Ocean’s 8 by Emer Dooris (emerdblog) and Cathy Martin
Oceans 8 opened this week and, for me, it's the perfect film released with perfect timing to embrace the zeitgeist of girl power in the world right now. Having watched the previous Ocean’s heist movies, I always thought the female characters had been lacking, but not in this film. On the contrary, in this fab film we have the Spice Girls of the heist world; as Ocean’s 8 brings together a female strategist, a female designer, a female hacker and a female who works in logistics.
These characters are all skilled, intelligent and empowered women who aren’t afraid to give each other a leg up. I ask myself why an action film like this hasn’t been made before? And I even dare to ask if they make an Ocean’s 9, can it have a female director please
The basic premise: Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) has been devising the biggest heist of her life whilst locked up in prison for all of 5 years, 8 months and 12 days - but who's been counting? She knows what it's going to take to pull off the perfect heist and she feels she has to prove this to her dead brother (Harry Ocean from the previous films). She assembles a team of the best people in the field, starting with her partner-in-crime Lou Miller (Cate Blanchett). Together, they recruit a crew of specialists, including jeweller Amita (Mindy Kaling), street con Constance (Awkwafina), suburban mom Tammy (Sarah Paulson), hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), and fashion designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter).
Their target? A necklace that's worth more than $150 million, set to be the star attraction on the red carpet at the Met Ball. It’s the normal Ocean’s premise, i.e. find a target and work out the most complicated but entertaining way to turn the tables so the bad guys end up looking like the good guys.
The film is clever with lots of twists and turns. It's about friendship, trust and a bit of a revenge plot in there too. Add in cameos from Kim K, Gigi Hadid and a few other A-listers, and it has you glued. Not enough suspense or action for me, but very entertaining all the same and I hope this a start of a new series of Ocean films!
