movies: ocean's eight

I want to try and treat Ocean's Eight as much like it's own unique thing as possible, which is a little hard when it's the lastest in the George Clooney/Brad Pitt "Ocean's" series.

And it's definitely a sequel to those movies, not a reboot or a re-imagining.

It also took all the great parts of the Ocean's movies and turned them into a hell of a movie.

The script is tight and fun, and possibly a little less concerned in being too smart for it's own good like some of the previous movies. And while it does have some of those tense moments when you wonder if the whole thing is going to fall apart, you know you're watching an Ocean's movie, so it's all going to work out in the end.

Everything in the movie looks amazing, from the costumes, sets, even their hair, which I will freely admit I don't always notice... and the makeup, even if Debbie did have a little too much eye shadow in the prison scene.

And the cast... the cast is amazing.

I love Sandra Bullock at the best of times, but here, where you just instantly believe that she's George Clooney's sister, and she's so calm and collected and a little bit dangerous, she's outstanding... Cate Blanchett who is the Brad Pitt of this movie, and may actually be playing a lesbian, it's never obvious, but she's definitely queercoded and there are a couple of little comments, which I loved. Because if they want to do a lesbian gangster movie with Bullock and Blanchett, I'm 150% down for it.

This may be the calmest I've seen Helena Bonham Carter in a while, even with an Irish accent, and she's got great comic timing. Rihanna is really good, although she doesn't have to do a lot of dialogue-centric heavy lifting, which may be the reason, Mindy Kaling feels like she's a little under used at times, but that's better than the alternative. Awkwafina, who I will freely admit that I had never heard of before, is really good... weird as hell, but good and a definite scene stealer. And Sarah Paulson, how can anyone NOT love Sarah Paulson? You can't... she's just always perfect, especially in this kind of dual suburban mother but also con-woman role.

And last, but by no means least, Anne Hathaway. I know for a while there it was "super-cool" to hate on Anne Hathaway, but I never understood that, I've always liked her. And she's really great in this as the target of the scheme.

Adding to the cast are Richard Armitage in a version of the Julia Roberts role, who, I'll be honest, is a little forgettable overall. The only strange casting choice was the third act introduction of James Corden as an investigator. I mean it's not BAD, but it is strange and it did throw me out of the movie, especially as I was expecting a late stage switcharoo because of it that (spoilers?) never happened.

This was just a fun, funny, heist movie, and I really like it.

yani's rating: 4 diamonds out of 5