If my mind is only half turned on, then Ocean’s 8 is the kind of decent yarn I’m willing to stretch back and watch. George Clooney gathered a humongous cache due to the Ocean movies he did in the 2000’s even though only the first one has ever held up to repeat viewings. He’s gone – just referred to – and Sandra Bullock as his character’s sister Debbie takes over for this diverting gender-bender sequel. Bullock gets a wiseacre first scene smooth talking at her parole hearing, and released on the outside, this born con woman wryly makes a series of grifts (department store item snatching, hotel room commandeering). Cate Blanchett, a hard-edged manipulator and adventurer, is her number one scheme comrade. The proposed target: snatching priceless jewels off a celebrity at a high-profile gala at New York’s Metropolitan Museum.
It never gets particularly deep with any character, but there’s some good company here, some tougher cookies than others: Rihanna as hacker Nine-Ball, Sarah Paulson as a suburban mom who masquerades as a master planner and fence, Mindy Kaling as an expert jeweler, Helena Bonham Carter as a daft designer, Awkwafina as a sleight-of-hand thief, and Anne Hathaway as the alternately haughty and sexy target of the operation (her socialite character is famous for being famous). Hathaway is the most hilariously snooty of the cast.
Some of the ladies’ back stories are a tad dicey and underdeveloped, yet they help give the characters at least some texture. There are gaps of logic to be fleetingly found, but generally, it all snaps along (there’s more collection of amusing bits here than what made up, say, “Ocean’s Twelve”). The heist itself is leisurely and smoothly done – not jaw-dropping for the genre, but nimble, while concluding with some slight but gleeful final twists. The performances are agile, with an occasional shot of personality, and pretty much everybody’s having fun here. If there’s ever an “Ocean’s 9” and it takes the action the Europe, I’ll make a reservation for it. Without enough glamour and sass and extra exoticism, though, this series could also easily wear thin if it chooses to continue.
110 Minutes. Rated PG-13.
SUSPENSE / HEIST MOVIES / LAZY AFTERNOON COUCH
Film Cousins: “Ocean’s Eleven (2001); “Ocean’s Twelve” (2004); “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006); “Logan Lucky” (2017).
