicher. Denn genau wie vor ihnen die männliche "Ocean"-Besetzung, so stellen sich auch die weiblichen Stars vornehmlich selbst dar. Das ist natürlich legitim, rührt aber eben auch nicht an geschlechtsspezifischen Rollenbildern wie es etwa eine weibliche Variante von James Bond tun würde.
Ein reaktionärer Shitstorm, wie er über die Hauptdarstellerinnen des "Ghostbusters"-Reboot hereinbrach, dürfte den Stars von "Ocean's 8" daher erspart bleiben. Doch die Glasdecke im Genrekino, das abseits der romantischen Komödie immer noch von männlichen Figuren dominiert wird, können und wollen die glamourösen Gaunerinnen nicht knacken.

Ein perfektes Verbrechen hinterlässt keine Spuren, und auch in "Ocean's 8" lässt sich nach dem Abspann nichts von echtem Belang finden.


http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/kino/ocean-s-8-schaulaufen-glamouroeser-gaunerinnen-filmkritik-a-1213626.html

Zitat:
20.6.2018

Oceans 11 mit George Clooney und Brad Pitt kennt jeder. Jetzt kommt Oceans 8 ins Kino. Das heißt: Acht Frauen planen einen ganz großen Coup und wollen auf der Met-Gala in New York ein Diamantencollier von Cartier klauen.

In einem glamourösen Setting – der exklusivsten Party in ganz New York – versuchen acht Frauen, die Oceans 8, einen Bruch hinzulegen, der seinesgleichen sucht. Star-Besetzung ist angesagt: Neben Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna, Sarah Paulson und der Youtuberin Awkwafina, ist es vor allem Anne Hathaway als dümmliche Schauspielerin, die den anderen die Show stiehlt.

Allein die Eröffnungssequenz hat es in sich: Wie Bullock als Debbie aus dem Knast kommt und im nobelsten Hotel der Stadt eincheckt, ohne auch nur einen Dollar zu bezahlen. Ein Tempo, dass der Film nicht halten kann.

Flache Dialoge und keine Überraschungen

Ich hätte Oceans 8 so gerne so gut gefunden und auf dem Papier spricht auch alles dafür. Sandra Bullock sagt einen ganz wunderbaren Satz im Film: „Irgendwo da draußen ist ein achtjähriges Mädchen, die davon träumt eine Kriminelle zu werden. Wir machen das für sie“. Das inoffizielle Motto von Oceans 8 ist also, dass Frauen alles können, alles dürfen und alles tun sollten. Oder eben auch nicht. Denn Debbie hebelt ihr eigenes Motto aus: Für den richtig großen Coup sind Männer unverzichtbar. Nicht nur, dass über allem der Geist von Danny Ocean und George Clooney schwebt, nein, den Raub initiiert Debbie nur, um sich an ihrem Exfreund zu rächen. Cate Blanchett als Lou ist so damit beschäftigt Brad Pitt als Rusty zu kopieren, dass sie irgendwann vergisst zu spielen.

Film ist nur halb so gut, wie er sein könnte

In dem Film von Gary Ross will alles perfekt sein und auch perfekt aussehen. Es gibt nichts Schmutziges, nichts Raues, nichts Überraschendes. Cate Blanchett unkte in einem Interview der Film hieße übrigens Oceans 8, weil in Hollywood eben nur acht Frauen arbeiten würden. Das einzig wirklich Positive einer potentiellen Fortsetzung wäre also die Beschäftigung einer weiteren Frau.
Der Film macht Spaß, ist aber nicht das Meisterwerk, das er hätte sein können. Deswegen gibt es von mir „nur“ 3 von 5 Elchen


https://www.swr3.de/aktuell/filme-und-buecher/kino/SWR3-Kino-Check-Ocean-s-8/-/id=150562/did=4776652/1qop0d0/index.html


Zitat:
Was elf Männer können, schaffen acht Frauen schon lange

Gleiche Formel, umgekehrte Vorzeichen: Nach drei „Ocean’s“-Filmen mit Männern in den Hauptrollen darf jetzt eine weibliche Starriege ran.


Nadine Lange


So ein 3D-Drucker ist eine feine Sache. Fehlt im Haushalt etwa Geschirr für einen überraschend auftauchenden Dinnergast, kann es fix ausgedruckt werden. Stehen weniger erfreuliche Begegnungen an, lassen sich auch Waffenteile herstellen. Technik, die begeistert – zunehmend auch die Filmbranche. Von der queeren Indieproduktion „M/M“ bis hin zum demnächst startenden Science-Fiction-Spektakel „Hotel Artemis“ kann man sie gerade vermehrt auf der Leinwand bewundern.

In Gary Ross’ „Ocean’s 8“ hat der 3D- Drucker sogar eine Hauptrolle ergattert. Sein Job: ein millionenschweres Diamanten-Collier nachbilden, das die Diebinnenbande um die gerade aus dem Gefängnis entlassene Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) stehlen will. Die Kopie soll davon ablenken, dass sich das gute Stück nicht mehr an dem Ort befindet, an dem es die Eigentümer vermuten.
Tammy (Sarah Paulson), die Zeugwartin der Gruppe, hat das Maschinchen herangeschafft und führt es den Kolleginnen vor. Es stellt eine verkleinerte Version von Michelangelos David-Statue aus Kunstharz her. Ein makelloser, nackter Männerkörper wird von Frauen zum Objekt gemacht – üblicherweise läuft es andersherum. Damit enthält die Szene auch schon die zentrale Idee von „Ocean’s 8“: Nach drei „Ocean’s“-Filmen mit überwiegend männlicher Besetzung kommt nun die weibliche Variante. Eine Kopie der Kopie. Schon die Trilogie um George Clooneys Meisterdieb beruhte ja auf „Ocean’s Eleven“ mit Frank Sinatra in der Hauptrolle.

Der Coup läuft wie am Schnürchen

Danny Ocean ist inzwischen tot. Seine Schwester Debbie tritt sein Erbe als Mastermind eines komplizierten Raubzugs an. Den Plan dazu hat sie in den vergangenen fünf Jahren im Knast ausgetüftelt. Jetzt braucht sie nur noch ein schlagkräftiges Team, um ihn auch ausführen zu können. Als Erstes stöbert sie ihre frühere Komplizin Lou (Cate Blanchett) auf, die inzwischen einen Nachtclub betreibt und deren kriminelle Energien sich auf das Verwässern von Wodka beschränken.
Die rockstarmäßig gekleidete Lou ist das weibliche Äquivalent zu der von Brad Pitt verkörperten Figur des Rusty Ryan. Wenn Debbie die zögerliche Freundin zum Mittagessen trifft und ihr eine Gabel mit Essen in den Mund schiebt, besiegelt das nicht nur Lous Verführung zum Mitmachen, sondern ist auch eine hübsche Referenz an den dauerkauenden Rusty aus „Ocean’s 11“.

Die restliche Rekrutierung der Bande, sowie der Diebstahl selbst laufen wie am Schnürchen, es gibt kaum größere Hindernisse oder Unvorhersehbarkeiten, die das Team bewältigen müsste. Man bangt nie wirklich um den Ausgang des Coups, eher hat man das Gefühl dabei zuzuschauen, wie eine etablierte Formel zur Anwendung kommt. Von der ethnischen Zusammensetzung der Gang bis zum erwartbaren Twist wirkt alles sehr berechnet und berechnend.

Und wer zählen kann, wird nicht mal von der Pointe am Schluss überrascht. Dass innerhalb dieser auch genrebedingten Kalkuliertheit deutlich mehr möglich wäre – etwa durch Übertreibungen und genauere Charakterzeichnung – hat Steven Soderbergh letztes Jahr mit „Logan Lucky“ bewiesen. Schade, dass der Regisseur der ersten drei „Ocean’s“-Filme – hier ist er nur als Produzent beteiligt – offenbar keine großen Inspirationsfunken in die neue Folge einbringen konnte.

Helena Bonham Carter zeigt ihr komisches Talent

Dass „Ocean’s 8“ dennoch vergnügliche Unterhaltung bietet, liegt vor allem an den Schauspielerinnen. Helena Bonham Carter etwa hat als schrullige Modedesignerin Rose die seltene Gelegenheit, einmal ihr komisches Talent unter Beweis zu stellen. Rose muss den Cartier-Boss überzeugen, das seit Jahrzehnten in einem Safe lagernde Collier für eine Gala in der New Yorker Met leihweise an die von ihr eingekleidete Schauspielerin Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) zu geben. Das sei Werbung, die Cartier gut brauchen könne: „Eine ganze Generation spricht ihren Namen falsch aus“, schleudert sie dem Franzosen entgegen, der auf die Kompliziertheit seiner Muttersprache verweist. Woraufhin Rose ihn mit einem französischen Redeschwall vom Gegenteil überzeugt.
Auch Deutsch wird gesprochen: Sandra Bullock, die eine deutsche Mutter hat, gibt sich auf der Gala als Hilde Schneider aus und hat ein paar witzige Ausbrüche in der Sprache. Die Lässigste in der Crew ist die Hackerin Nine Ball, gespielt von Popstar Rihanna. Mit Dreadlocks, fetten Joints und einer Menge herablassender Sprüche bleibt die Figur allerdings platt. Sie fällt mit ihrem Gala- Kurzauftritt im roten Abendkleid sogar noch einmal zurück in Richtung Rollenkonvention.

Überhaupt ist das um Mode und Schmuck kreisende Setting doch recht klischeehaft. Es scheint, als wolle Gary Ross, der auch am Drehbuch mitwirkte, vermeiden, dass es „Ocean’s 8“ wie zuletzt dem weiblich besetzten „Ghostbusters“-Remake ergeht, dem ein frauenverachtender und rassistischer Shitstorm von Macho-Fans des Originals entgegenschlug. Also lieber nicht zu weit rauswagen aus der Welt der Stereotype. Wer hat schon was gegen schlaue Hetero-Frauen in Designerkleidern? So eine kleine Davidstatue ist zum Glück leicht zu übersehen.


https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/oceans-8-im-kino-was-elf-maenner-koennen-schaffen-acht-frauen-schon-lange/22710454.html

Zitat:

"Ocean's 8": Neue Frauen-Bande
Mit "Ocean's 8" gibt es jetzt eine äußerst unterhaltsame Gaunerkomödie mit Frauen als Präzisionskriminellen. Doch warum ist die Rollenvariation überhaupt erwähnenswert?


Von Catherine Newmark

20. Juni 2018, 20:12 Uhr

Was macht eigentlich Sandra Bullock, habe ich mich in den vergangenen Jahren ab und an gefragt. Es war keine dringliche Frage in meinem Leben, aber sie tauchte gelegentlich auf, genau wie die nach anderen Schauspielerinnen mit einem Geburtsjahr in den Sechzigern. Nach der Generation also, deren Gesichter die Leinwand prägten, als ich jung war und die Traumfabrik für mich entdeckte – und die in den vergangenen zehn Jahren immer seltener in großen Rollen zu sehen war. Sandra Bullock, schon 2009 in The Proposal versuchsweise ins Cougar-Fach gewechselt, hatte 2013 noch einmal mit George Clooney einen großen Erfolg in Gravity. Aber was hat man von ihr seither gehört (abgesehen von ihrer Stimme in Minions)?

Nun ist sie mit Ocean's 8 zurück. Als Debbie Ocean spielt sie die Schwester des Gentleman-Verbrechers Danny Ocean, den Clooney in den smarten Casino-Ausraub-Filmen Ocean's 11, Ocean's 12 und Ocean's 13 von 2001 bis 2007 verkörpert hatte. Wie einst ihr Bruder wird Debbie zu Beginn des Films aus dem Gefängnis entlassen. Und schon nach den ersten Minuten, in denen sie elegant hochwertige Kosmetika und sonstiges Bling aus einem Kaufhaus entwendet und sich in das Zimmer eines Luxushotels hineinschwindelt, wird klar, dass ihrer Beteuerung, jetzt ein ganz braves und normales Leben führen zu wollen, nicht zu trauen ist. Vielmehr verliert sie keine Zeit und trommelt ein weibliches All-Star-Ensemble krimineller Komplizinnen zusammen, von Cate Blanchett als unfassbar lässiger alter Weggefährtin bis zu Rihanna als neu angeheuerter kiffender Hackerin, um den Raub des Jahrzehnts während der glamourösen New Yorker Met Gala zu planen.

Eine Modedesignerin (Helena Bonham Carter) muss mit ins Boot geholt werden, um Zugang zum Filmstar (Anne Hathaway) zu bekommen, an deren Hals die zu raubenden Diamanten hängen sollen – was aber auch erst organisiert werden muss. Und so weiter und so fort. Jeder Move gleicht einem Schachzug, dessen Konsequenzen in all seinen Verästelungen Debbie Ocean anscheinend während ihrer fünf Haftjahre minutiös vorausberechnet hat. Alles geht Schlag auf Schlag, nichts wird dem Zufall überlassen, sondern mit einer charmanten Kombination aus Coolness und Präzision vorangetrieben. Das Star-Ensemble hängt sich mit spürbarer Lust in seine Rollen und alles ist prächtig anzusehen – es geht schließlich um Diamanten, um Mode und um die Met Gala, inklusive Cameo-Auftritten von Vogue-Chefin Anna Wintour und allen möglichen Promis bis hinunter zu Heidi Klum, mit der sich die in Deutschland aufgewachsene Bullock kurz auf Deutsch unterhält. Alles in allem also ist Ocean's 8 ein temporeiches und rundum unterhaltsames Exemplar des Heist-Film-Genres mit viel Starpower, dem man gerne einen Abend widmen kann – das aber weder den Weltfrieden noch den Untergang des Abendlandes herbeiführen, geschweige denn das Kino revolutionieren wird. Viereinhalb von fünf Sternchen, Ende der Kurzkritik.

Schön wäre es, wir könnten es dabei bewenden lassen. Vielleicht wird das in zehn Jahren möglich sein. Im Jahr 2018 gilt allerdings die Tatsache, dass wir es hier mit Frauen und nicht wie in bisherigen Inkarnationen der Ocean's-Serie mit einer Bande von Männern zu tun haben (vor den George-Clooney-Streifen gab es ja noch das ursprüngliche Frank-Sinatra-Mackertum der Sechzigerjahre), noch immer als bemerkenswert. Der Film ist zwar noch nicht zwangsläufig aus diesem Grund ein feministisches Statement, aber doch Teil eines aktuellen Trends in Hollywood: Das nicht wahnsinnig originelle Alltagsgeschäft der endlosen Fortsetzungen, Spin-offs und Remakes von erfolgreichen Filmen wird in jüngster Zeit immer öfter mit Geschlechtervariationen angereichert: Ehemals männlich besetzte Rollen werden nun weiblich neu imaginiert, aus rein männlichen Welten werden gemischtgeschlechtliche oder gar ganz weibliche. Wem das angesichts des allgemeinen Geschlechterrollenwandels der vergangenen Jahrzehnte eher trivial bis selbstverständlich vorkommt, konnte nicht mit den kulturellen Grabenkämpfen der Gegenwart rechnen. Vor zwei Jahren machte eine weiblich besetzte Ghostbusters-Neuversion Furore. Nicht etwa, weil der Film besonders gut oder besonders schlecht gewesen wäre, sondern weil er hasserfüllte Reaktionen aus den dunklen Tiefen des Internets auslöste, deren Ausmaß selbst jene, die sich berufsmäßig mit männlicher Gekränktheit beschäftigen, überraschte.

Eine ähnlich heftige Reaktion ist bei Ocean's 8 bislang ausgeblieben – unklar, ob aufgrund allgemeiner Einsicht in den unaufhaltsamen Lauf der Welt oder möglicherweise nur aufgrund der Tatsache, dass die Ocean's-Filme zwar erfolgreich, aber nicht in der Weise identitätsstiftende Kult waren wie andere Streifen. Die Star Wars-Reihe etwa, in der das männliche Personal keineswegs abgeschafft wurde, aber seit dem Erwachen der Macht (2015) durch mehr handelnde Frauen und auch eine andere Inszenierung von Männlichkeit ergänzt wurde, erfährt nach wie vor mehr Gegenwind.

Dass die weibliche Besetzung von einzelnen Filmen überhaupt ein Thema ist, mag angesichts der nach wie vor überwältigenden Überzahl von männlichen Rollen in Hollywood erstaunen. Statistisch bekommen Männer nicht nur rund zwei Drittel aller Rollen in der Traumfabrik, sondern sie müssen im Allgemeinen auch weit weniger jung sein, um diese zu bekommen, als Frauen. Die Abwesenheit von Sandra Bullock von der großen Leinwand hat auch etwas zu tun mit dem eingeschränkten Angebot an weiblichen Rollen für über Vierzigjährige. Was wiederum damit zusammenhängt, dass ein großer Teil der weiblichen Hauptrollen sich noch immer im (breit verstandenen) Spektrum der schönen Geliebten eines männlichen Hauptdarstellers bewegt. Und dafür ist in Hollywood nach wie vor die "fuckability" ein zentrales Kriterium. Mit dieser – in Zeiten grassierender Euphemismen so angenehm klartextlich formulierten Qualität – ist wohlgemerkt nicht die Fähigkeit von Frauen zum Ficken gemeint, sondern der mutmaßliche Wunsch von Männern jeden Alters, mit ihnen zu ficken. (Wer den Begriff noch nicht kennt, sehe sich bitte Amy Schumers oscarverdächtigen Erklär-Sketch dazu an.) Danach – und manchmal auch schon in skurriler Weise gleichzeitig – gibt es fast nur noch die Abschiebung ins Mutterfach, siehe Diane Lane, die 2013 mit gerade mal 48 Jahren die Mutter eines 30-jährigen Henry-Cavill-Superman spielte. Oder Angelina Jolie, die 2004 in Alexander mit 29 (!) die Mutter des um nur ein Jahr jüngeren Colin Farrell gab.

Nun sind alle Stars von Ocean's 8 eminent attraktiv und (mithilfe von Hollywoods kleinen Hilfstechniken) jung geblieben. Aber der Punkt ist natürlich, dass in einem weiblichen Ensemblefilm weniger die heterosexuelle Zweierbeziehung und damit der Grad der Begehrenswertheit der Frau eine Rolle spielt als die Gruppendynamik. Der Film inszeniert die eingeschworenen weiblichen Bande explizit, und die Darstellerinnen verschwestern sich auch außerhalb der Fiktion, wenn sie in Interviews immer wieder betonen, wie außerordentlich gut sich alle verstanden und miteinander amüsiert hätten, und wie ungewöhnlich und schön es gewesen sei, mit so vielen Frauen zusammenzuarbeiten.

So plausibel und angenehm weibliche Solidarität im realen Hollywood des Jahres 2018, dem Jahr von MeToo und TimesUp, klingt: Natürlich gehört es auch zur fundierenden Mythologie der Ocean's-Filme, dass sie in ihrer Inszenierung einer lustvollen Gang die Grenze zwischen Realität und Fiktion, zwischen Darstellern und Dargestellten, verwischen. Die Story von den Schauspielern, die es genauso lustig miteinander hatten wie die von ihnen dargestellten Gentleman-Diebe, gehört seit jeher zu dieser Filmserie. Die Berichte der Damencrew sind etwas weniger von Alkohol und Verführungen durchtränkt als die ursprünglichen Eskapaden um Sinatras Rat Pack, aber immerhin: Allen Interviews zufolge haben die Darstellerinnen viel Zeit miteinander verbracht, viel gelacht – und sich über ihre Kinder und die Sorgen arbeitender Mütter ausgetauscht.

Wie bei allem, das aus dem hochartifiziellen Hollywood kommt, scheint es wenig sinnvoll, hier zwischen gespielt und echt, zwischen Marketing und Realität unterscheiden zu wollen. Darum verkennt auch der Einwand, die rein weibliche Besetzung eines Heist-Movies sei forciert und unrealistisch – schließlich höre man von weiblichen Diebesbanden viel seltener als von männlichen –, dass solche Filme mit Realität grundsätzlich wenig zu tun haben. Auch George Clooneys oder Frank Sinatras Macho-Orgien in Las Vegas waren für den real existierenden Mann kaum wegweisend. Auch ihre Filme waren vor allem elaborierte Fantasien in elegant durchgestylten Traumwelten, die den meisten von uns unzugänglich sind – und das schon ganz jenseits der Frage nach dem kriminellen Mastermind, das in der Natur in solcher Perfektion nicht zu finden ist, egal, ob es Danny oder Debbie heißt.

Hollywood wird vermutlich nie, wie man es etwa aus dem französischen Kino kennt, umwerfende Filme über die Sorgen und Nöte von alternden, übergewichtigen, kettenrauchenden Hausfrauen der petite bourgeoisie machen. Das war nie das Geschäftsmodell der Traumfabrik und wird es auf absehbare Zeit nicht werden. Es lohnt also kaum, in der Debatte über die Verbesserung der Situation von Frauen in Hollywood und dem Rest der Welt realistischere Darstellungen von weiblichen Lebenssituationen anzumahnen. Alles, was man von Hollywood erwarten kann, ist, dass es mehr Bilder von mehr Frauen in mehr unterschiedlichen Rollen liefert – solange die Kasse stimmt. Denn wenn Ocean's 8 eines zeigt, dann dies: Die weibliche Fortführung der Serie ist im Resultat genauso leichtherzig, sinnlos und lustvoll anzusehen wie die männlichen Versionen. Dass sie dabei auch noch bei aller Treue zu etablierten Genreformeln neue Rollenfelder für Schauspielerinnen erschließt – wer kann dagegen im Jahr 2018 ernsthaft etwas einwenden wollen? Oder wie Sandra Bullock in einem Interview mit dem Magazin InStyle meinte: "Ich habe immer gesagt, 'Ich will, was die Kerle bekommen' – egal, ob in einem Actionfilm, einer Komödie oder in einem sexy Heist-Movie. Ich meine, warum können wir Ladys das nicht haben?" Genau: Warum eigentlich nicht?


https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2018-06/oceans-8-sandra-bullock-feminismus-hollywood/seite-2

Zitat:
Kinokritik Das ist «Ocean's 8»

«Ocean’s 8» ist ein starbesetztes Gauner-Spektakel mit lauter Frauen. Sie vermisst die Girl Power, er hat langsam genug von Social Justice.


20.06.2018 18


Kinoexperte Lukas Ruettimann sagt:

Meine Damen, wir müssen reden. Ich habe kein Problem mit #MeToo; Harvey Weinstein ist ein Scheusal, «equal rights» und gleiche Löhne, alles keine Frage. Aber dieses panische Social-Justice-Gebaren geht mir auf den Geist. Mir wars egal, als «Star Trek Discovery» eine kleinwüchsige schwarze Frau zur Heldin machte, die in einem Raumschiff voller Exoten, mit einem schwulen Liebespaar und einem Emo-Alien im All herumgurkte. Auch beim demografisch überkorrekten neuen «Star Wars» habe ich beide Augen zugedrückt. Aber wenn nun Filme gedreht werden, deren Hauptargument «Aber mit Frauen» ist, kommen bei mir die Hormone in Wallung.

«Ocean’s 8» ist so ein Beispiel. Die erste Hälfte dieses Heist-Thrillers zieht sich quälend dröge dahin. Warum? Weil sich die Macher darauf ausruhen, dass ihr Film «aber mit Frauen» ist. Tempo? Spannung? Überraschungen? Fehlanzeige. Dabei hat doch schon das All-Female-Remake von «Ghostbusters» gezeigt, dass ein schlechter Film «aber mit Frauen» immer noch ein schlechter Film ist. Erst in der zweiten Hälfte zieht «Ocean’s 8» an – weil Männer ins Spiel kommen. Zwar nur als Bad Guys und Ulknudeln, aber das reicht schon.

Wie gesagt, meine Damen: Wir müssen reden. Wobei an den Hebeln der Macht in Hollywood vor allem Männer sitzen. Vielleicht müssten die ihr «Aber mit Frauen»-Konzept einfach bei sich selbst anwenden.

Kinoexpertin Carolina Lermann sagt:

Eigentlich sollte «Ocean’s 8» ein imaginärer Mittelfinger in Richtung Macho-Attitüde der Vorgängerfilme sein. So ganz gelingt das dem Streifen aber nicht. Und das, obwohl der Heist-Film mit der weiblichen Elite von Hollywood vollgepackt ist.

Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Rihanna – all meine Girl-Crushes auf einer Leinwand versammelt, und dennoch ziehen die ersten 60 Minuten schleppend an einem vorbei. «Ocean’s 8» hat Startschwierigkeiten. Die Zusammenstellung des Teams sowie die Heist-Vorbereitungen gestalten sich träge, zudem wird man anfangs mit keinem der unterschiedlichen Charaktere warm. So richtig spannend wird es dann auch erst, wenn eigentlich schon alles vorbei ist und – anscheinend geht es dann wohl doch nicht ganz ohne – ein Mann ins Spiel kommt.

Wer zudem keine Ahnung hat, was die Met-Gala ist und warum Anna Wintour einen Roger-Federer-Match schaut, wird die Hälfte der Inside-Jokes und Cameo-Auftritte nicht mitbekommen. Mein absolutes Highlight: Anne Hathaway, die als eingebildete Filmdiva Daphne Kruger sich selbst und ihren Ruf in den Medien wunderbar aufs Korn nimmt.

«Ocean’s 8» enttäuscht zuerst, nimmt dann glücklicherweise aber noch ein wenig an Fahrt auf. Zum Schluss möchte man sich zusammen mit Cate Blanchett aufs Motorrad schwingen und gemeinsam den nächsten Coup planen.


https://www.blickamabend.ch/very-best-of/kinokritik-zu-oceans-8-wie-ein-guter-thriller-aber-mit-frauen-id8519344.html


Zitat:
Film-Review - Juwelen rauben kann man auch ohne Männer

In «Ocean's 8» wird der grösste Fashion-Event des Jahres zum Schauplatz eines epischen Raubüberfalls einer ausschliesslich weiblichen Gauner-Truppe. Was taugt die Gender-Swap-Version der berühmten Heist-Film-Serie mit Rihanna, Cate Blanchett und Co.?


Autor: Ann Mayer
Dienstag, 19.06.2018, 16:13 Uhr
________________________________________

Die Story

Über fünf Jahre sass Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), die Schwester des berühmt-berüchtigten Gauners Danny Ocean, hinter Gittern. Lange genug, um sich einen brillanten Coup auszudenken. Ihr Ziel: Eine Halskette im Wert von 150 Millionen Dollar. Gestohlen werden soll der Klunker an keinem geringeren Anlass als der Met-Gala, dem glamourösesten Fashion-Event des Jahres.
Für ihren Plan braucht Debbie jedoch eine angemessene Crew. Zusammen mit ihrer Komplizin Lou Miller (Cate Blanchett) rekrutiert sie die Hackerin Nine Ball (Rihanna), Trickbetrügerin Constance (Awkwafina), Juwelierin Amita (Mindy Kaling) und Hehlerin (Sarah Paulson). Die Modedesignerin Rose (Helena Bohem Carter) soll dafür sorgen, dass die berühmte Schauspielerin Daphne Kruger (Anne Hathaway) das wertvolle Collier an der Gala trägt.

Das hat funktioniert

Die Crew rund um Sandra Bullock, Rihanna und Co. beweisen, dass sie ihren männlichen Kollegen in Sachen Coolness in absolut nichts nachstehen. Und auch mit weiblichem Cast brilliert der Film mit dem bekannten, nonchalanten Humor der Filmreihe.

Die Met-Gala als Setting für den Raub bietet einen pompösen Schauplatz der viel Unterhaltung und Nervenkitzel garantiert – inklusive amüsanten Promi-Gast-Auftritten wie von den Kardashians und Heidi Klum.

Das hat nicht funktioniert

Trotz des fulminanten Settings und spektakulärer Inszenierung, lässt die Handlung des Films zu wünschen übrig. Der Raubüberfall an sich hat nämlich ein paar ziemlich auffällige Logikfehler.
Auch sehr schade: Mehrfach-Oscarpreistägerin Cate Blanchett scheint in ihrer Sidekick-Rolle als weibliches Brad Pitt-Pendant ziemlich unterfordert zu sein.

Fazit

«Ocean's 8» ist ein witziger, stylischer und durchaus solider Gauner(innen!)-Krimi, der mit den männerdominierten Vorgängerfilmen mithalten kann. Dem Film gelingt es ausserdem der Krimi-Reihe die nötige Frauenpower zu geben, ohne dabei verkrampft zu wirken.

Abgesehen vom Gender-Swap bietet «Ocean's 8» in Sachen Action und Spannung jedoch nicht viel Neues. Und die Story, die sich streng an alle Regeln des Genres hält, wirkt etwas sehr brav – da hilft auch kein noch so erstklassiges Schauspiel-Ensemble.

Dieser Film ist für Anhänger der «Ocean's»-Reihe (Wissen über die Vorgänger-Stories ist von Vorteil), Fans von Heist-Filmen und Leute, die sich gerne von einer Luxus-Welt verzaubern lassen.

Rating
3 von 5 Punkten.


https://www.srf.ch/radio-srf-virus/serien-filme/film-review-juwelen-rauben-kann-man-auch-ohne-maenner


Zitat:
Neu im Kino - «Ocean's 8»: Nun dominieren Frauen die berühmte Räubergeschichte

Herren unerwünscht! Für den grössten Juwelenraub der Geschichte braucht es laut Hollywood acht Frauen und null Männer.


Autor: Britta Gfeller und Cynthia Ringgenberg
Mittwoch, 20.06.2018, 16:55 Uhr
________________________________________


Frank Sinatra hat's 1960 getan. George Clooney 2001. Nun ist Sandra Bullock an der Reihe. Im neusten Film der Diebstahl-Saga verkörpert die 53-Jährige Debbie Ocean: den Kopf einer Räuberbande.

Nach 5 Jahren Knast will Debbie Ocean zusammen mit 7 Frauen einen 150 Millionen schweren Klunker klauen. Als Tatort haben sich die sogenannten «Ocean's 8» das New Yorker Metropolitan Museum ausgesucht. Hier findet einmal pro Jahr der glamouröse «Met Ball» statt.

Ihr Plan: das Juwel soll mit Hilfe eines speziellen Magneten gestohlen werden. Direkt vom Hals der Schauspielerin Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway). Danach soll die Halskette in Einzelstücke zerlegt werden, mit denen die kriminellen Damen den Ball entspannt verlassen können.

Kritische Kommentare im Netz

Einen «Ocean's»-Film ausschliesslich mit weiblichen Stars zu besetzen, kommt im Netz bei vielen schlecht an. Unter dem offiziellen Trailer wimmelt es nur so von sexistischen Kommentaren: «Der Feminismus hat STAR WARS zerstört, dann GHOSTBUSTERS und jetzt auch noch OCEAN'S. Wow.»
Ein anderer User zweifelt daran, dass Frauen dazu fähig wären, einen solchen Raub durchzuziehen: «Frauen planen einen Juwelenraub – o-Kaaaaayyy». Ein Dritter spottet: «Eine weibliche Version von OCEAN'S 11, netter Versuch, Leute!»

Die Kommentare sind heftig, aber nicht so zahlreich wie vor zwei Jahren. Als «Ghostbusters» mit weiblicher Besetzung in die Kinos kam, zog ein regelrechter Shitstorm durch die sozialen Medien. Hauptdarstellerin Melissa McCarthy wurde sogar mit dem Tod bedroht: «Der Millionste Disliker darf Melissa McCarthy erschiessen.»

Hollywoodstar Cate Blanchett, die im Film Debbie Oceans rechte Hand spielt, stellt in diesem Kontext klar: Es geht bei «Ocean's 8» nicht darum, dass Frauen die Rollen von Männern übernehmen.
«Es ist ein lustiger Film, in dem zufällig Frauen die Hauptrollen spielen. Es geht nicht darum, die Männer zu ersetzen, oder – Gott bewahre – zu verhindern, dass Männer und Frauen zusammenarbeiten. Wir müssen lernen, anders über dieses Thema zu reden.»

Deutliches Signal auf der Treppe in Cannes

Cate Blanchett war am diesjährigen Filmfestival in Cannes Jury-Päsidentin. Zusammen mit 81 Frauen demonstrierte sie auf der berühmten Treppe, die zum Palais des Festivals führt, für Gleichberechtigung.

Blanchett wollte auf folgenden Missstand aufmerksam machen: In der gesamten Festivalgeschichte von Cannes durften erst 82 Mal Regisseurinnen um die Goldene Palme wetteifern. Die australische Schauspielerin wünscht sich, dass künftig mehr Frauen im Programm von Cannes vertreten sind.
Ein Blick in die Statistik verrät, dass Filme, bei denen eine Frau Regie führt, immer noch die Ausnahme sind. Laut einer Studie des «Hollywood Diversity Report» stammten 2017 gerade Mal 7.3 Prozent aller Filme von Regisseurinnen.

Originalität statt Geschlechterkampf

Fakt ist auch, dass viel weniger Frauen Hauptrollen spielen. 2016 waren nur 31.2 Prozent der Hauptfiguren weiblich.

Klassische Männer-Movies neu mit Frauen zu besetzen, kann nicht die Lösung sein. Stattdessen sollten mehr neue Drehbücher mit spannenden Rollen für Schauspielerinnen geschrieben werden.
Dann wären Diskussionen wie bei «Ghostbusters» und «Ocean's 8» endlich hinfällig: Man könnte sich auf den Inhalt der Filme konzentrieren und damit aufhören, Frauen mit Männern zu vergleichen.

Kinostart: 21.6.2018


[url]
https://www.srf.ch/kultur/film-serien/n ... geschichte[/url]


Zitat:
Kultur 19.06.2018

Filmkritik zu "Ocean’s 8": Damenwahl

Anstelle der Männer, geht nun eine weibliche All-Star-Bande auf Juwelenraub.
Erst kamen die Männer dran, jetzt sind die Frauen an der Reihe: Hollywood schwelgt in der weiblichen Nachbesetzung von Erfolgsfilmen mit Männern. Zwar rief das „Ghostbusters“-Reboot in Lady-Format im Jahr 2016 eine Hasswelle unter den Fans hervor; trotzdem geht die Damenwahl munter weiter. Nun werden auch die Meisterdiebe von Danny Ocean einer Geschlechterumwandlung unterzogen.

Steven Soderbergh hatte mit seinem ersten Ensemble-Thriller „ Ocean’s Eleven“ (2001) das Original von 1960 entstaubt, in dem Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin und Sammy Davis Jr. als Gentlemen-Einbrecher in Aktion traten. In seinem Remake strahlten George Clooney und Brad Pitt so viel kriminelle Eleganz aus, dass sie noch für zwei weitere Fortsetzungen („Ocean’s Twelve“ und „Ocean’s Thirteen“) ausreichte.

„Ocean’s 8“ eröffnet nun eine Spin-off-Runde in weiblicher Top-Besetzung. Clooney und Pitt wurden durch Sandra Bullock und Cate Blanchett ersetzt. Unterstützt werden die beiden Drahtzieherinnen von weiblichen Fachkräften für Juwelenraub, darunter Stars wie Rihanna und Helena Bonham Carter.
Nun ist Regisseur Gary Ross („Die Tribute von Panem“) zwar nicht Steven Soderbergh, doch zumindest einen naheliegenden Verdacht hat er bestätigt: Frauen können ihre Rollen genauso gut spielen wie Männer. Und: Ihre Filme können auch genauso schlecht sein wie die von Männern.
Nun ist „Oceans’s 8“ kein richtig schlechter Film, dafür aber über weite Strecken überraschend unterhaltungsarm. Was beinahe noch schlimmer scheint in Anbetracht der Tatsache, dass eine Gruppe interessanter, schöner und talentierter Frauen wenig anderes zu tun bekommt, als schicke Sonnenbrillen und Armbanduhren durchs Bild zu tragen.

Es stimmt schon, dass auch bei Soderbergh elegante Oberflächen die Filme dominierten und Teil des Spaßes ausmachten. Doch in „Ocean’s 8“ haben der offen angestrebte Beauty-Kult und die endlose Fetischisierung von perfekten Körpern in teuren Marken-Kleidern unterhöhlende Wirkung. Anstelle von lässiger Eleganz tritt angestrengtes Schönheit-Muss.

Superklau

Sandra Bullock ist Debbie Ocean, Schwester des (mutmaßlich) verstorbenen Danny Ocean (Clooney) und Mastermind eines Juwelendiebstahls, der als größter Raub der Geschichte Furore machen soll. Gleichzeitig möchte sie sich an einem Ex-Liebhaber für Verrat und fünf Jahre Gefängnis rächen.
Ihre Partnerin in crime ist Cate Blanchett. Zwar sollte sich zwischen den Ladys so etwas wie prickelnde Chemie einstellen, doch kommt sie in Gary Ross’ abgehackter Regie so gut wie nicht zustande, weil er den Schauspielerinnen kaum Platz dafür lässt. Auch der sorgfältig choreografierte Überfall auf die Party-Gäste im Metropolitan-Museum verläuft derartig reibungslos, dass der Superklau komplett spannungsfrei vorüberzieht.

Immerhin können zur Abwechslung acht gewitzte Damen beweisen, dass sie zum perfekten Juwelenraub imstande sind. Vielleicht haben wir ja Vorbildwirkung für andere Frauen, überlegt Debbie Ocean an einer Stelle. Eine blendende Idee, die sich auch die Industrie zu Herzen nehmen sollte. Denn mehr Filme mit Frauen in den Hauptrollen verbessert die Chance, dass auch wirklich gute Filme darunter sind. Das hat schon „Superwoman“ bewiesen.


https://kurier.at/kultur/filmkritik-zu-oceans-8-mit-sandra-bullock-cate-blanchett-rihanna-und-anne-hathaway/400053467

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Zitat:
All-woman heist caper ‘Ocean’s 8’ will steal your heart

Published on June 16, 2018 at 9:13 pm
Last update on June 18, 2018 at 4:57 pm
By James Preston Poole

A cast entirely made up of A-list actresses, a heist and a dash of humor — what’s not to love?

“Ocean’s 8,” the latest installment of the “Ocean’s” franchise, may appear to be nothing more than a remake of 2001’s “Ocean’s Eleven” on the surface, simply starring all women. But don’t be fooled; this is a fully fledged new entry into the series that more than earns its place amongst the others.

The film initially follows a classic setup similar to the original. Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), the sister of now-deceased criminal Danny Ocean (George Clooney), gets out of prison on parole and immediately calls up her best friend Lou (Cate Blanchett) to plan a score. The score this time, though, is no bank heist: it’s robbing a valuable set of diamonds off the neck of actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway).

Bullock more than matches Clooney with a cool, commanding presence, offset by the roguish charm Blanchett brings to the table. Together, they lead an outstanding cast of characters that includes neurotic soccer mom Tammy (Sarah Paulson), gifted jewelry maker Amita (Mindy Kailing), snarky hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), brash pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina) and eccentric fashion designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter).

These women are an absolute joy to watch, functioning as a cohesive unit of unique individuals and rivaling the crews in the other films. There’s not a soul to dislike in this bunch, but it’s Hathaway’s character who really steals the show. As the vapid mark the group is pursuing, she gets the biggest laughs and is a far more quirky character than we’re used to seeing her play.

The cast is the film’s ace in the hole, something director Gary Ross (“The Hunger Games”) understands very well. Despite lacking the frenetic style of the previous films, “Ocean’s 8” still brings a sense of slick style while giving the audience chances to breathe. It is possible that the pace may be too slow for some, as it does take a while to get going, but despite this slower tempo, the plot’s buildup is never boring.

A huge part of this is owed to the writing. Never relying on one-liners, the screenplay gives everyone in the core group a distinct part to play while keeping the plot moving along. The heist itself is extremely compelling, a dynamite set-piece that’s ingenious in just how low-key it is. The film makes a diamond necklace getting passed around while the gang evade authorities more compelling than it has any right to be.

“Ocean’s 8” does stumble a bit in its third act. The addition of an insurance fraud investigator played by James Corden feels extraneous, mostly because Corden simply cannot keep up with the other performers. In spite of this small flaw, the film throws a series of exciting twists and turns at the audience that ends everything on a great note.

There’s a lot to love in “Ocean’s 8.” So much that it couldn’t all in one review. If this is a one-off in the franchise, then it’s perfectly satisfying on its own, but if there is to be a sequel, consider me there.

“Ocean’s 8”

Runtime: 110 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Score: 4/5


http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/06/16/all-woman-heist-caper-oceans-8-will-steal-your-heart


Zitat:
An absolutely top-notch all-female cast including Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway couldn't save Ocean's 8 from being one big flop

By Matthew Bond for Event Magazine

Published: 22:02 BST, 16 June 2018 | Updated: 22:23 BST, 16 June 2018


Ocean's 8 Cert: 12A 1hr 50mins

Rating: 2/5

Just like Hannibal Smith in The A-Team, I love it when a plan comes together. But if I’m absolutely honest, there’s also a certain pleasure in watching a plan fall apart too.

Which is exactly what happens with Ocean’s 8, the fourth instalment of the glossy and hugely popular caper franchise and the first to feature an all-female leading cast.

I mean, this is a film that just had so much going for it, beginning, of course, with perfect timing. What could be better for these #MeToo times than a feisty all-female cast. And an absolutely top-notch all-female cast at that – Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway… that’s three Oscar- winners for starters, backed up by the classy/popular likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna and Mindy Kaling.

Yes, it’s a slight shame it’s directed and co-written by a man, Gary Ross, but he’s made some nice films along the way – Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, the first Hunger Games. Surely he couldn’t have made a mess of this. Could he?

Well, someone has. Because for all the glitz of its cast and the glamour of New York’s annual Met Gala, Ocean’s 8 is a film that struggles to make it out of first gear. None of the three principals – Bullock, Blanchett and Hathaway – really turns up, with Bullock opting for a laid-back, super-cool performance that may not be actively bad but is certainly wrong, while Hathaway just gives one of the dullest performances of her, until now, ever-more-impressive career. Mind you, it’s a terrible part. As for Blanchett, her trashy blonde bob is more memorable than anything she actually says or does.

Bullock’s part, by contrast, should be a nice one; after all, she’s playing Debbie Ocean, sister of the now apparently late Danny, the pivotal figure played by George Clooney in all three previous Ocean’s films. Bullock is a big star and can certainly carry a film, as the likes of The Heat, Miss Congeniality and many others have shown, but here she distinctly underplays it, as Debbie emerges from jail armed only with a conwoman’s cunning and an audacious plan.

She’s going to steal a spectacular piece of diamond jewellery from the star-studded fashion fundraiser, the Met Gala. But first, of course, she’s going to need a gang.

Which is where nightclub owner Lou (Blanchett), near-bankrupt fashion designer Rose (Bonham Carter) and ace computer hacker ‘Nine Ball’ (Rihanna) come in, along with four lesser others and our first indication of the general level of humour we can expect.

‘What’s your real name?’ barks Debbie. ‘Eight Ball,’ comes the reply.

Oh dear. Don Cheadle’s cockney accent was funnier than that.

Apart from duff performances, there’s an extraordinary lack of tension in what ensues. Debbie says she’s been planning the ambitious heist for years and has ‘run it’ in her head a thousand times, so much so that now, pretty much whatever happens, they don’t get caught.

Disappointingly, in terms of tension levels, she seems to be right. Whatever obstacles do emerge – and genre convention dictates they must – are effortlessly overcome, often within seconds. The massive diamonds – worth more than $100 million – draped around the pretty neck of socialite and Met Gala regular Daphne Kluger (Hathaway) look doomed.


The Hobbit/Spooks star Richard Armitage took over the role of art curator Claude Becker from Damian Lewis at very short notice.


But so is Ocean’s 8. Yes, there is some fun to be had as the plan finally plays out, real-life celebrities such as Anna Wintour make fleeting appearances, and Ross and co-writer Olivia Milch belatedly start to deliver one or two decent lines.

Sarah Paulson, perhaps the least well known of the ‘eight’, does her career no harm at all as Tammy, suburban mother and underworld fence. But even as the end approaches, strange things start to happen, collectively smacking of a film that has had a difficult time in the run-up to release.

Matt Damon’s much-vaunted cameo never materialises, meaning the only franchise regulars to make fleeting appearances are the peripheral figures of Reuben (Elliott Gould) and the acrobatic Yen. Which surely isn’t quite what we were hoping for.

Throw in a bizarre late appearance by James Corden as a Thomas Crown-style insurance investigator, a clunky and distinctly uninvolving revenge subplot involving hunky Richard Armitage, and a couple of stonking late plot twists that border on the ridiculous, and you have a film that, even for an avowed Bullock, Blanchett and Hathaway fan like me, has to go down as one of the disappointments of the summer. Shame.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-5840387/Oceans-8-review-Eight-huge-stars-one-big-flop-ocean.html


Zitat:
Ocean's 8 movie review: All-female Ocean's not that greight
Women impress in heist spin-off but it's as forgettable as the other remakes, says Paul Whitington



Paul Whitington

June 16 2018 7:00 AM



Slick, glossy and entirely forgettable, Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's 11 films traded on the suave appeal of George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and depicted an idealised underworld in which a brotherhood of impossibly handsome criminals found violence distasteful and often stole for lofty, high-minded reasons. They were based on an equally fanciful 1960s Frank Sinatra/Rat Pack movie, and there were three of them, but by the time Ocean's Thirteen arrived in the summer of 2007, the formula had begun to look a little stale.

Do we need an all-female version? It matters not because we have one, and Sandra Bullock leads an impressive ensemble of actresses, playing Debbie Ocean, younger sister of Clooney's character, Danny. He would appear to be dead, at least one hopes so because they've taken the liberty of burying him, but even his sister has her doubts, and mutters "you better be in there" when she visits his grave. A similarly slippery customer, Debbie has just been released from prison following a five-year stint for an elaborate con.

Has she learnt her lesson? Not at all: on her first afternoon out she robs a new outfit from a department store, cons her way into a fancy Manhattan hotel room and looks up her old friend and partner in crime, Lou (Cate Blanchett), who runs a small warehouse manufacturing watered-down vodka.

'Go big or go home' seems to be Debbie's motto, who has no time for such minor crimes and she tells Lou about her ambitious plan to steal a $150m Cartier diamond necklace. A grand ball is held each year at New York's Metropolitan Museum: if Cartier can be persuaded to lend it to one of the glamorous attendees, Debbie and her gang will swap it with a 3D printed fake and make off with the real sparklers. What could possibly go wrong?

Their plan will involve a mark, a histrionic actress called Daphne Kluger (played with commendable gusto by Anne Hathaway), and a fashion designer willing to take part in the scam. Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter) is desperate enough: she used to be a big cheese in the 1990s but has just endured a disastrous launch of her new collection when Debbie and Lou approach her with their proposition.

She grabs at it like a drowning woman and persuades Kluger to let her dress her for the Met ball. The real necklace will be swapped for the fake one during the evening, and a team of expert robbers and hackers will ensure the sting goes according to plan. Steven Soderbergh's Oceans films blended smooth edits, split screens and an easy-listening soundtrack with tongue-in-cheek all-star casts. Elliott Gould is the only survivor from the original ensemble and shows up early on playing Danny Ocean's sage advisor Reuben Tishkoff to give Debbie and Ocean's 8 his blessing, as it were.

A strong cast here includes Sarah Paulson, whose character Tammy is a suburban mother with a garage full of fenced goods, Rihanna, who mutters her way through the film playing a master hacker, and Richard Armitage as a preening art dealer whose fulsome confession got Debbie imprisoned.

Sticking closely to Soderbergh's tried and tested formula, director Gary Ross unfolds this slender tale competently. Slick, know-it-all heist criminals who are always three steps ahead of the law can easily come across as smug and irritating, and Ocean's 8 is afflicted by a slight monotony of tone: it burbles along pleasantly enough without ever quite reaching a climax. It is, though, perfectly enjoyable, and seems to suggest that women are much better team players than men, less likely to become distracted by comparing the size of their genitals, more likely to get the job done.

Helena Bonham Carter is a lot of fun as the eccentric fashion designer, who's Irish by the way (the accent is variable), and James Cordon turns up late on playing a perhaps intentionally annoying insurance investigator.

But it's Anne Hathaway and her shouty, attention-seeking actress who ultimately steals the show.
Ocean's 8 (12A, 110mins) - 3 stars


https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/movie-reviews/oceans-8-movie-review-allfemale-oceans-not-that-greight-37012081.html


Zitat:
Reviews
OCEAN’S 8: All-Star Cast Compensates For Poor Writing In Crowd-pleasing Heist Comedy

A fun-filled flick with an all-star cast of charismatic ladies having a blast; Ocean’s 8 is a stylish follow-up that captures the spirit of the original trilogy while still doing its own thing.


June 20, 2018
Jo Bradley


When you walk into the cinema to see Ocean’s 8 this month (and walk in you should), here’s what you should expect.

Expect a heist film that’s stylish, captivating and a whole lot of fun. Expect an all-star cast of Hollywood’s best actresses playing one of the coolest, funniest girl gangs ever assembled on screen. Expect a film that walks the fine line between paying homage to Steven Soderbergh’s original trilogy, and doing its own thing.

Gary Ross’s spinoff from the original Ocean’s trilogy is a crowd-pleasing heist comedy with the best cast of the year so far. The central premise is very similar to Ocean’s Eleven; Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), sister to infamous conman Danny Ocean (George Clooney), gets out of jail, assembles a crew, and tries to execute one of the most ambitious heists of all time.

However, this time the target is not the famed Las Vegas casinos, but the illustrious Met Gala; and the gang is no longer the testosterone package of Danny Ocean’s Eleven, but a gang of awesome ladies: Debbie Ocean’s 8. The plan: to infiltrate the illustrious Met Gala, and steal a $150 million-dollar Cartier diamond necklace from the neck of socialite and movie star Daphne Klugar (Anne Hathaway).

Why You Should See This Movie #1: The Cast

The cast is incredible, and undeniably the best part of the film. Certain narrative inconsistencies and script flaws can be ignored because of the charisma dripping off this entire cast (especially Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock).

Bullock brings an underplayed Clooney-esque charm to the confident leader, Debbie. As her right-hand woman Lou, Cate Blanchett is an icon of queer cool with her 70’s rocker aesthetic, flirty banter with Debbie, and wardrobe of incredible suits. In the words of Vulture’s E. Jung:

“Cate Blanchett playing “Lou” (lol) in Ocean’s 8 is easily the most lesbian thing to have happened since Cate Blanchett played Carol in Carol…Cate Blanchett exudes power lesbian with a pantsuit in every shade of envy.”

(And as a side note: Give Sarah Edwards an Oscar for costume design. Not only does she give us the gift that is Cate Blanchett in nothing but suits, but she dresses the entire cast in outfits that perfectly reflect their distinct personas.)

Anne Hathaway is far and away the star of this film. She steals every scene and is clearly having a ball doing it. As a self-aware satire of the her stereotypical ‘diva’ persona, she is hammy as hell and I love her for it. Her hilariously caricatured performance is the best part of this film. Sarah Paulson is also a welcome comedic presence as Tammy, a fence turned housewife who craves a return to thrill of the con (a nod to the character of Saul in the original trilogy, who “gets out of the game” only to be pulled back in).

In the smaller roles, Mindy Kaling, rising star Awkwafina, and real life met-gala icon Rihanna, each make the most of every moment they are on screen, and bring very entertaining comic relief.

Kaling, known for her comedy work on sitcoms like The Office and The Mindy Project, is in her prime here as Amita, an ambitious jewellery maker who wants to move out of her parent’s house. Rapper turned actress Awkwafina is another highlight as the pickpocket Constance. She has a small role, but through her distinct skater persona and hilarious line deliveries, she makes it memorable. Beauty and fashion icon Rihanna here plays against type as the sassy, nonchalant hacker ‘Nine Ball’.

The one performance that didn’t really land for me was Helena Bonham-Carter. Playing Rose Weil, an out-of-vogue fashion designer who is five million dollars in debt to the IRS, Bonham-Carter embraced Weil’s ditzy eccentricity. However, the character’s goofiness felt out of place in this gang of cool, competent women.

Goodbye Vegas, Hello Met Gala: The New Target

Where the film clearly differentiates itself from the original trilogy is the target of the heist. The Las Vegas Strip is a thing of the past, instead we’ve flown to the East Coast to hit the most exclusive party in the world. By reframing the focus from robbing casinos to stealing jewellery at the Met Gala, the writers (Gary Ross and Olivia Milch) successfully reflect the target audience of this female-led reboot. The film unashamedly leans into typically ‘feminine’ interests; fashion, jewellery and celebrity culture are all central themes of the heist.

A plethora of celebrity cameos, access to the Metropolitan museum, and having Anna Wintour (Vogue Magazine Editor in Chief) as an advisor, all lend authenticity to this world of high fashion and glamour. The makers have put in real effort to create this illustrious world, and fill it with badass women.

Making Movies for Women, Starring Women, and the Box Office Benefits

I’ve seen this film three times, and each time the credits roll, the majority female audiences leave on a high, chatting amongst their friends about how they love the film’s fun, its glamour, and its incredible cast of funny ladies. What I love about this film is how it smashes the fallacious Hollywood rumour that female-led movies don’t make money. As Forbes recently reported, Ocean’s 8 made a cool $41.5 million on its opening weekend, easily beating each of the original trilogy’s opening weekends.

Junkee’s Patrick Lenton wrote:

“According to Box Office Mojo, 69 percent of Ocean’s 8 opening-weekend viewers were women, which is both extremely nice and very logical. Put women in film, and I guess they’ll come and see it? Revolutionary.”

Ocean’s 8: Funnier Than Your Regular Heist Caper

The filmmakers have clearly made a conscience decision to lean into the comedy: and in that respect, it is largely successful. James Corden is a blast to watch as the meticulous insurance advisor. Richard Armitage is doing great supporting work as the comic villain character; his scenes with Hathaway and Bullock are both hilarious in different ways.

The core gang all have such great chemistry and are clearly having fun here. Like the originals, this script is full of witty, underplayed one-liners, and Bullock and Blanchett quip these back and forth like the old friends Debbie and Lou are. The actresses with smaller parts are each milking the screen for all they’ve got, reminding us that “there are no small parts, only small actors” (Stanislavski).

Poor Writing and Franchise Fever: The Villain Issue

Where this film disappoints, is that it’s not content to be just a fun heist film. The writers clearly felt compelled to provide a second, more substantial motivation to the theft. They try to provide Debbie a revenge plot line that falls flat due to underdevelopment. Ocean’s Eleven , the 2001 George Clooney led casino robbery, had a well-established (albeit problematic) motivation behind it: for Danny (Clooney) to rob the evil casino mogul who “stole” his girl, Tess (Julia Roberts), and ultimately “steal” her back. If you can ignore the male entitlement that seeps through that script, and the atrocious underwriting of Roberts’ character, you can somewhat buy this premise.

Clooney and Roberts had enough chemistry and joint screen-time for us to understand that Danny’s twisted plan had its origins in a love and care for Tess. This emotional depth made the viewers more invested in Danny’s success; they now had an extra reason for rooting for the good guy, past the pre-existing intrigue in seeing the heist completed. In contrast, Ocean’s 8 lacks this emotional depth. The setup involves Debbie getting revenge on an ex-partner who betrayed her when a dodgy art deal went south. Claude Becker, a smarmy, self-serving Richard Armitage, is set up as the target of this revenge narrative.

The film’s justification for his victimisation is that Claude goes to jail for Debbie’s crime because Debbie went to jail for his. However, this is undermined by the fact that not enough story time is invested into making Claude a hissable villain vis-à-vis Andy Garcia’s Terry Benedict. The impact of Claude’s betrayal on Debbie is barely discussed. The cursory backstory is hastily covered through a flashback exposition dump, and a brief argument between Debbie and Lou. However, these moments, which exist to create audience investment in Debbie’s victory, feel awkwardly shoehorned between heist planning scenes.

It is implied that Debbie and Claude had a romantic history, however this plot point is left purposefully vague (as is the sexual chemistry between Debbie and Lou). Had the script invested time into establishing the Debbie/Claude romance, Claude’s betrayal would have felt more devastating, and Debbie’s subsequent revenge mission felt more reasonable. Not to mention the fact that Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Richard Armitage are all excellent actors, very capable of emotional heavy lifting. It’s a shame this script doesn’t let them flex their acting muscles more.

I think if the film had tried to be just a comedy heist caper, it could have had more success. Instead, the writers put a half-assed effort into making us emotionally invested, and instead land in an awkward middle ground between a revenge narrative with a satisfying conclusion (à la The Italian Job), and a broad comedy heist caper (à la A Fish Called Wanda).

Styling A Spin-Off: To Copy The Past, Or To Shake Up The New?

Stylistically, director Gary Ross has clearly tried very hard to recreate the original instead of shaking things up. And sometimes this works. Daniel Pemberton’s jazzy score massively contributes to the film’s fun, upbeat tone, and Eigil Brylds’s cinematography, with its in-camera zooms and pans, is a nice homage to Soderbergh’s work in the original trilogy. For the most part, however, Gary Ross is doing safe, solid, but uninspiring work.

Ocean’s 8 lacks the effortless style of the original, despite its applaudable efforts to recreate it. Another technical flaw of this film is its very jarring editing by Juliette Welfling. Several scenes clearly ended up on the cutting room floor and it shows. Multiple moments from the trailers don’t make the film, and we already know that both Matt Damon and Carl Reiner (two of the original Ocean’s Eleven) had cameos that were cut in editing.

These changes are understandable: at two hours the film is already getting long, and the final act does drag. However, if these changes had been made during script editing, not post-production editing, we might have avoided awkward, frustrating narrative gaps, and had a better flowing movie.

Franchise Fatigue: How Do You Write A Spin-Off?

The writing is where a bigger discussion about remakes, sequels and spin-offs needs to be had, especially in this wave of gender-bending remakes. How much should a spin-off resemble the source material? Should filmmakers give the audience more of what they loved, or try something new? Ocean’s 8 walks a fine line here. Some homages, like the cinematography and score, really work. And as a die-hard fan of the original trilogy, I loved the many sly references the script made to the originals: the opening parole board scene, initiatory restaurant meetings, laser sequences and cameos from members of the original cast. However, the Claude Becker revenge plot line, and the 11th hour twist, were both unnecessary, forced attempts to resemble the narrative structure of the original trilogy.

Some writing elements, like the introduction of the leads through memorable and clever character vignettes, reflect the writers’ ability to both pay homage to the original, while still doing something different. Highlights include: Debbie conning her way into a 5-star hotel, Claude Becker and Debbie’s prickly reunion, and Awkwafina pickpocketing her way into the gang. Additionally, the decision to have eight leads, instead of eleven, allows each character to feel like a fully-fleshed out character, unlike the trilogy where periphery characters often fade into the background.

Conclusion: Treat Yourself To A Fun Night At The Cinema And See Ocean’s 8

A fun-filled flick with an all-star cast of charismatic ladies having a blast; Ocean’s 8 is a stylish follow-up that captures the spirit of the original trilogy while still doing its own thing. Fans of celebrities, crime capers and Cate Blanchett in suits will love this playful, light-hearted and entertaining outing.

While this doesn’t have the emotional weight of the original, the film thrives in this levity: embracing the fun without getting too bogged down in the details. It fits nicely into a franchise that’s main calling card is thrilling heists, witty, snappy dialogue, and a charismatic ensemble of Hollywood A-Listers.

Admittedly, Ross lacks the directorial flare of Soderbergh; however, he still does an impressive job considering the challenges of world-building a sequel with a completely new cast. Issues related to editing and writing prevent this film from reaching its full potential; however, the stars are having so much fun that you still buy everything they’re selling (or would that be stealing?).

While Ocean’s 8 isn’t quite as slick as Ocean’s Eleven, fans of the original trilogy should not miss the latest instalment (it’s a definite improvement on the hot mess that was Ocean’s Twelve). Do yourself a favour, and treat yourself this week. Ocean’s 8 is a whole lot of fun, and with a cast like this, you don’t want to miss out.

What is your favourite heist film?


https://www.filminquiry.com/oceans-8-2018-review/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost

Zitat:
Ocean’s 8
Sewa Bhattarai June 29, 2018


When Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), the sister of a well known con-man, is being released from jail, she claims she will lead a simple life, just paying her bills and all that. We immediately know that ​this is not true. The rest of the movie, where she masterminds a grand jewellery theft, is similarly predictable -- but no less enjoyable. Directed by Gary Ross, this all-female sequel to its popular eponymous heist-movie franchise is a fun ride with women who kick ass.

As Ocean gathers an odd group of women, from her old partner Lou (Cate Blanchett) to the elusive hacker (Rihanna as mysterious Nine Ball who refuses to give her real name), a lot of racial stereotyping is at play: the assumption, carelessly thrown around, that all Russians are hackers; an Indian girl Amita (Mindy Kaling) who is frustrated that ‘she has no pati (husband)’, an Asian street hustler Constance (Awkwafina) who looks straight out of martial art movie, and many more. Out to prove the point women can be as cunning as men, the movie is not subtle.

Helena Bonham Carter, as the disgraced designer Rose Weil, is particularly effective, going off into dazes and coming back with sudden exclamations that turn out to be just the right thing to say. Tammy (Sarah Paulson) has an eternally pinched expression as a fraudster trying to appear normal for her kids, adding to the drama. How the women convince their scapegoat, vapid actress Diane Kluger (Anne Hathaway), to fall into their plans at the glamorous Met Gala is a bit tricky. But what do they do when Kluger (is the real Diane Kruger watching?) turns out to be not as brainless as they expected?

The movie has plot holes and glitches here and there, some beyond credibility, but the stellar cast works quite well together to make sure you are not bored, with twists and turns until the very end. And last but not the least, the insurance investigator (James Corden) manages to steal the show with his witty remarks, despite the boring, stodgy role he is burdened with.

In an era when there are voices being raised for more visibility and stronger roles for women in films, movies like Ocean’s 8 come as a welcome break. Here we see women being smart, strong, brainy, skilled, enterprising, calculating, victorious, and not pidgeonholed in eye-candy roles. Not saying they are not beautiful, however. But -- despite the overdose of glamour and fashion (including a cameo from Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour)-- the way they look is not centre stage here, which is a relief. The eye candy here is Debbie’s ex Claude Becker (Richard Armitage), and we are fine with that.

Sure, we need more movies that pass the Bechdel Test, but is that enough? This movie throws up a question of what was meant by higher visibility of women. Do women on screen have to do all the borderline negative things that male heroes do to be considered successful? That then brings up the general question of whether glamorizing crime is OK, no matter if it is men or women.

The answer is that this is a leave-your-brains-at-home kind of movie. Enjoy the ride and forget about it afterwards.


https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/oceans-8/


Zitat:
BitchWatch: 20 Bitch Approved Movies You Should Watch This Summer

by Dahlia Balcazar
Published on May 31, 2018 at 10:02am

When summer hits, you can find me in one of two places: Sitting by the pool reading a book or watching a movie in a cool dark theater. And that moment when you walk out of the theatre into the warm nighttime summer air, talking about the movie you just saw, wondering if you should go get ice cream next—it’s the best! Going to a summertime movie is also the best date—whether with a partner or a BFF. But summer is also the time when blockbuster movies come out, and picking the tasty wheat from the chaff can be hard. These 20 movies are sure to make you swoon all summer long.

[...]

5. Ocean’s 8

Release Date: June 8, 2018

We have literally been waiting for this movie for years. Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) wants to pull of the heist of the century, just like her scheming brother, Danny Ocean, so she’s cooked up an ingenious plan to rob New York City’s star-studded Met Gala. But first she needs the right crew: Amita (Mindy Kaling), Tammy (Sarah Paulson), Lou (Cate Blanchett), Constance (Awkwafina), Nine Ball (Rihanna), and Rose (Helena Bonham Carter). Crime! Fashion! Rihanna! This is the perfect summer movie.

[...]


https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/bitchwatch/best-movies-summer-2018

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Ocean’s 8 is a massive in-joke that only women will get


Men being totally superfluous? Women getting shit done? Rihanna? If you love any of the above, you’ll love this film, says Rachael Sigee


By Rachael Sigee on 18.06.18


As I left an Ocean’s 8 screening last week, smiling like a giddy fool in love, I overheard the two men behind me discussing how much they had hated it. Conversely, I wanted to watch every deleted scene and the entire blooper reel. I wanted to see the fan art and read the fan fic.

Because it is just So. Much. Fun. to walk into a cinema with a whole heap of goodwill and throw yourself at the mercy of these beautiful, deplorable women endearing you to their no-good plight. It is fun to watch talented actresses play cool characters, none of whom get tortured or murdered. It’s fun to buy into the zany plot and things going smoothly for our anti-heroines, because heist movies are supposed to be like cartoons and women are just… good at stuff!

And fun being had, by and for women, is seriously underrated.

If you enjoy any of the following, you will find something to love in this film: men being totally superfluous, women getting shit done, Rihanna, irony, velvet trouser suits, Anne Hathaway’s clavicle, the Met Gala/mocking the Met Gala, bejewelled jumpsuits, fringes, sexual tension and the idea that there is a WhatsApp group containing both Rihanna and Helena Bonham Carter. FFS, who cares about a plot hole when this is a movie in which Cate Blanchett has Debbie Harry hair, Mick Jagger’s wardrobe and the magnetic sexual energy of Kate McKinnon licking that gun in Ghostbusters?

Sure, there are a few missteps – it does somehow manage to be one of the gayest films of the year (yes, in the year of Love, Simon and 120 BPM), without confirming at any point that anyone in it is actually gay. Which is kind of a shame and, some would say, a cop-out. But I defy anyone not to conclude that Sandy B and Cate are the happiest and most mutually sexually satisfied couple on the planet. If people want to be snarky about anything, an insufferable James Corden is right there in the film’s final third to focus their energies on (if they had to cast a man for his role, it should been Dwayne Johnson).

Recently, I reviewed Nothing Like A Dame, a film in which Dames Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins sit around in an English country garden and chat about their lives. Ocean’s 8 gave me the same sort of thrill – it’s just bloody lovely to watch multiple women interacting on screen together.

The idea that we (and they) would be better off with individual movies is a desire to pull this girl gang apart, condemning them once again to being the only woman on a set of men

The Ocean’s 8 crew of actresses includes bonafide movie stars, crossover artists, awards-season darlings, cult favourites and newcomers but, until now, they had barely crossed paths other than on the red carpet – Sandra Bullock had never worked with any of these women before.

And yet film critic Richard Brody wrote: “All of the actresses in Ocean’s 8 need movies of their own, in which they can give free rein to their experiences, their talents, and their points of view.”

How spectacularly he missed the point (although his weird optimism about how much autonomy Hollywood grants its leading actresses is intriguing). We’ve seen movies starring a number of these actresses before; what we don’t get to see are movies where they are all in it together.

The idea that we (and they) would be better off with individual movies is nothing more than a desire to pull this girl gang apart, isolating them and condemning them once again to being the only woman on a set of men.

There is a reason that so many people are fantasy-casting their own Ocean’s 8 line-ups and it isn’t out of an undying love for the franchise – it’s because it is exhilarating and rare to see all or majority women casts on screen. Those people calling for a version with Christine Baranski or Thandie Newton or Tessa (or Emma) Thompson aren’t asking for another literal remake – they just want more films of this ilk, where multiple women are blazing across the screen, playing characters that excel themselves with little to no romantic motivation.

Ocean’s 8 felt like a massive wink of an in-joke to women watching – one I only wish they had taken further by having Bullock and Blanchett’s characters meet in the department store at the beginning, in a callback to Carol.

My response to Ocean’s 8, compared with the grumpy men behind me, confirmed what I knew going in: it’s not for them – it’s for me and I had an absolute (Met) ball.


https://www.the-pool.com/arts-culture/film/2018/25/rachael-sigee-on-why-women-will-love-oceans-8


Zitat:
Oceans 8

June 20, 2018

Ocean’s 8 (USA / 12A / 110 mins)


Directed by Gary Ross. Starring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, Richard Armitage, James Corden.

The Plot: Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), sister of Danny, is out on parole. Snitched on by Claude (Richard Armitage), she’s out for a revenge of sorts. But her main goal, which she has spent over 5 years planning, is a new heist: to steal a $150m piece of jewellery that is locked in a vault. With the help of buddy Lou (Cate Blanchett), she approaches fashion designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter) to drape the jewellery over the swan-like neck of starlet Daphne (Anne Hathaway) at the world-famous Met Gala in New York. She puts together the rest of the team – hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), jewellery expert Amita (Mindy Kaling), fence Tammy (Sarah Paulson) and con artist Constance (Awkwafina)…

The Verdict: Ocean’s 8 star Mindy Kaling recently called out the dominance of white male critics in failing to appreciate Ocean’s 8, which has got decidedly mixed reviews. She does make a valid point about this, given the increased focus on diversity in the film industry. However, it’s also a smokescreen to hide the fact that Ocean’s 8 isn’t all that good. A while male like this one can certainly appreciate female-led films like the hilarious Bridesmaids and the fabulous Wonder Woman. They were fine, well-written films, whereas Ocean’s 8 often struggles to get past its basic set-up and frequently sputters into flight.

There’s a great idea at work here, taking a gender spin on Steven Soderbergh’s trilogy of Ocean’s films that ran from 2001 – 2007. Debbie is very much in line with her brother Danny – a charming con artist who plays the game with knowing ease. The crew that she puts together are a rogueish but decent bunch. Apart from Lou and Rose, they mostly exist in footnotes to the story and aren’t given much in the way of character development. The script, by director Gary Ross and Olivia Milch, gets to the heist straight away before meandering off on pointless subplots like the one involving Claude. Then there’s the third act, in which James Corden’s insurance investigator appears to have wandered in from a different film. It’s all very so-so, with flexible morality the order of the day.

That’s not to say it’s all bad. The cast clearly had fun making the film and it shows. Bullock gives a sense of purpose and inner strength to Debbie while drawing on her connection to George Clooney for added poignancy. Blanchett is solid as the reliable right-hand woman, Bonham Carter just about convinces with her Irish accent and even Rihanna manages to be bearable. Hathaway also has a ball as a narcissistic celebrity who is smarter than she looks. It’s bright, breezy and occasionally funny. However, there’s a definite sense that this film could have been something much more, if the script had only been sharper. Less of the con and more of the characters – particularly with a great cast like this. Despite the best efforts of its cast, Ocean’s 8 is something of a con job.


Rating: 2.5 / 5


http://www.movies.ie/oceans-8/


Zitat:
Ocean's 8: The Fundamental Flaw in Debbie Ocean’s Plan
The Ocean’s 8 plot hole which means the Ocean’s 8 heist would have ended in jail time. Spoilers, of course.


Feature Rosie Fletcher
Jun 19, 2018

Big spoilers for Ocean's 8 lie ahead

The Ocean’s movies are great, twisty, escapist romps which rely heavily on their slowly revealed plot. Ocean’s 8 no less so, which pulls the rug out from under us on several occasions before the movie’s climax.

The con in this case is particularly audacious - to rob a celebrated antique diamond necklace right off the neck of a massive movie star (played by Anne Hathaway) during the most glamorous event of the year, the Met Ball - an event which is jammed with security guards where CCTV cameras are placed everywhere and the world’s press are watching avidly. Bold, to say the least.

But then Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) has been planning this for 5 long years and she’s assembled the best possible team to help with the job.

This is the Ocean’s 8 heist explained (as best I can).

Note: everyone is referred to by first name not because they’re women but because some of them don’t have surnames listed.

First get the diamond necklace out of the museum vault where it’s currently stored and on to the neck of megastar Daphne Kluger. This they manage to do by identifying designer Rose Weil as being down on her luck and possibly approaching bankruptcy then convincing Daphne that Rose is the one who should design her dress, basically by making it look like Weil is going to be designing a dress for a younger, hotter actor. Rose then insists that Daphne must wear this diamond, and manages to convince Cartier to release it.

Then the gang needs to make an exact replica of the necklace. They do this by secretly scanning it (using cunning glasses), then 3D printing a new version in zirconia.

Next the gang need to get access to the ball. Debbie and her partner Lou (Cate Blanchett) recruit Debbie’s old friend Tammy, now a busy organized mom (who’s also a fence). Tammy knobbles one of the Met Ball organization contractors and then applies for and gains the vacant position. From the inside she convinces the organisers to hire Lou, saying she’s a nutritionist, as well as pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina) and jeweler Amita (Mindy Kaling) - more on them later - as kitchen staff.

Rose is invited to the ball anyway as Daphne’s designer, Tammy is at the ball as coordinating staff, hacker 9-Ball (Rihanna) is off site monitoring the team on the CCTV that she’s hacked so Tammy just adds Debbie to the guest list under a fake name making her German and possibly a model. The CCTV has been hacked of course to create a blind spot by the entrance to the ladies toilet (how this comes about is more intricate still, but we’ll move on).

Then at the ball things get (more) complicated. Daphne’s soup is poisoned by the kitchen crew so she has to run to the bathroom to puke. Only Constance has snuck in and climbed under all the doors moments before (they all have ear-pieces obviously) and locked all of the cubicles forcing Daphne into one particular cubical. Constance then appears from within the loo to ‘comfort’ Daphne where she removes the necklace with the special tool made by 9-Ball’s sister. Daphne exits the bathroom without the necklace, Constance stealthily puts it on a bus boy’s tray in the blind spot, he takes the tray to the kitchen where Amita intercepts it. Amita locks herself in another loo with her custom tools and begins to take the necklace apart turning it into seven new pieces of new jewelry.

Meanwhile the gala is on lock down and all the guests forced to leave while security hunts for the missing necklace. Amita is working away and is about to be rumbled when Tammy pretends she has discovered the missing necklace (actually the zirconia replica which she’s hidden about her person) in a fountain. The party resumes.

Constance gets the new pieces from Amita and distributes them between the seven of them so they all now have a new piece of diamond jewellery not identifiable as the original necklace. They leave the ball undetected.

When the necklace is presented back to Cartier it is immediately identified as a fraud and an insurance investigator, John Frazier (James Corden) is called. Meanwhile the separate pieces of jewellery are sold off by a bunch of actresses using fake names not traceable to Debbie and the gang.

John identifies Debbie from the footage but she has an on camera alibi the whole time the necklace is missing. He suspects her but can’t prove anything.

Twist alert! Then Daphne turns up. She totally clocked what was going on when she saw Rose filming the necklace’s clasp system. She wants a cut, and she kind of wants some new gal pals too. She becomes the 8th member of the gang.

Next up - framing Claude Becker (Richard Armitage), Debbie’s former squeeze/rival. Daphne is dating him anyway so she heads to his house, handcuffs him to the bed and plants one of the pieces in his flat, then photographs it and sends it to Debbie who shows it to John, who’s then able to arrest Claude.

Second twist alert! We then discover that while the building was on lock down during the ball Lou and a new accomplice, acrobat The Amazing Yen (Qin Shaobo) who appeared in the previous Ocean’s films, manage to rob all the other jewels out of the exhibit using a selfie stick to mask the camera in that room, some crazy contortionist skills and a toy submarine to avoid the lasers.

Amazing.

Only is it?

There are a number of major problems with this plan which mean that if this really happened (and yes I know, this is escapist fantasy, it’s not real, but bear with me on this little thought experiment) most of the crew would be in jail.

First of all if a priceless antique necklace worn by the French royal family was stolen and there was that much press publicity around it there is no way the police wouldn’t be involved. $150 million surely counts as grand larceny after all.

And there’s no way they wouldn’t pore over the CCTV footage of the event, even if Claude had been fingered.

Debbie’s been planning this for five years, but here’s the major problem: Debbie. Yep, the fact that Debbie attends the gala would be the unravelling of the whole plan.

The whole of the gala (with the exception of the blind spot) is surrounded by CCTV as discussed. Debbie is on probation and is highly recognisable - indeed John recognises her from the footage. But she has an alibi, so she can’t have done the heist! Sure, but that doesn’t explain why she’s there in the first place.

This clearly suspicious activity would be the first port of call for any detective worth his or her salt. Ok Debbie has an alibi but maybe she was working with a team, like, say her brother Danny used to do. The first thing they’d investigate is how she got in in the first place.

The answer is of course Tammy’s guest list - she added Debbie as a guest under a false name, and this would immediately mark Tammy as a person of interest. Surely the obvious next step would be to look into Tammy’s background - she’s certainly not who she says she is. Once it’s clear she’s in league with Debbie they’d want to know who else Tammy added to the list or brought on board as staff. This would include Lou, Amita, and Constance.

Constance would likely be the next in the frame. Even though the ladies loo has a blind spot the approach doesn’t. Checking the approach to the women’s bathroom up to about, say, 45 mins before the necklace goes missing you’d witness Constance walking into the blind spot and then not emerging again until after the robbery has taken place. It’s clearly her who did it.

Similarly if they were suspicious already of Lou and Amita all they’d need to do is check the footage of staff leaving during the lock down - they’d discover that neither Amita or Lou actually leaves with everyone else.

Then there’s the added bonus heist - the museum exhibits. Even if we buy that there’s only one camera in the whole of the exhibition room and Lou and Yen manage to fool it with a selfie stick, that doesn’t change the fact that Debbie, pretending to be a German model, would be seen outside the exhibition room arguing with security while the heist is taking place. As soon as it was discovered that the entire room full of jewels were fakes Debbie and the others would be the first in the frame.

Not to mention the fact that police would know that Claude was responsible for sending Debbie to prison so she’d have the clearest motive for framing him.

On which - Debbie shows John the photo which justifies him searching Claude’s flat - were the police involved wouldn’t they then ask where that photo came from? In this technically advanced era it’s surely possible to trace something like that.
This would of course lead to Daphne, who’d actually be a prime suspect for collusion anyway since it was stolen from around her neck (a situation which she was notably unbothered about).

All circumstantial, you say? No proof? Well actually there is. Camera footage would show Debbie, Lou, Amita, Constance, Tammy and Rose all leaving the gala wearing jewellery they didn’t arrive with and in fact it would also show Amita, Constance, Lou and 9-Ball (who wasn’t even there before) in completely different outfits, none of who were guests invited to the gala (also, where did they get changed? Who did their hair and make up so quick?). Since they are all persons of interest and since John has established that the necklace has been broken up to make separate pieces of jewellery it would be common sense to check this, and hey presto! they’d all be in the slammer.

Escapism yep, but crime never pays, guys!

Ocean's 8 is in theaters now.


[url]http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/oceans-8/274317/oceans-8-the-fundamental-flaw-in-debbie-ocean-s-plan[/url]


Zitat:
Ocean’s 8: A “gender-swapped” caper
By Carlos Delgado
20 June 2018

Directed by Gary Ross; screenplay by Ross and Olivia Milch

Ocean’s 8, directed by Gary Ross (Free State of Jones, The Hunger Games, Pleasantville), is the latest in the Ocean’s franchise of heist films. It is a loose continuation of the Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen trilogy (2001, 2004 and 2007) directed by Steven Soderbergh, themselves based upon Lewis Milestone’s 1960 Ocean’s 11.

The new film opens with Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), sister to the recently deceased Danny Ocean (played by George Clooney in the Soderbergh opus), securing her release from prison with a tearful—and insincere—vow to leave behind her criminal past and live “the simple life.” Upon leaving prison, she promptly steals cosmetics and scams her way into an upscale hotel room.

She reunites with Lou (Cate Blanchett), an unscrupulous bar owner and Ocean’s former partner in crime. Ocean convinces her to take part in a heist she has plotted while in prison: stealing a $150 million diamond necklace during the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s highly exclusive and garish Met Gala in New York City.

Ocean and Lou round up a team of thieves in a sequence familiar to anyone who has seen a work of this type before. The heist crew includes computer hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), street hustler and sleight-of-hand expert Constance (Awkwafina), down-on-her-luck fashion designer Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter), diamond expert Amita (Mindy Kaling) and a “fence” who deals in stolen goods, Tammy (Sarah Paulson).

With the help of sophisticated computer technology and a few fairly ridiculous plot contrivances, the team penetrates the Met’s security system and prepares for the theft, which involves lifting the six-pound piece of jewelry from the neck of the arrogant and self-involved actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway). Meanwhile, Lou discovers that Ocean is planning to pin the crime on her former lover Claude Becker (Richard Armitage), whose treachery had led to her five-year prison sentence. Lou accuses Ocean of “running a job in a job,” but goes along with the plan anyway.

Under Ocean’s leadership, the team navigates the opulent and celebrity-filled gala, attempting to steal the necklace while evading security staff, cameras and high-tech anti-theft measures. The final act, which involves Kluger’s discovery of the plot and Ocean’s revenge on Becker, limps to a finish.

The creatively bankrupt Hollywood studio machinery, which seems increasingly incapable of doing anything but churning out sequels, remakes, “reboots,” and “reimaginings” of commercially successful franchises, has of late made appeals to identity politics by creating “gender-swapped” versions of popular films, where women inhabit roles that had previously been played by men. Far from being an attempt to showcase the talents of the performers involved, much less appeal to the broad mass of women whose experiences are excluded from the cultural landscape, such efforts are cynical and nakedly mercenary attempts to squeeze blood from the stones of once-lucrative franchises.

Soderbergh’s Ocean’s films themselves were always dull exercises in cynicism and self-satisfaction. His Ocean’s Eleven was part of his turn toward more conventional filmmaking after the box office failure of his absurdist Schizopolis. More than anything, the film reflected the pressures exerted on filmmakers, including talented and sensitive ones like Soderbergh, to “go with the flow” and produce financially successful blockbusters.

These pressures have now imposed themselves on Ross, who only two years ago directed the remarkable Free State of Jones about an armed insurrection against the Confederacy during the Civil War. That film was one of the more intelligent and artistically successful major film releases in recent memory. It was also the target of racialist attacks from the identity politics crowd for daring to depict poor white farmers fighting side-by-side with former slaves against the plantation elite that oppressed them both.

Since the release of Free State of Jones, the film industry has become even more suffused with identity politics, now centering around gender issues and the upper middle class “MeToo” movement. The supposedly “progressive” significance of “female-led” films is used as a pseudo-democratic smokescreen to justify the careerism of a layer of wealthy performers and privileged professionals seeking their own “place in the sun.” The pressures on filmmakers, both direct and indirect, to conform to this campaign are immense, perhaps even more so for someone like Ross who ran afoul of these forces with Free State of Jones.

Nevertheless, it has to be said that Ocean’s 8 is an artistic step backward for Ross, and a considerable one at that. Even by the low standards of the Hollywood blockbuster, it is a tedious, empty-headed and pointless film.

It is perhaps not surprising that the critical response to Ocean’s 8, while somewhat lukewarm, is still significantly more positive than the hostility directed toward Free State of Jones. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, for example, who derided Free State of Jones as a “stultifying” film with a “white savior” protagonist, wrote that Ocean’s 8is “a heist caper that looks gorgeous, keeps the twists coming and bounces along on a comic rhythm that’s impossible to resist. What more do you want in summer escapism?”

A number of reviews praise the film for supposedly depicting “badass women,” but this is far from the truth. The plodding, lifeless script (co-written by Ross and Olivia Milch) is so devoid of tension that its performers hardly have an opportunity to exhibit anything resembling bravura or boldness. The cast is mostly wasted. Bullock’s easygoing confidence is somewhat more watchable than was Clooney’s irritating smirk, but outside of a few moments of playful chemistry with Blanchett she mostly looks bored. Hathaway is able to hit some comic beats with her smug, self-obsessed Kluger, but the rest of the cast is given little to work with.

Ocean’s 8 livens up a bit during the heist itself, with Ross’s camera fluidly tracking the intricately choreographed movements of the team of thieves while spirited jazz music plays in the background. But the fawning depiction of the Met Gala (which raises more than $10 million in a single night), replete with celebrity cameos and red-carpet lavishness, leaves one sick to one’s stomach. We’ve come some distance from Free State of Jones’s Newton Knight declaring that “No man shall stay poor so that another man can get rich.”

If the filmmakers had set out to prove that a female-led studio film can be just as vapid as a male-led one, they have succeeded. One hopes that everyone involved will set their sights higher next time.


http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/06/20/ocea-j20.html


Zitat:
Film Review | Ocean’s 8 is an Easy to Enjoy, Empty Spectacle

Andrew CarrollBy Andrew Carroll Last updated Jun 18, 2018

I’m an Ocean’s virgin. That’s probably one of the stranger sentences I’ve written but what I mean is that I’ve never seen any of the original Ocean’s trilogy. I’m not a fan of heist movies because it’s rare that they allow for good characters and a decent story. The heist itself is always fun to watch but if that’s the only thing you’re paying for then you need to re-evaluate how you watch movies. Ocean’s 8 never really gives us the characters or the story but the spectacle is enough.

Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) is just out of prison and planning to rob the most expensive necklace in the world. She’s going to do it with her best gal pal Blue (Cate Blanchett) and a diverse crew of female criminals. All under the nose of the person wearing the necklace, actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway). So far, so Ocean’s.

Despite the diverse array of talent from The US Office alumnus Mindy Kaling to pop superstar Rihanna to goth legend Helena Bonham Carter; Ocean’s 8 pigeonholes it’s characters. All of them fit into the roles they’re given and rarely does any real personality shine through. There’s the leader, the hacker, the fence, the pickpocket, the con-woman and so on and so forth. The only real performance is by Anne Hathaway.

Hathaway is a revelation in Ocean’s 8. Every line of dialogue is either a breathy moan or simpering sigh. It’s as if her character spends every waking moment in a kind of post-orgasmic bliss only coming out of it to snap at assistants or the thieves in disguise. It’s a performance that’d inspire a drag queen character. I don’t know what the crossover between the Ocean’s films and drag is but it needs to be bigger. Her character is also the only one with convincing layers which is again a virtue of her performance not the script.

Writer/director Gary Ross has an eye for the gaudy. The scenes at the Met Gala are ostentatious enough to make a Communist vomit. Celebrity cameos from Heidi Klum to Anna Wintour to Common add a layer of authenticity to proceedings. Slow motion shots of the Kardashian sisters soak in every contour line, every diamond studded seam and every constant pout. It’s a film about admiring and craving the exclusive lifestyles on display and then stealing them. Speaking of lavish lifestyles, Cate Blanchett looks like she’s already living one thanks to Sarah Edwards stunning costume design.

It’s a film that’s as much about the fashion as it is its female stars. This is a film about women and for women but men can easily enjoy it too. Anyone can, even if the characters do feel like they could’ve fit into any other heist movie. It might just be the first film of the post-Weinstein era; a safer era that is just as entertaining and enthralling as it was before.

Ocean’s 8 is out now in Irish cinemas


https://www.headstuff.org/entertainment/film/film-review/oceans-8/


Zitat:

A definitive answer to whether or not you should see Ocean’s 8.


Michelle Andrews
Night Editor
June 18, 2018


When we slot women into roles created for men, we place a near impossible task into their hands, wrapped in a pretty pink bow.

Make this movie enjoyable for women, we say, when it was always written with a male audience in mind.

That’s the parcel movie executives handed the Ocean’s 8 cast when they signed up for a spin-off of Steven Soderbergh’s beloved Ocean’s trilogy, the male-led heist series that collectively pickpocketed over one billion dollars from fans between 2001 and 2007.

Only this time, 11 years on from Ocean’s 13, a freshly out of prison Debbie Ocean (played by Sandra Bullock) and her former accomplice Lou (Cate Blanchett) assemble a team of thieves to sink their teeth into something more sugary and glittery than the men’s greasy casinos; New York City’s MET Gala.

Their mission sees the likes of disgraced designer Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter), jewellery maker Amita (Mindy Kaling), suburban mum Tammy (Sarah Paulson), pickpocket Constance (Nora Lum Ying), technical genius Nine Ball (Rihanna), and malleable actress and Met Gala co-host Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) collude to steal a $150 million Cartier necklace.

To exact revenge on Ocean’s ex-boyfriend in the process is something of a vindictive side hustle to the main heist.

While critical responses to the spin-off have been tepid - a number of male reviewers have expressed their dismay at this "middling" revival - Ocean's 8 delivers on what its audience wants it to be upon walking into the cinema armed with popcorn and choc-tops; a delicious, slick take on something utterly ridiculous.

Is the plot a little cookie-cutter? Perhaps.

Its twists and turns were largely predictable, thus rendering Ocean's 8 a movie that will not rack up awards and accolades. But was it thoroughly, endearingly entertaining for the masses, as you would expect from a heist movie?

God, yes.

As others will tell you, Bullock's performance was particularly noteworthy. The actress was powerful and enigmatic as the movie's protagonist, and her performance over the 110 minutes will make you hop into your Holden Barina and almost convince yourself it's a G-wagon (sorry, it's still a Barina). The actress' ability to command a room with her steely stare alone is something to behold.

Bullock's presence aside, if you're looking for a piece of timeless art I suggest you take another scan at the local theatre's sessions list. If you're looking for an excuse to catch up with girlfriends and drink your body's weight in soft drink, this is it.

While critiques of the cast's not-quite-there cohesiveness are valid, perhaps what some professional reviewers forget is that the average person doesn't always want complicated, award-worthy plot development. That stuff is lovely, if not a little draining.

Sometimes, life is mundane and we want to sit in a cinema and let the leather biker jackets, sassy one-liners and surprise celebrity cameos wash over us. This is a movie about stealing a bunch of diamonds out from underneath Anna Wintour's nose, after all. Multiple Kardashian-Jenners saunter through it. A very tanned Katie Holmes is there. James Corden is an insurance detective. I swear I saw Heidi Klum at one point.

I'll just say it: As an average person who desperately wants a break from the minutiae of being ordinary, the producers' priorities were clearly (absolutely) in the right place.

Yes, you will see a rather cliched scene where a woman cries into a tub of Nutella. Yes, this should have been chopped like Blanchett's delightful new blunt bob. But I'd argue most knowingly bought their $22 tickets looking for the glamour and giggles, not cinematic perfection.

Considering the female-led remake toppled every male-led Ocean's film at the box office in its first week, it's pretty clear: this movie is a success, even if the 'experts' don't see it that way.


https://www.mamamia.com.au/oceans-8-review/


Zitat:
Movie Curiosities: Ocean’s 8

June 17, 2018/4 Comments/in Basic: Movies & TV, BLOGS /by Curiosity Inc.

The deeper I looked into this one, the more skeptical I got. And no, this had nothing to do with the female-dominant cast — I’m all in favor of a new Hollywood franchise led by a multigenerational roster of talented women. Granted, it’s a little weird that this is only a cast of 8 when the guys got a cast of 11 — that might have been a comment on the gender pay gap, but I’m not sure the filmmakers were that clever.

See, aside from a couple of brief and useless cameo appearances from old supporting players, I can’t find any sign that anyone from the Ocean’s trilogy was involved in this in any way. Granted, Steven Soderbergh is credited as a producer, and it’s entirely possible (knowing him) that he was involved in half a dozen different capacities under various pseudonyms. However, given Soderbergh’s vocal insistence that he was done with the franchise, I’m more inclined to believe that Soderbergh was given a producer credit out of obligation and he didn’t actually have anything to do with this picture.

Instead, Ocean’s 8 was written and directed by Gary Ross, who previously wrote and directed the just plain embarrassing Free State of Jones. He was assisted in screenplay duties by newcomer Olivia Milch, who’s currently writing the script for an upcoming Barbie movie. After an auteur like Soderbergh, this does not look like an upgrade.

Anyway, Ocean’s 8 opens on Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), the younger sister of Danny Ocean. Yes, seriously. Danny and Debby. Ugh.

We meet Debbie just before she’s released on parole after a five-year stint in prison. I won’t go into the whole story here, but suffice to say that Debbie was caught running a hustle with her old boyfriend (Claude Becker, played by Richard Armitage), and he lied his ass off to put her behind bars while he went free. So now Debbie lied her ass off to get parole, shortly after the death of her brother. Yes, George Clooney’s character was apparently killed offscreen. But because this is a con artist we’re talking about, the movie is smart enough to bring up the faint possibility that maybe he isn’t really dead.

Getting back on track, Debbie has spent her prison time formulating a perfect heist: Robbing the Met Gala for the most lucrative jewel heist in history. And all she needs is herself among a crew of eight.


Bullock turns in a perfectly satisfying performance as a world-class criminal mastermind, and her opening series of petty thefts is especially fun to watch.

Cate Blanchett plays Lou, this movie’s analogue for Brad Pitt. Right down to the scene in which she lectures Debbie about running a con within a con and threatening to walk away. She mostly acts as a sounding board for Debbie, but the interplay between these two characters is delightful, and it’s hard not to get caught up in Blanchett’s performance when she’s this damn cool.

Anne Hathaway plays Daphne Kluger, who takes an unwitting part in the heist as the actress who gets tricked into wearing the targeted jewels. I know Hathaway has played flawed characters before (Colossal is easily my favorite example), but I’ve never seen her chew so much scenery to play such a vacuous and conceited bitch. It’s a thing of glory.

Helena Bonham Carter is on hand as Rose Weil, an eccentric washed-up fashion designer. She’s in enough debt with the IRS that she agrees to take part in the heist, yet her reputation is still good enough that — with a bit of work — she’s able to get herself hired as Daphne’s designer for the Gala. Of course nobody can do ditzy and eccentric like Bonham Carter, and her established working relationship with Hathaway (through their collaborations with Tim Burton) brings a neat energy to their scenes together.

Then we have Mindy Kaling as Amita, the resident jewelry expert. She gets a useless excuse for a subplot about pressure from her culture and family to get married. Still, Kaling is a welcome presence and she totally sells the character.

Rihanna plays a character inexplicably nicknamed “Nine-Ball”. She’s the hacker and surveillance expert of the group, so she doesn’t really have to do much except sit around and smirk like she’s the smartest badass in the room. Given that Rihanna isn’t exactly a world-class actor on par with some of her castmates, keeping her this deep into her comfort zone was a smart call.

Speaking of rappers in the cast, Akwafina is on hand as the resident pickpocket, Constance. She’s hilarious.

Last but not least is Sarah Paulson in the role of Tammy, a retired fence with a sweet suburban family. She gets brought back in to take an undercover job with the Gala coordinators. Naturally, Paulson acquits herself wonderfully because she’s still one of the most underrated character actors in the business.

This cast is easily the movie’s biggest selling point. Keeping the main cast in the single digits did a lot to make sure every character had a distinctive presence and enough development to stay interesting. More importantly, these women are clearly having the time of their lives. This is definitely one of those movies that are so much fun because everyone involved is having so much fun.

Unfortunately, while the male actors in the cast are clearly having a great time as well, they don’t have nearly as much to work with. Richard Armitage is clearly trying to play Claude as a total sleazeball, but he doesn’t have enough screen time to make a solid impression, and he isn’t quite awful enough or fleshed-out enough that I was rooting for him to suffer. Yes, I get that Debbie hates him for sending her to prison and breaking her heart, but I couldn’t care about him enough to share in that hatred or get any kind of satisfaction in watching her move against him.

That said, it was rather amusing for the Julia Roberts analogue to be an old flame whom the protagonist is looking to get revenge against, instead of an old flame whom the protagonist is trying to win back. That’s a neat little reversal.

Then we have James Corden, appearing as the bumbling detective who serves as an insurance investigator. He doesn’t even show up until the third act, so of course the character doesn’t have much screen time to leave any kind of impact, but that’s certainly not for lack of trying on Corden’s part. The character is funny and actually quite smart, but he’s not any kind of legitimate antagonist to our crew. Never at any time is there any reason to think that he could plausibly find and capture our band of criminals.

That’s a problem that deeply permeates the entire movie, by the way: This whole heist is entirely too easy. Some obstacles were absurdly and laughably simple, such as the senior employee of a motherfucking security firm whom I guess was genetically engineered to fall for the most transparent phishing scheme imaginable. And most of the time, some unforeseen wrinkle crops up only to be resolved in five minutes like it was never a problem at all.

Admittedly, there are one or two fantastic reveals that are cleverly set up and effectively paid off. Otherwise, the heist more or less glides along on rails and everything goes exactly as planned. And when the audience knows exactly what’s going to happen long before it actually does, that’s kind of a fatal error for a crime thriller.

For miscellaneous notes, the filmmakers tended to use split screen and other “PowerPoint slide show” transitions between cuts. It’s like the filmmakers were trying to be stylish, but it’s just annoying. That said, the movie otherwise looked quite good, and the score was pretty decent.

Oh, and I want to state this again so it’s absolutely clear: The connection to Ocean’s 11 is so tenuous that it may as well not be there. The cameo appearances are so inconsequential and unnecessary that they may as well have been cut entirely. (I seriously got a bigger kick out of the cameo actors who showed up playing themselves.) This movie does not advance the franchise or enrich the previous trilogy in any way. The one and only thing that the connection does is that it gives our protagonist a criminal lineage that we immediately recognize and respect without a word of exposition. And that still doesn’t stop all the exposition about Danny Ocean’s criminal reputation and Debbie’s connection with him. So really, the net losses far outweigh the net gains.

Ocean’s 8 is a fun little movie, don’t get me wrong. It’s a superbly talented cast trading banter as they carry out an intricate jewel heist, so of course it’s going to be funny and exciting on some level. However, I get the strong sense that Gary Ross could have filmed these exact same actors talking unscripted over lunch for two hours, and it would have been just as entertaining. Furthermore, it bugs me how the characters never seem to encounter any kind of significant setback or legitimate threat to their success, and any connection to the previous franchise is entirely useless.

I have a very difficult time giving this a recommendation. But seriously, the cast alone makes this movie worth a look on second-run or streaming.


http://www.manic-expression.com/movie-curiosities-oceans-8/


Zitat:
Movie review: All-female 'Ocean's 8' is delightfully fun

Posted at Jun 20 2018 11:20 AM | Updated as of Jun 20 2018 05:34 PM

It has been 11 years since the last film of Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's" trilogy, which started with "Ocean's Eleven" (2000), then "Ocean's 12" (2004), and "Ocean's Thirteen" (2007).

The series featured superstars George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt, and set a pretty high bar for classy heist movies. This year, maybe in tune with the recent trend for female empowerment, a spin-off with an all-female cast was released to perhaps revive the trend set by its predecessor.

Danny Ocean's sister Debbie (Sandra Bullock) was just released from incarceration for a major case of fraud. Still a natural con-woman to her core, she had been planning a big heist in her head all those five years she spent in jail. So the moment Debbie was out, she got together with her old girlfriend and partner in crime, Lou (Cate Blanchett), to set her major big-time plan in full motion.

She got her team together: fashion designer Rose Weil (Helena Bonham-Carter), jeweler Amita (Mindy Kaling), tech-savvy hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), skilled pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina), and fence Tammy (Sarah Paulson). Her goal: to steal the multi-million dollar Cartier Toussaint diamond necklace while it is being worn on the neck of celebrity Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) during the Annual Met Gala.

Bullock does not in any way look like she could be a sister of Clooney, but like in all her other films, she can really make any character likable. I wanted to see her intricate plan come together, and was hanging on to every piece of the puzzle as they fit in to complete the picture.

The other character I liked was that played by Hathaway, another actress whose goodwill alone can save any role she was playing. She played Daphne with her tongue completely in cheek, like it was a satire of any of those vapid self-centered celebrities who only care about how they look during events.

The other gals were just introduced too quickly for us to know them better and care about them more. Blanchett's Lou was her usual strong and capable persona. Bonham-Carter's Rose was her usual kooky and eccentric persona. Rihanna's Nine Ball was the usual cool as a cucumber techie. Nine Ball had a younger sister who just so happened to be a magnet expert when they needed one -- now that one was hard to buy.

Kaling's Amita was the usual mousy spinster with mommy issues. Awkwafina's Constance was really an uncomfortable screen presence, and she looked out of place among the other ladies. Paulson's Tammy conveniently had the technology or the connections needed to achieve certain aspects of their plan. At times, this could a bit too convenient for comfort.

I was pleasantly surprised with the 11th hour appearance of James Corden as insurance investigator John Frazier. Of course, he was practically acting like he does in his TV show, but still, so funny. The other male of note in the cast is Richard Armitage, who played the charming but unscrupulous art dealer Claude Becker, who had once had an entanglement with Debbie five years ago.

I really enjoyed watching this smart caper unfold, as told by writer-director Gary Ross. Say what you will about crime does not pay, but I was actually rooting for Debbie and company to get away with it all. The sneak peek into the super exclusive Met Gala (which was just hot in the news and social media last month) was a bonus, along with the cameos of the glamorous celebrities who frequent this fashion event like Heidi Klum, Serena Williams, and Kim Kardashian, among others.

Just like "Ghostbusters" before it, though, this film will inescapably also be compared to the original all-male gang. For sure, these awkward assembly of ladies could not keep up with the more dapper charm of their male counterparts.

However, they do have their own sense of delightful fun and cleverness that carried the film through. I am hoping for a sequel with a better-plotted, more complex heist story to further challenge the talent of the cast. 7/10

This review was originally published in the author's blog, "Fred Said."


http://news.abs-cbn.com/life/06/20/18/movie-review-all-female-oceans-8-is-delightfully-fun


Zitat:
Ocean’s 8 Mini-Review

Playing it Straight

Chris Carter
Jun 18, 2018

The Oceans series is one of the easiest examples to point to when it comes to popcorn entertainment unique to the medium of film. They’re not particularly deep and its cast of characters don’t feature any meaningful development, but they’re stylishly crafted, somehow balance a magnetic cast, and are often unpredictable. Ocean’s 8 manages to hit a lot of those same notes minus the symphony of the latter.

Just to be clear, Ocean’s 8 is not a reboot, but a full-on sequel with a new cast. Its anchor: Debbie Ocean, played by a confident Sandra Bullock. As you might have gleaned Debbie is related to Danny Ocean, George Clooney’s father-figure and master conman from the original trilogy, which itself was born out of a re-imagining of the 1960s heist film, Oceans 11. There’s history here, and I think Ocean’s 8 manages to walk upon that hallowed ground by treading lightly.

True to Ocean form, we don’t get much character development here, and without spoiling anything major, there aren’t very many conflicts. Oceans 8 instead manages to pare down nearly everything, from the hardships to the actual job itself, and present a more digestible version of the formula. That’s not to say that the cast doesn’t sell it though, because they absolutely do.

There wasn’t one person I wasn’t particularly impressed with (minus the relatively bland side-antagonist played by Richard Armitage), even if they didn’t actually contribute much to the actual heist itself or the overarching plot. Anne Hathaway could have easily been a throwaway part of the film but ends up stealing the show, and Helena Bonham Carter puts on an acting class despite the few scenes she’s in. I wanted to see more of “Lou,” Cate Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) amalgam, as the “less is more” angle of their relationship didn’t really hit as hard as the creators wanted it to, and there wasn’t really a connection there.

I can get through the lack of conflict and style over substance, but one thing was made clear over the near two-hour runtime that holds back the film: Gary Ross is no Steven Soderbergh. Whenever I see cross-cuts in any medium I immediately think “Soderbergh,” as the cinematographic master has perfected the art over the course of his 30+ year career. But here, Ross, who helmed the worst-shot Hunger Games entry to boot, has his work cut out for him and doesn’t rise to the occasion. Several shots are either clunky or played straight, robbing us of the tension we deserve and have come to expect.

Despite some misgivings, Ocean’s 8 is a feel-good heist film that manages to stand on its own two feet while doling out just enough fan service to keep itself in check. Sandra Bullock and company only have room to grow from here if the powers that be decide to give us more.


7.5

Oceans 8 manages to capture what made the original series so enigmatic, even if it plays it a little too safe this time around.


https://www.cgmagonline.com/reviews/oceans-8-mini-review/


Zitat:
Ocean’s 8: The acting’s formulaic. And then there’s Helena Bonham Carter’s Irish accent
Review: Apart from Anne Hathaway, the Ocean’s 8 cast barely qualify as characters at all


Tara Brady


The official trailer for Ocean's 8.

Ocean’s 8, like its predecessors, exists solely as a vessel for movie stars and celebrities

Film Title: Ocean's 8

Director: Gary Ross

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, Richard Armitage, James Corden

Genre: Action

Running Time: 110 min

Mon, Jun 18, 2018, 11:41

Have you noticed anything like the horrendous racist dogpile that was visited on the unfortunate Leslie Jones in the countdown to the female remake of Ghostbusters? Where is the outrage for the gender-swapped Ocean’s 8 movie?

Truth be told, even the biggest cry-baby MRAs aren’t going to assemble and rent their garments for the glossy, nothingy Oceans sequence.

The films, first conceived as a throwaway genre exercise for the Rat Pack in 1960, and then resurrected as a vehicle for George Clooney and chums at the turn of the millennium, may have fans, but even well-wishers can agree that the series (at its best) was handsome, vacuous nonsense.

Ocean’s 8, like its predecessors, exists solely as a vessel for movie stars and celebrities. A heist that takes in the Met Ball ensures that, in addition to the main cast, there are glimpses of Anna Wintour, Serena Williams, and Kim Kardashian.

With a nod to many lazy comic book characters, heroine Debbie Ocean (Bullock) is Danny Ocean’s sister. As the film opens, she has spent five years in jail having been stitched up by her ex-boyfriend, Claude (Armitage).

Turns out, that’s plenty of time to have planned a daring raid on the Toussaint, a $150 million Cartier necklace.

What follows has the manner of an unexcited kid. And then Debbie teams up with Cate Blanchett. And then Helena Bonham Carter. And then Rihanna. And so on.

The film rattles along, powered by costume changes, silliness and Bullock and Blanchett’s attempts to out-cool one another. There is a light smattering of decent lines (“Somewhere out there,” Debbie tells her team, “There’s an eight-year-old girl dreaming of becoming a criminal. You’re doing this for her.”)

In most other respects, however, nobody is trying awfully hard. Rihanna is Rihanna. Helena Bonham Carter’s Irish accent piddles uncontrollably between Belfast and Dublin and somewhere in America.

James Corden’s insurance investigator might as well have been called Inspector Afterthought. The filmmakers and the studio can’t decide if the film is called Eight or 8.

Anne Hathaway has fun as the spoiled A-list mark but the others barely qualify as characters at all. Where the Clooney films and the Sinatra movie radiated a sense of golf buddies, the quick-fire Ocean’s 8 gets in and gets out, leaving little or no time for banter.

There’s been far more evidence of camaraderie on the press tour and red carpet than we ever see in the film.

Still, as a canon entry, it’s an improvement on Ocean’s Thirteen.


https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/ocean-s-8-the-acting-s-formulaic-and-then-there-s-helena-bonham-carter-s-irish-accent-1.3534609


Zitat:
Ocean's 8 review – half-cocked caper
All-female cast can't revive flagging franchise

by Adam Sweeting
Monday, 18 June 2018


Perfectly timed, in theory, for the advent of #MeToo and Hollywood’s post-Weinstein era, this girl-power redesign of the Ocean franchise has lined up a turbo-charged cast and then not given them anything very interesting to do. Director and co-writer Gary Ross (The Hunger Games, Free State of Jones) was probably wise not to try to replicate the sleight-of-hand plotting, laconic wit and stiletto-sharp editing of Stephen Soderberg’s Ocean flicks, but the unfortunate consequence is that Ocean’s 8 often ends up lapsing into a glammed-up vacuum.

The set-up is that Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), the sister of George Clooney’s Danny Ocean – now supposedly deceased – gets out of jail, and sets about putting into action the heist plan she’s been painstakingly cooking up during her five tedious years in the slammer (where, seemingly, she was perfectly coiffeured and made-up). She gathers a team of female felons around her with the aim of stealing the Toussaint necklace (worth $150m), which if all goes to plan will be adorning the perfectly-formed neck of movie star Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway, pictured below with Helena Bonham Carter) at the glittering Met Gala at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Among Debbie’s light-fingered, multi-culti sisterhood are her old buddy Lou (Cate Blanchett, not doing her most persuasive work as a supposedly hard-boiled biker-babe and bar owner), jewellery designer Amita (Mindy Kaling), Tammy (Sarah Paulson) who fences stolen goods while purporting to be a demure suburban housewife, and street-smart pickpocket Constance Wong (Akwafina). Rihanna delivers a pleasant if undemanding turn as computer hacker Nine Ball. Token Bloke is Claude Becker (Richard Armitage, resolutely one-dimensional), a sleazy art dealer who unwisely shopped Debbie to the cops.

Crucial to Debbie’s plan is Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter, sporting a farcical leprechaun accent), a high-end fashion designer who’s hit hard times and is being hounded by the Internal Revenue. Debbie’s gang offer to cut her in on the action if she’ll play along with their plan by luring Kluger into the plot, and voila! The game is afoot.

The plot is serviceable enough, and there are assorted comic adventures with poisoned food, high-tech glasses and 3D printers as the story proceeds to its denouement, but the adrenalin is never pumped up by a sense of the potential consequences if it all goes wrong, since it’s implicitly taken for granted that it’s not going to. They should have written in a decent villain to give the gang a real run for their money. Worse, some of the steam fatally leaks out of the blagging-the-necklace story when the focus wanders self-indulgently into bouts of celeb spotting at the real-life Met Gala. There are coy glimpses of icy fashion queen Anna Wintour, as if she's doing the world a favour by deigning to appear, and red-carpet meet-and-greets with the likes of Heidi Klum and Serena Williams, amid many unsubtle placements of Vogue magazine's logo.

You can’t really blame the performers, because everybody does as much as they’re allowed to do. We know Sandra Bullock has plenty more up her sleeve than she shows here, and it’s telling that her best moments come in some solo scenes early in the piece, where she gives a sleek demonstration of how to shoplift at Bergdorf Goodman and then scam a free stay at the Plaza Hotel. The one performer who rises conspicuously above the pack is Anne Hathaway, relishing Kluger’s air-headed vanity and treating everyone around her with delightfully vacuous disdain. The fact that she proves to be sharper than she looks is the film’s most effective twist.


https://theartsdesk.com/film/oceans-8-review-%E2%80%93-half-cocked-caper

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Langsam sollten wir wieder halbwegs aktuell sein (abgesehen von den US-Reviews, die ich als Ausländerin nicht öffnen konnte):

Zitat:
Ocean’s 8 Review – Chickflick
June 24, 2018 TheMovieRapper
Ocean’s 8 (2018)

Movie Rating:
Reader Rating (Rate Here):
[Total: 3 Average: 3/5]

Directed By: Gary Ross
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Richard Armitage
Language: English

Ocean’s 8 is the fourth installment of the Ocean’s franchise but with a new look and entirely different star cast. There is a new wave in Hollywood after the Harvey Weinstein scandal to make women centric movies. Ocean’s 8 also rides that wave which is good but in that process it has forgotten to stitch a proper script. Just assembling top Hollywood female actors won’t help your cause when you follow a routine story line.

Director Gary Ross has revived the franchise after 11 years and following the failures of Ocean’s 12 and 13. Ocean’s 8 mirrors Ocean’s 11 in every essence. Ocean’s 8 follows almost similar plot followed by Ocean’s 11. There is a lady Clooney, a lady Brad Pitt, a black woman does the exact same job the black dude did and the rest of the white guys perform similar roles. The heist in the first movie was robbing a casino in Las Vegas whereas in Ocean’s 8 its jewelry at Met Gala in New York. It’s a chick-flick in every aspect.

Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), sister of Danny Ocean, is released from prison on parole. She then goes and meets her smoking hot friend Lou (Cate Blanchett). Debbie’s introduction is one of the best scenes of the movie, in which she puts on a performance to get a parole. Once released, she returns immediately to her “con” self. Debbie has been planning this heist for the last 5 years. The heist is to rob the Toussaint, a 150 million dollar necklace off Daphne Kruger (Anne Hathaway) while attending the Met Gala in New York.

She assembles a team to pull off the complicated heist and recruits every person for a specific purpose. She recruits a disgraced fashion designer Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter) to design Daphne Kruger’s gown. Tammy (Sarah Paulson) follows, her job being to see the plans of the company which arranges the Met gala. Debbie then recruits Amita (Mindy Kaling) who is jeweler by profession and whose role here is to dismember the Toussaint. Nine Ball (Rihanna) joins the team as the computer hacker along with Constance (Awkwafina) who is a street hustler.

So its a team of 7 people who are plotting the heist but the movie is titled as Ocean’s 8. The 8th member is a mystery and the most critical member of the group. And the entire script banks on the mystery of this particular member. But given the star cast it is pretty obvious and exactly here one of the strongest points of the movie becomes its weakest. How they steal the Toussaint and the identity of the 8th member forms the rest of the easily deducible bland plot.

Ocean’s 8 brings a lot of panache into the screen. The actresses are sexy and you can’t take your eyes off of any of them. It will be front-runner in best costume awards category in next years Oscars. Sandra Bullock brings her own version of suave to the role. Her comparison to George Clooney would be a shame. She carries his legacy forward and is the apt choice for the role. Cate Blanchett is simply sexy in her pantsuits, looking at her you can never feel she is 47 years old. One look and I told my wife I may cheat on her with Cate Blanchett if she accepts my proposal! God, I love her in this movie.

Hathway brings comedy into her role as a dumb yet not so dumb Daphne. And then there is Helena Bonham Carter’s terrific acting of a terribly acting Rose. Other members are also good and add their own personas into their characters. Richard Armitage as Claude Becker, ex boyfriend of Debbie is also an important character. Claude is the reason Debbie ends up in prison. The presence of Claude in the gala complicates the heist as it becomes a revenge plot too. Its good to know that Thorin Oakenshield is not a dwarf in real life and is quite handsome.

Ocean’s 8 is a one time watch. It freshens up the franchise with a new all female star cast. It has a charm of the original franchise but it fails to deliver the twist which was the knockout punch of the original movie. Watch it and share your rating above.


:mrgreen:

http://www.themovierap.com/oceans-8-review/


Zitat:
Ocean’s 8
3.5 stars☆☆☆☆☆


19th June 2018 by Sarah


I can’t be the only person watching Ocean’s 8 who thought Rose Weil’s flower-covered paniered frock, presumably based on those rich Regency ladies who liked to play at being milkmaids, was the best Met Gala look.

Played by Helena Bonham Cartier, I mean Carter, Rose is a washed-up fashion designer known for her Edwardian frills and pin-tucks.

Way past her 90s heyday, she’s been reduced to self-financing her latest collection (airline stewardess chic) before Debbie Ocean (a wittily deadpan Sandra Bullock) and Lou (Cate Blanchett) approach her with the answer to her very large financial woes – a jewellery heist to steal a $150 million diamond necklace.

Known as the Toussaint, it’s been in Cartier’s vault for 50 years. But if they can persuade the jewellers to lend it to a Met Gala-going A lister, and persuade the A lister to be dressed by Rose, they have a good chance of snaffling it and sharing the proceeds. And in the process Debbie wants to bring down the art dealer ex-boyfriend who had her sent down.

Debbie is a consummate actress, convincing the Parole Board, after five years inside, that all she wants to do is live a quiet life. Actually as soon as she’s released (in the kind of black lace and sparkles outfit Cher wore to the Oscars back in the 80s) she’s back to her old cons, which – let’s face it – are always enjoyable to watch. (I’ve never shoplifted but now I know if I’m ever in Bergdorf Goodman I can simply select some expensive make-up, take it to the counter to request a refund, act all huffy when they demand a receipt, sigh and say I’ll keep it, then request one of their bags to carry it home in.)

Next she’s reuniting with ex-partner in crime Lou – currently wasting her considerable talents watering down vodka – and sharing details of her prison-honed plot to steal “spectacular great big blingy big old Liz Taylor jewels”.

The set up is initially quite fun though it does cover rather more detail than I needed at that stage. Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway, sending herself up with buxom glee) a beautiful and highly narcissistic actress, agrees to be dressed by Rose, and wear the necklace.

Meanwhile Lou and Debbie are building their team. Nine Ball (Rihanna, delightfully insouciant) is a top-notch hacker, getting stoned in a big hat while using the utmost precision to hack into hugely complex security systems. Debbie’s friend and fence (a frence?) Tammy (Sarah Paulson) is now, on the surface, a typical soccer mom; but with a garage full of knock-off stuff she tells her husband she buys and sells on eBay.

Amita (Mindy Kaling), desperate to move away from her overbearing mother, is a jewellery wizz who will use her share of the proceeds to finally live her own life. Pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina) can – and will – steal your expensive watch off your wrist in the time it takes you to say “it’s 4’o cl… oh”.

Staging the heist at the Met Gala is a genius idea (I really loved Amita’s plaintive request “can’t we just go to this? Do we have to steal stuff?”). The dresses! The cameos, probably including several by people I didn’t recognise! The soup!

And the Gala is gorgeous, glitzy fun. The theme is European royalty, which means beautiful gowns rather than dressing up as a spaceman with a wifi antenna for a headdress (I like to think Debbie’s comment to fellow guest Heidi Klum that her dress was actually old was a nod to our Queen’s sartorial thriftiness, though I suspect not).

Daphne looks incredible in Rose’s shocking pink creation, though it’s taken commitment – admitting, while wolfing down that soup, that she hasn’t eaten in three days. The necklace is jaw-droppingly stunning, not that Daphne would spoil the view of it by dropping her jaw. Now all the team have to do is steal it from her neck without Daphne or Cartier’s security detail noticing, and escape the Gala.

Like so many heist movies it follows a relatively straightforward and familiar trajectory: set-up, the heist with its will it/won’t it go horribly wrong moments, and the post-theft stage where we find out if they’ve genuinely pulled it off.

James Corden pops up at the end as insurance investigator John Frazier, who’s previously taken down Debbie’s brother Danny (George Clooney, seen only in a photograph and as the name on a cemetery vault).

Frazier is alternately highly annoying and rather fun, and his scenes with Debbie follow the same pattern: “five innocent people who are suspects and someone who should be a suspect but isn’t” he says to her in exasperated admiration, as he tries to track down the lost necklace.

Blanchett, looking eerily like DJ and TV presenter Zoe Ball, is the overseer of the heist, though she’s not in it as much as I was expecting. Bullock is terrific as Debbie, happy to continue the family business and with the guts to not just seethe over her (wholly allowable) grudges but also to act on them – .going for a “twofer” (“a job within a job”) could easily have been played out as hubris in a woman but she continually holds her nerve.

The direction is sometimes pedestrian. There’s too much set-up. And I couldn’t work out if some of their heist tricks were glaringly obvious or simply acknowledging that men are, in fact, simple creatures. Sudden problems are too easily solved by a newly-appearing minor character, when it takes me weeks to get a plumber.

But ultimately Ocean’s 8 is a buoyant ride; whose A-list cast give witty and vibrant performances which support each other’s characters as much as showcasing their own.

Debbie’s motivations for stealing the necklace seem to be two-fold: revenge (not a complaint, he totally deserves it); and, like Mallory’s famous justification for climbing Everest, because it’s there. And really, what more do you need?

“A him gets noticed, a her gets ignored” she comments, as they’re building an inconspicuous all-women team, though that could never happen here. The only male character with any real presence (apart from the dead Danny) is Debbie’s ex boyfriend, art dealer Claude Becker (Richard Armitage) who is suitably deserving of our combined wrath while also being the object of my female gaze.

Ocean’s 8 has taken some stick, often undeserved. But as Lou coos to Rose after the designer has read out a particularly nasty blog post about her fashion show “That’s very cruel but it doesn’t make it true” (and remember that if I’m ever mean to you).


https://www.cautionspoilers.com/film-reviews/oceans-8/


Zitat:
Ocean’s 8: A Better Female Bonding Film Than Veere Di Wedding


By Sagar S Jun. 23, 2018

This month, I learnt two very different female bonding lessons from Ocean’s 8 and Veere Di Wedding. If Veere... taught me that all women want are one-night-stands with lovable creeps, then Ocean’s 8 educated me that women can have dreams and fun without men.


une has been the kind of month where the semi-polluted air contained a peculiar virus that has forced filmmakers to do what they keep finding an excuse not to: back movies with an all-female star cast. The first film, Veere Di Wedding, boasted an ensemble of actresses who are otherwise asked to be happy performing item numbers for Indian audiences. And the second, Ocean’s 8, that released in India yesterday, is powered by a group of diverse, outspoken women who are tired of taking a backseat while Hollywood’s leading men reap benefits. It was a revolutionary month for the movies, comfortably hashtagged #girlpower, even though both these movies were directed by men. Of course, that’s just me nitpicking.

Veere Di Wedding was panned for a variety of reasons, but few right ones. Critics took exception to the outspoken Swara Bhaskar, who is in the crosshairs of right-wing forces around the country, even though she looked super ill-at-ease throughout the film. And then there was the “lewd” masturbation scene she featured in, that embarrassed grandmothers around India. But for an industry that focuses so little on its leading women, Veere… was considered a step in the right direction, even if the vehicle was so… pedestrian.

Veere… is possibly the most unrealistic depiction of female bonding we’ve witnessed in recent times. The women seem to have been mandated to swear every five minutes, someone named Rishabh is integral to the plot of a women-led film, and an impromptu soul-searching girl-cation is the solution for every fight. Ocean’s 8, on the the other hand, faced backlash for borrowing heavily from the all-men heist franchise Ocean’s 11-13, which is in turn is a spin-off of the 1960s Ocean 11 starring Frank Sinatra drinking alcohol and playing golf. And, also for not being as fun as Ocean’s 11.

Even though both these movies depended on some serious female bonding, only one of the two – you’ll never guess which one – actually sticks to its word. Ocean’s 8 centres around the ladies acquiring a giant necklace that costs a fuckton of dollars, while VDW revolves around a game called “Will This Wedding Happen Or Not?” in which the participants are four South Delhi besties.

In Ocean’s 8, Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), sister of George Clooney’s Danny Ocean, sets out to exact revenge from an accented fuccboi who framed her and sent her to jail. She gets in touch with Lou (Cate Blanchett), best described as a badass Brad Pitt-type. The two then assemble a group of Women Avengers with superpowers like being good at tech (Rihanna), stealing from the back of trucks and being a good mom (Sarah Paulson), impeccable fashion design (Helena Bonham Carter), jewellery-making (Mindy Kaling), and magic (Awkwafina). As Daphne Kluger, Anne Hathaway plays an airhead ditzy Hollywood actress, the target of the heist perfectly for most of the film. If the VDW girls would have wanted to be friends with anyone from this crew, it definitely would be her.

On the other hand, Ocean 8’s leads are – shockingly – passionate about something other than men: their own dreams.

Although, both these films are similar because they let their women have fun, they are also immensely different because of how they define “fun”. VDW’s leads are either crying about men over drinks, liberating themselves by having casual sex, or breaking up with said men. In other words, they are complete failures at the Bechdel test. On the other hand, Ocean 8’s leads are – shockingly – passionate about something other than men: their own dreams. In the film, Mindy jokes about how she’d rather attend the MET Gala than rob it, Anne secretly wants to direct films, and Sarah seems to actually just enjoys stealing – almost no one’s passion involves marriage.

There is also hardly any friction between these eight women as they split 300 million dollars between them as nonchalantly as they’d split an Uber bill. The entire time that they’ve worked together, not once has any protagonist consider running off with all the money. My sixth sense informs me that the sisterhood is definitely strong in this one, even as the women of VDW dramatically fight with each other, because one of the girls didn’t consult the others on their WhatsApp group before deciding to break up with her fiancé.

It’s interesting to note that the men of Ocean’s 8 assume background roles, either doing the heavy lifting, or playing the bumbling investigator (James Corden). Even the only male love interest in the whole film is labelled “desirable” because he’s an excellent chef. If the film wanted to make me think about how it feels to be a woman in male-centric films, I’d say they’ve succeeded. Meanwhile, in VDW, the men command attention when the clothes don’t. Once all the Veeres are done proving how cool they are and enough champagne has been consumed, you bet they’re gonna find the right guy or the nearest lovable creep from a South Delhi neighbourhood.

If VDW made me learn that “female bonding” is about having bhujia and complaining about men, then Ocean’s 8 shows that women are capable of holding lengthy, stable discussions about robbing the MET gala without needing to swear constantly or devolve into hysterics.

Because Ocean’s 8 isn’t congratulating itself on pulling off the masterstroke of getting eight women together in one film. Unlike Veere Di Wedding, it’s frothy and fun, regardless of the gender of its leads.


http://www.arre.co.in/pop-culture/oceans-8-veere-di-wedding-female-bonding/


Zitat:
'Ocean's 8' runs the jewels
And the future of sequels is female.

By Sam Eifling


One glance at the movie posters for "Ocean's 8" and you'll realize how easily a movie franchise can switch to an all-lady star ensemble, when it doesn't have "Ghostbusters"-level fanbabies attached to it. The future of sequels is female, at least when you're working with heist comedies. Here, George Clooney appears only as a photo on a desk and his character, Danny Ocean, only as a name on a grave. In his place is Sandra Bullock as his just-paroled sister; she has in Cate Blanchett her Brad Pitt, a dashing No. 2 who gets riled when she realizes the One Big Job has a personal angle. And beyond that, the film doesn't make a thing of swapping out a bunch of gents for women. (In hindsight "Ocean's 11" was so 2001.) You'll forget it yourself until you see Cate Blanchett, in disguise as a food truck cook, hard-stare at a customer who has just called her "dude."

Theft isn't gendered, but the job is, somewhat: Debbie Ocean has her eyes on a $150 million diamond necklace, the sort of thing that women have a more credible time wearing than gentlemen. The scene is to be the Met Gala, an actual party that goes down at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art each year, a fundraiser that mostly is an excuse for famous people to play dress-up for Vogue. Robbing a museum that still offers pay-what-you-wish for locals doesn't stir the same underdog espirit de corps that ripping off, say, a Vegas casino does. But moving a huge handful of diamonds sure is more inviting to watch than a slab of cash.

How to get these diamonds out of a vault, into the open at the Met Gala, and past a security system we are constantly reassured is one of the best in the world? Funny you should ask, because it'll take an expert jeweler (Mindy Kaling), a pickpocket (Awkwafina), an ultra-chill hacker (Rihanna), a fence (Sarah Paulson), a designer (Helena Bonham Carter)and an unsuspecting starlet (Anne Hathaway) to insist upon the designer who can insist upon using the jewels ... and the rest sort of writes itself, right? Finding the kinks in the security, maneuvering past cameras and guards, maybe you get to wear some cool costumes, maybe you get to watch Anne Hathaway throwing up profusely. Somewhere in the mix is a weaselly ex of Debbie's (Richard Armitage) who happens to be on the cover of GQ when she gets out of the joint — doubly annoying, since he testified against her in a failed art swindle that got her sent away for five years and change.

This is all fun stuff, far as it goes, and so many of the nouveau-Rat Pack flourishes are here, down to the bongo-and-jazz-flute soundtrack that keeps the film light on its feet. But something feels oddly heavy here, which owes somewhat to the genre itself. It's a strange thing, to watch characters closely script a job and then ... watch that script go more or less precisely to plan. Satisfying, sure. Yet also a little flat, the Coke poured out of the two-liter that's been sitting in the fridge for a few weeks. There's a bit of a play-within-a-play at work, and director/writer Gary Ross ("The Hunger Games") holds just enough beyond the view of the audience for a few reveals at the end, true to the "Ocean's" form. If the characters are running game on one another, the winking recap later always shows the audience that they, too, were missing a con happening under their noses.

It could've been more fun with about 10 percent more "Dog Day Afternoon" thrown in. Debbie Ocean and Blanchett's surnameless Lou are almost too slick as a pair, too contained. A flash of anger here, a big chortle there, could've gone some distance to adding a high sense of play or discovery. The performers doing the most work here are Bonham Carter and Hathaway, both of whom are clearly not in control of what's going to happen next, and seem to be living the moment. The masterminds of this plan, though? They're watching everything unspool just as they laid it out. Nothing can go totally right, we find, when it feels like nothing can go wrong.


https://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/oceans-8-runs-the-jewels/Content?oid=19383156


Zitat:
Despite the high profile female cast, this is hardly the heist of the century

Joyce Glasser reviews Ocean’s 8 (June 15, 2018) Cert. 12A, 110 min.

If you have not seen or do not remember Stephen Soderbergh’s 2001 film Ocean’s 11 (itself based on the great Lewis Milestone’s original 1960 ‘Rat Pack’ heist movie of the same title), do not despair. Chances are you won’t remember Gary Ross’ (The Hunger Games, Pleasantville) female version, Ocean’s 8, either in a few weeks.

In the 2001 film, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) violates his parole by travelling to Las Vegas to plan a new heist with his partner-in-crime Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt). With her brother, Danny, presumed dead, recently-paroled Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) pays a visit to Danny’s grave before conning her way to a variety of luxury goods at Bergdorf Goodman’s and a suite in a five star hotel. Now she’s set to launch the plan she has been working on in jail for the past five years.

Debbie’s first port of call is Lou (in the role of Brad Pitt in Ocean’s 11) played by the great Cate Blanchett in a curiously underwritten role. Lou is not against joining Debbie’s new venture, but has qualms about her friend’s motivation. Lou suspects that Debbie is less interested in the money than in framing her ex-boyfriend, art dealer Claude Becker (Richard Armitage), who betrayed her to the authorities over an art fraud venture to save his own skin.

The formality of insincere reassurances being completed, Debbie and Lou proceed to enlist a team of six additional sisters-in-crime, each (as is the custom) with her own speciality. The crime scene will be New York’s Metropolitan Museum and the plan is to steal the unique Toussaint necklace that model/celebrity/mother Daphne Kluger (an entertaining and ravishing Anne Hathaway) has been persuaded to wear to the annual Met Gala.

You may recall that this year’s Gala – whose exhibition theme was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination – was widely covered in the British press. One reason for the coverage was that Amal Clooney and Rihanna were co-hosts. Sadly, the British barrister is not in Gary Ross’s film, but Rihanna plays Nine Ball, (aka Leslie), a technical whizz and computer hacker. Computer hackers are either romantic characters or, when your bank details or entire entity is stolen, evil criminals. You can make up your own mind about Nine Ball.

Amita (Mindy Kaling) is a jewellery maker who can make quick forgeries and cut up originals for ease of smuggling. Tammy (Sarah Paulson) is a suburban mother with various sidelines who is swayed by money; Constance (Awkwafina) is a street hustler and pickpocket and Rose Weil (Helena Bonham Carter) is a disgraced fashioned designer in debt to the IRS, who needs little convincing to join the team.

Somehow, Debbie and Lou manage to persuade Kluger to choose Rose as her stylist and Cartier to allow Kluger to wear their precious Toussaint, worth $150 million. The plan also calls for Kluger, the unwitting mule wearing the necklace, to be sent running to the women’s room (Cartier’s and the Met’s security guards are male) which is right next to a security camera’s blind spot.

Significantly, Kluger is coerced into inviting the dashing Claude Becker to the Gala as her date. After all, every grand theft needs a scape goat, and if Kluger is not as unwitting as she appears, Becker and his massive ego are.

It is easy to forget as the somewhat tedious plan is executed with military precision and a few unconvincing moments of tension that the film is supposed to be light-hearted, or at least fun. Gary Ross’ last two films, Free State of Jones and The Hunger Games were dramas with very serious themes, but his debut in 1988, Big, was a lot of fun. Bullock is excellent, but the only real comic touch comes from James Corden as an insurance loss adjuster who knows the Ocean family well. Unfortunately, his investigation is highly suspect as he seems to be content with a few crumbs when he has good instincts and even better leads.

Another problem is the notion that a highly publicised theft of recognisable jewels can be immediately profitable. Even cut up, the jewels are hot and the insurance companies would involve international law enforcement agencies to ensure their sale would be as difficult as possible for years to come.

The Claude Becker strand is also problematic dramatically and as a revenge plot. All of the evidence against Becker is circumstantial and surely, when it is known that Debbie was at the Gala, a decent lawyer could put two and two together.

The setting with its jewellery (there is a separate exhibition of jewels on mannequins which plays a part in the heist), fashion and celebrity glamour (cameos from Elliott Gould, Anna Wintour, Zayn Malik, Katie Holmes, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Gigi Hadid and many more names lend authenticity to the gala background) is decidedly female. A casino in Las Vegas with waitresses in skimpy uniforms would not be suitable for these feminine fraudsters.

But there is something repugnant about stealing from arts organisations, even if the Cartier necklace belongs to a commercial enterprise – and to the notion that insurance fraud is a victimless crime. The Met Gala is a fund-raising event, and the more spent on the Gala, including insurance and security systems, the less money there is to go toward the museum. Even the Met is helpless to compete with billionaires from Russia, China and Saudi Arabia for paintings that come on the market.

There is a call for women to be on company boards and in government not only for the sake of equality but because women make decisions in a different way and are allegedly more concerned about the well being of others. Would the financial crash have happened with women at the helm on Wall Street? After the heist the eight fraudsters separate and we learn how they spend their millions. No one gives a penny to charity, to women’s movements or to a constructive enterprises.

Inherent in the title is the idea that the producers are planning more films, until they get to (Debbie) Ocean’s 11. So far the film has made a reasonable profit, but we have to hope the sequel is a lot more fun.


https://www.maturetimes.co.uk/joyce-glasser-reviews-oceans-8/


Zitat:
23rd June
Alison Rowat reviews: Ocean's 8 ***
Alison Rowat Senior politics and features writer
Sandra Bullock, left, leads the way in Ocean's 8. PA Photo/Warner Bros/Barry Wetcher

Sandra Bullock, left, leads the way in Ocean's 8. PA Photo/Warner Bros/Barry Wetcher

THIRD time a charm, or a curse? After the Frank Sinatra and George Clooney-led packs, Sandra Bullock and her all women co-stars are the latest crew to take on the heist thriller franchise in Ocean’s 8. They also come along in the wake of Ghostbusters 2, the widely slated, all women (yes, the two were connected) reboot of another beloved original.

It’s enough to make a woman wonder why she’s bothering, apart from the obvious. As Bullock replied when asked what made her say yes to Ocean's 8, “Lots and lots of money.”

Kudos to Bullock for her honesty, and for the part she plays in making Ocean’s 8 an entertaining enough jaunt. Not a triumph, but hardly the expected disaster either.

Bullock plays Debbie Ocean, sister of the late Danny. Debbie is coming to the end of a five stretch inside, so naturally, being an Ocean, the first thing she does on being released is to recruit a crew for another job. No men are required. As Debbie tells her old pal Lou (Cate Blanchett), “a him gets noticed and a her gets ignored”. If only the rest of the screenplay by director Gary Ross and Olivia Milch been as savvy as that line.

Some of the team are more recognisable than others depending on your age, and a couple are standout. Rihanna (a pop star, m’lud) has movie star in her DNA and makes a snug fit as a hacker, while Helena Bonham Carter, playing an Irish fashion designer, comes close to matching Bullock for comic chops. Sarah Paulson rubs along well with Bullock, but Bullock and Blanchett fizz like damp fireworks. The team as a whole struggle to gel. You can’t believe they would hang out together for long, even if they do, in true girly style, transform their hideout into a cross between a college dorm and a boho chic hotel. You would not get guys doing that (I would have paid a lot, mind, to hear Sinatra and Dean Martin shoot the breeze about cushions).

Nor would men entertain a sub-plot about wreaking revenge on a lover who wronged one of the crew. That would rightly be dismissed as not cool. Yet it is wheeled out here, as though that’s just what women would do. Hell hath no fury, etc.

As far as plots go, moreover, the men in the Oceans films were given manly things to rob, like casinos. The women here have to fit a story around the annual New York dress up known as the Met Ball, where the guest of honour, actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) is to wear a necklace worth $150 million.

The plot conveniently allows for some famous brand name checks, including Vogue, whose editor, Anna Wintour, has a couple of appearances: once without her famous sunglasses, and once when she is required to pretend she is watching her beloved Roger Federer on TV. I think it was supposed to be amusing.

Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, Hunger Games) keeps the action zipping along for an hour and a half. Half the fun of heist thrillers is the planning and execution. Ideally, the film would have cut and run there, but convention dictates we also hang around to show how it was done.

Cue the arrival of James Corden as an insurance investigator. Corden, like Paulson, strikes up a pleasing chemistry with Bullock and together they bring the film home. There is a lot of solid work here, but solid is not the main quality required in a heist thriller. As the other Oceans films showed, you need a lot of sparkle, too, and plenty of humour. Yet more attention is paid to making the heist credible than packing in the laughs. When you have comic talent like Bullock on board, why not make the most of such an asset? It all smacks of trying too hard to be taken seriously.

Then again, the Oceans films have always been better in the imagining than the reality. There is something about all that star power that inevitably fails to live up to expectations. At least in that the women in Ocean's 8 have matched the men.


http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/16302077.Alison_Rowat_reviews__Ocean_s_8____/

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 Betreff des Beitrags: Re: O8-Reviews
BeitragVerfasst: 30.06.2018, 17:08 
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Wohnort: Richard's Kingdom of Dreams
Und zum guten Schluss für heute noch etwas Deutschsprachiges (mit fehlendem Blick für Richards Qualitäten :evilgrin: ) und ein Artikel, den Dana S. inspiriert haben muss (oder ist da in Sachen Damian Lewis etwas an mir vorbei gegangen?):

Zitat:
The Take

Noch nie war Verbrechen so glamourös

Nun sind sie also endlich da, die Damen von «Ocean’s 8». Der Film ist genau das, was wir uns gewünscht haben. Nicht mehr und nicht weniger.


Wie schon ihr Bruder kommt Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) zu Beginn von «Ocean’s 8 »auf Bewährung frei, nachdem sie hoch und heilig versprochen hat, künftig ehrlicher Arbeit nachzugehen. Doch davon kann natürlich keine Rede sein, schliesslich hat sie während ihrer gesamten Haftzeit -- 5 Jahre, 8 Monate, 12 Tage -- am perfekten Plan geschmiedet.

Ihr Ziel ist eine Diamantkette von Cartier im Wert von 150 Millionen Dollar. Zuschlagen will Debbie, wenn die Kette während der Met Gala - eine reale, jährlich stattfindende Extravaganza am Metropolitan Museum of Art - am Hals der Schauspielerin Daphne Kruger (Anne Hathaway) hängt. Natürlich kann sie diesen Überfall nicht alleine durchziehen. So wendet sie sich an ihre beste Freundin und Komplizin Lou (Cate Blanchett). Gemeinsam suchen die beiden ein Team von Spezialistinnen zusammen, um am unter der Nase der Weltöffentlichkeit den Coup ihres Lebens zu landen.

«Ocean’s 8» lädt die Vergleiche mit den drei vorangehenden Steven Soderbergh Filmen geradezu offensiv ein. Nebst dem Titel ist da die Anfangsszene, welche stark an diejenige aus Ocean’s Eleven anlehnt. Auch danach weicht der Film nicht von der Formel der Vorgänger ab. Allerdings schaut man den Film ja genau weil man sich auf Altvertrautes freut.

Stars bleiben Stars

Da sind also die üblichen Filmstars, die wunderbar cool und elegant sind. Neben Bullock, Blanchett und Hathaway gehören dazu: Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson und Rapperin Awkwafina. Alle sind die Besten ihres Fachs und können ihre Talente beim Überfall zur Entfaltung bringen. Im Vergleich zu den elf Dieben aus der vorherigen Trilogie, erhalten die einzelnen Charaktere mehr Raum. Zentral ist dabei die Beziehung zwischen Debbie und Lou. Bullock und Blanchett skizzieren die Vertrautheit der beiden mit wenigen Blicken.

Bei all den verschiedenen Charakteren hätte es die vielen Cameos von Stars wie Heidi Klum, Serena Williams oder Anna Wintour nicht gebraucht, gerade auch weil bei den eigentlichen Figuren eben immer auch schon der Star durchschimmert. Zum Beispiel bei der exzentrischen Modedesignerin Rose, die von Helena Bonham Carter gespielt wird. Rose ist wohl nicht wahnsinnig weit von Bonham Carters echter Persönlichkeit entfernt.

Wie es sich für Stars gehört, sind natürlich alle immer wunderbar angezogen. Besonders hervorzuheben ist dabei Cate Blanchett, die konsequent nur Hosenanzüge trägt. Aber nicht im Stil von Angela Merkel, sondern so wie man sie tragen sollte: mit Flair.

Die Mechanismen des Überfalls werden dem Zuschauer wie üblich häppchenweise zugeführt. Sie ist nicht übermässig kompliziert, was gar nicht so schlecht ist. Allerdings bleibt die Spannung aus, weil ganz klar ist, wie sich die Geschichte entwickelt. Hinzu kommt, dass es an einem eigentlichen Gegenspieler fehlt, wie schon verschiedentlich dargelegt wurde. So haben die diebischen Genies vor allem mit den logistischen Umständen zu kämpfen.

Kompetent, aber nicht aufregend

Visuell kommt der Film eher prosaisch daher. Regisseur Gary Ross, der den ersten Teil der Hunger Games Saga gedreht hat, fehlt das Flair von Soderbergh. Er steuert den Film kompetent ins Ziel, doch einen bleibenden Eindruck hinterlässt seine Arbeit nicht.

Die wenigen Männer, die im Film vorkommen, scheinen beinahe ein nachträglicher Einfall zu sein. Richard Armitage als alte Flamme von Debbie ist, gelinde gesagt, vernachlässigbar. Nur von James Corden hätte man gerne mehr gehabt, bringt er doch eine gehörige Portion Witz mit sich, als er gegen Schluss als Versicherungsvertreter auftritt. Er wäre ein würdiger Gegenspieler gewesen.

Bleibt zu hoffen, dass bald eine Fortsetzung folgt, damitDebbie und ihre Crew zeigen können was sie wirklich drauf haben.

«Ocean's 8» ist ab Donnerstag im Kino.

Erstellt: 20.06.2018, 11:33 Uhr


https://www.zuonline.ch/meinungen/blogs/Noch-nie-war-Verbrechen-so-glamouroes/story/23049019


Zitat:
JAMIE EAST AT THE MOVIES Sassy and funny Ocean’s 8 brings the franchise back to life with an effortlessly cool performance from Cate Blanchett

Comic jewellery heist caper Ocean's 8 is a bit too reliant on copying its predecessors but the all-female cast is excellent and it's a smart, fun film


Review
By Jamie East, Sun Film Critic
21st June 2018, 11:32 pm
Updated: 21st June 2018, 11:32 pm


I WAS bored by the whole women versus men argument with the female Ghostbusters.

That didn’t deserve the rubbish flung at it and the same goes for Ocean’s 8.

Any problems are not to do with its all-female cast, they are excellent, but because it is intent on mirroring its predecessor.

With eight women doing the job of 11 men etc, this is a good, fun film.

But it takes the best bits of Ocean’s 11 and mixes them with the worst of Ocean’s 12.

Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) is the younger sister of Clooney’s apparently dead Danny — a mystery clearly designed for a future instalment.

In a mirror of the original, we meet her as she is released on parole, tracking down ladies with particular skills to take part in a jewellery heist dreamt up while she was in prison.

Joining we have Lou (Cate Blanchett), designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter), jewellery maker Amita (Mindy Kaling), hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina) and fencer Tammy (Sarah Paulson).

The plan is to steal Cartier’s £114million Toussaint necklace by getting actress Daphne (Anne Hathaway) to wear it to the Met Gala.

They each bring something to the table, but Blanchett and Hathaway steal the show.

Blanchett brings effortless cool to whatever she does.

While Hathaway flexes her comedy muscle, stealing every scene she’s in.

Richard Armitage was drafted in at the last minute after an A-Lister pulled out – and it shows.

No offence, but he’s hugely exposed here.


So despite the feeling of deja vu and sporadic ventures into smugness, Ocean’s 8 is plenty smart enough and has enough laughs and celeb glitz (cameos from Anna Wintour, Kim K, Heidi Klum) to ensure this is a franchise just about defibrillated back to life.

OCEAN'S 8: 110 mins (12A)

★★★


https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6594929/ocean-8-review-jamie-east-cate-blanchett-sandra-bullock/

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