Ocean's Eight (reboot, all-female cast)

[Blzer]

Re: Ocean's Eight (reboot, all-female cast)

I have no idea why, I cant explain it.
But I cannot watch movies with Sandra Bullock.
The sight of her annoys me, she really gets on my nerves.
I have tried but I have never liked her in any movies.
I think she is hideous.
With that being said I think Anne Hatheway is beautiful.
But I will be passing on this one because of Sandra Bullock.

I like her more when she is a side character and not necessarily supposed to be the dominating presence in the film or playing the heroine. I think she got too big for her own good (I know this is probably an uncommon opinion). Kind of like Amanda Seyfriend, and I think she's a good actress. I wouldn't want Morgan Freeman to be running the show for a film either, because he is perfect right where he is. I just think some people are best confined in certain role types in that way.

Hathaway got really good at acting, and I love most of her role choices (though I don't necessarily like all of her films). I hope she sticks around for a long, long time. Speaking of looks, another actress who kind of reminds me of her is Emmy Rossum. Not sure why she didn't pan out as much (definitely not as good of an actress), but when she shows up I like her as well, especially as the love interest.

As for O8, I didn't watch this trailer mostly because I'm interested in seeing it (I try and avoid trailers whenever I can). I hope it's good. I didn't even realize/remember Anne Hathaway was in this movie, so I thought you were just sidetracking when you brought up her name haha.

[JayBee74]

Re: Ocean's Eight (reboot, all-female cast)

I have no idea why, I cant explain it.
But I cannot watch movies with Sandra Bullock.
The sight of her annoys me, she really gets on my nerves.
I have tried but I have never liked her in any movies.
I think she is hideous.
With that being said I think Anne Hatheway is beautiful.
But I will be passing on this one because of Sandra Bullock.

Sandra Bullock ain't chopped liver but she's no Ann Hathaway (who is?)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M5lW0cZ55co" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I don't mind her acting, but I haven't seen a Bullock movie that I like and that includes her Oscar-winning The Blind Side flick.

[jake44np]

Re: Ocean's Eight (reboot, all-female cast)

Sandra Bullock ain't chopped liver but she's no Ann Hathaway (who is?)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M5lW0cZ55co" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I don't mind her acting, but I haven't seen a Bullock movie that I like and that includes her Oscar-winning The Blind Side flick.

See, even in this video her voice and attitude gets on my nerves so much that it makes her unattractive to me.
As my 10 year old would say, she is just gross!

[Blzer]

Re: Ocean's Eight (reboot, all-female cast)

Caught a pre-screening. I'll jump around with my impressions and mostly remain spoiler-free (nothing specific in here, but if you want to have no expectations about the kind of film you're going to see you might want to avoid reading).

Well, it's a soft reboot. I said I've avoided trailers and such so I don't know what we knew leading up to it, but it is very much in the same universe as the previous films. Debbie is Danny's sister. Though outside of that character connection, the idea of a heist/recruitment, and some scenes that they clearly wanted to serve as a mash note to O11, it really did not feel too much like O11. In fact, its plot felt more like Tower Heist with a tone closer to O12 and a deliverance that played out a bit like Logan Lucky. It opens up with a score similar to that of what David Holmes used in the past, but outside of the different score bits this film has an actual soundtrack as well to give it its own style (personally, I would have preferred an "only score" flick).

It's a very female-driven film. Not just by cast, but also with themes. A lot of this movie involves fashion and high society (as the heist itself takes place at the Met Gala, that's probably expected), and that lost me a bit. Even the target, although more tangible than that of what O13's objective was, felt a bit too small-scale. No, they didn't need to knock over another Vegas casino, but there was something great about that in O11 and O13 that was lost in O12, and it did the same again here. They didn't spend any time making the city backdrop become a staple or character in this film either. Everything was always shot very close and with a lot of interiors.

The weakest aspect of this film was the writing. I just don't think they were really all that clever, at least in that I had seen it all before. What do all heist films tend to have in common? The suckers around the protagonists eat up everything they are fed. Everything has to work in such a convenient way for it to all be pulled off. In 2018, I'd like to see a heist film that sets up a lot of contingencies when things don't go right, and this one felt very linear. Also, one thing the previous Ocean's films did really well was kept the audience in the dark about a lot of what they were doing—that they weren't just tricking innocent bystanders, but they were tricking us along the way as well. I'll admit they got me once, but on two other occasions it seems like they tried and I just didn't fall for anything there. The rest of it was all very plainly laid out and we were just going along for watching them attempt to execute it.

These writers also simply didn't know how connect the [male] audience with its characters the same way as its predecessors. The players served their parts just fine, but only a couple of them had actual personalities. Plus, George Clooney and Brad Pitt developed such a "cool" dialogue with each other all of the time and always knew what the other was thinking. Maybe I'm actually looking for them to be closer to that film more than the writers wanted to, but this felt a little generic as a result. Plus, they upset me once that has to do with the previous films, but I'm sure that was a decision that looms far above their control.

Now it seems like I'm crapping on this film, yet really when all was said and done I'd actually say that I enjoyed watching it. It wasn't a great film by any means, but I certainly did enjoy it. What I think saved it was one Sandra Bullock and one Anne Hathaway, with heavy emphasis on Hathaway. Though let me first say, Sandra played so low-key that I wouldn't be hard-pressed to claim this might be my favorite performance of hers. It's not her best performance, but she didn't feel as much like a "try-hard actor" in this film as she normally does, so it made me like it a lot more. However, the real show-stealer in this was Anne Hathaway, and I didn't even remember she was in this film before she showed up (I think that makes twice now). I loved Anne Hathaway in this. I mean she was the really redeeming quality of every scene that she appeared in. If I rewatch the film any time soon (which I likely won't), it will be for her alone. Her delectable presence got me to go with the idea of the female-ish tone that was being played out. Rihanna got into her character nicely as well. I did not like Cate Blanchett or Helena Bonham Carter, sadly enough. Mindy was kind of "there" as was Sarah Paulson (who they tried to give some character to but forgot along the way), and I liked Awkwafina but honestly didn't know who she was before this. Lots of celebrity cameos and a few callbacks to the previous films as well.

Time will tell where this ranks with the other Ocean films, but right now I'd place it at the bottom. At least O12 had an artsy appeal of filming in Amsterdam and it felt like there were a lot of high stakes risks given Isabel, Benedict, and The Nightfox. Sodebergh did enough in that one and the dialogue was witty to still keep it at #3 on the list. Take your significant other though if you'd like though; they'll probably dig the fashionable aspects and you'll enjoy enough of the caper aspects to leave like I did, saying that you liked it and move on. If there is one other nice takeaway for this film, it's that everyone looked like they had fun filming it, which is an important staple of the Ocean's series.

[daflyboys]

Re: Ocean's Eight (reboot, all-female cast)

These writers also simply didn't know how connect the [male] audience with its characters the same way as its predecessors.

Or they didn't care if they did or not.

[Blzer]

Re: Ocean's Eight (reboot, all-female cast)

Or they didn't care if they did or not.

That could very much be true. One would assume with all of the testosterone floating around the previous trilogy though that you wouldn't want to alienate that fanbase. Ocean's Thirteen was embracing the fact that there were really no women speaking characters in it except for Ellen Barkin.

Now I'm sure that since I have seen the other movies so much, naming the eleven characters (or identifying them and their strengths, etc.) would be such an easy task for me to do, but it always was even after I first saw it.

Here, not only is it hard for me to remember all eight faces right off the bat, but I'm trying to remember their names and specialties. I know some of their specific assignments, but some of them were mostly special for their certain position they were in (sort of like Reuben in the original crew, where his best asset was his finances so he could fund the projects).

On another note, it does make me wonder if they plan on making this a trilogy so that the sequels will be called O9 and O10, which would round it all out back to square one at O11 again. Should they decide to literally make it nine individuals for the next heist, I know exactly who they would use as well. If they make any sequels, I will still be right there in the theater to catch it. This film was fine by most standards, just it has a lot to live up to.