Ben Oliver

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film

Ocean’s 8

If you’re going to have a problem with stealing, then you’re not going to like the rest of this conversation.
24 January 2020

A group of women attempt to pull off a heist at the Met Gala in New York. Their target: a $150,000,000 Cartier necklace.

An all-star cast come together to make a fun and snappy first and second act, then James Corden shows up and it all goes to shit.

Corden isn’t entirely at fault. Ocean’s 8 fails to provide any motivation for its characters, something that really stings when they start trying to wrap things up.

It’s all set-up and no emotional payoff. One cannot live on heist alone! You have to be wanting them to succeed (or even fail), but here they take no time to establish anyone’s story. There are big stars on screen (Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway etc) but no one gets to build any sort of character.

Without any effort at all to build a story arc, this film was never going to be more than a bland display of glitzy dresses and cameos. Ocean’s 8 is entertaining for an hour, but it soon reveals itself to be a cold and often tedious waste of talent.

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