Ocean's 8
Ocean's 8 is a 2018 American heist comedy film directed by Gary Ross and written by Ross and Olivia Milch. The film is both a continuation and a spin-off from Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy and features an ensemble cast including Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, and Awkwafina. The film follows a group of women led by Debbie Ocean, the sister of Danny Ocean, who plan a sophisticated heist at the annual Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
After the release of Ocean's Thirteen in 2007, Soderbergh stated he had no intentions of making a fourth film, citing his desire to have the series "go out on top". However, an all-female spin-off was announced in October 2015, and much of the cast signed on by August 2016. Filming took place from October 2016 to March 2017 around Manhattan.
Ocean's 8 premiered at Alice Tully Hall on June 5, 2018, and was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on June 8, 2018, 11 years to the day after the release of Ocean's Thirteen. It grossed $297 million worldwide and received a lukewarm response from critics, who applauded the cast but found the film undemanding and less consistent than the films in Soderbergh's trilogy.
Plot
Newly paroled con artist Debbie Ocean, the late Danny Ocean's younger sister, convinces former partner-in-crime Lou to join her in a new heist. They assemble their team: bankrupt fashion designer Rose Weil ; jewelry maker Amita, who is eager to move out of her mother's house; security hacker Nine Ball ; street hustler and pickpocket Constance ; and profiteer Tammy, who fences stolen goods out of her suburban home.Debbie plans to steal the Toussaint, a $150 million Cartier necklace, during the upcoming Met Gala and use film star Daphne Kluger as an unwitting accomplice. The team manipulates Daphne into hiring Weil and convinces Cartier to loan Daphne the Toussaint. They digitally scan the necklace to manufacture a worthless cubic zirconia replica. Tammy secures a job at Vogue and gains access to the gala and also gets Lou hired as a nutritionist while Debbie leads Daphne to invite art dealer Claude Becker, whose betrayal sent Debbie to prison, as her date. Lou confronts Debbie for planning revenge against Becker, but Debbie reassures her that it will not jeopardize their plan.
When Rose learns the Toussaint can only be unclasped by a special magnet carried by Cartier's security detail, Nine Ball enlists her younger sister Veronica's help in creating a duplicate. At the gala, Lou spikes Daphne's soup, causing her to run to the women's room, where Nine Ball has created a blind spot for the museum's security cameras. As the male Cartier's guards wait outside and Daphne vomits into a toilet, Constance deftly removes the necklace from Daphne's neck and sneaks it to Amita, who splits it into smaller pieces of jewelry. When Daphne reappears with the necklace missing, the museum is sealed and a search of the premises and guests commences. It ends, however, when Tammy "finds" the duplicate necklace. Constance slips the Toussaint pieces to the team to smuggle out, and Debbie plants a piece of it on Becker. After the heist, Daphne joins the ladies shortly, revealing that she already knew about the robbery as she figured out by their actions. She asks for the 8th part on behalf of saving them from the insurance office & also claims that she was in need of friends.
When the necklace is returned to Cartier's, the switch is discovered, and insurance investigator John Frazier is assigned to investigate. Having crossed paths with the Oceans before, Frazier immediately suspects Debbie, but her careful presence on the gala's video footage gives her an unbeatable alibi. She tells Frazier she may know who stole the necklace. Daphne visits Becker and sends Frazier a picture of the jewel Debbie planted. To further frame Becker, Debbie hires actresses posing as elderly socialites to sell the Toussaint off piece-by-piece and deposit the money into an account in Becker's name. The police take Becker into custody.
As the eight celebrate their success, Lou reveals the heist's true target: while the gala was being evacuated, she and The Amazing Yen, an acrobat who worked with Danny, replaced a Met display of royal jewels with replicas, escaping with gems even more valuable than the Toussaint. With their shares of the score much larger than they expected, each member of the team goes her separate way: Amita travels to Paris with a man she meets on Tinder; Weil pays off her debts and opens her own store; Constance buys a spacious loft in the city and becomes a YouTuber; Tammy expands her business in stolen goods; Nine Ball opens a pool hall; Daphne becomes a film director ; Lou takes her motorcycle on a cross-country road trip; and Debbie mixes and enjoys a martini at Danny's tomb, knowing he would be proud of her.
Cast
- Sandra Bullock as Deborah "Debbie" Ocean, a professional thief, Lou's friend and Danny Ocean's sister.
- Cate Blanchett as Lou Miller, Debbie's partner-in-crime.
- Anne Hathaway as Daphne Kluger, a famous actress.
- Mindy Kaling as Amita, a jewelry maker.
- Sarah Paulson as Tammy, a suburban mom and fence.
- Awkwafina as Constance, a loudmouthed street hustler and pickpocket.
- Rihanna as Nine Ball/Leslie, a talented hacker.
- Helena Bonham Carter as Rose Weil, a ditzy, disgraced fashion designer.
- Richard Armitage as Claude Becker, an art dealer who framed Debbie for a crime he instigated.
- James Corden as John Frazier, an insurance fraud investigator.
Production
After the release of Ocean's Thirteen, Steven Soderbergh stated that there would not be an Ocean's Fourteen, noting that George Clooney wanted "to go out strong" with the third film. In December 2008, Soderbergh again said that a fourth film in the franchise was unlikely, this time citing the recent death of Bernie Mac, who had appeared in the earlier films. However, a female focused spin-off starring Sandra Bullock was in development as of October 2015. Helena Bonham Carter, Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, and Elizabeth Banks were later announced to star in the film, though Banks' presence turned out to be a rumor that did not materialize.In August 2016, Bullock, Blanchett, Bonham Carter and Kaling were confirmed to star, with Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Awkwafina, and Sarah Paulson closing deals to fill the cast. During production on the film, Dakota Fanning and Damian Lewis were spotted on set, with Lewis's casting being confirmed in December 2016 and Fanning confirming her casting in March 2017. However, Lewis does not appear in the finished film.
On November 11, 2016, Richard Robichaux was also cast in the film. That same month, Matt Damon stated he would appear in the film, reprising his role from the Ocean's Trilogy; however, his scene was not included in the finished film. In January 2017, James Corden joined the cast as an insurance broker who begins to grow suspicious of the group. That same month, it was revealed Anna Wintour, Alexander Wang, Zac Posen, Derek Blasberg, Lauren Santo Domingo, Kim Kardashian West, Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner, Katie Holmes, Olivia Munn, Hailey Baldwin and Zayn Malik were announced to cameo in the film. That same month, Richard Armitage joined the cast of the film.
Principal photography on the film began on October 25, 2016, in New York City. In March 2017, Blanchett said production had officially been completed.
On May 5, 2017, it was announced that filming would continue on Staten Island at the former Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, which Broadway Stages was in the process of acquiring after an initial rejection.
Box office
After premiering at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on June 5, 2018, Ocean's 8 was released by Warner Bros. to theaters in North America on June 8. Ocean's 8 grossed US$140.2 million in the United States and Canada, and US$157.5 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of US$297.7 million, against a production budget of $70 million.In the United States and Canada, Ocean's 8 was released alongside Hotel Artemis and Hereditary, and was projected to gross around US$45 million from 4,145 theaters in its opening weekend, although some tracking firms had it debuting with as low as $30 million. Deadline Hollywood noted that it was tracking on-par with the 2016 all-female Ghostbusters reboot, and had more interest from audiences than the likes of fellow female-led comedies The Heat, Spy and Girls Trip. The film made $4 million from Thursday night previews, including $100,000 from additional early screenings Wednesday night, and $15.8 million on its first day. It went on to debut to $41.6 million, 69% of its audience was female. In its second weekend the film made $19 million, finishing second behind newcomer Incredibles 2. In its third weekend the film earned $11.7 million, finishing third behind and Incredibles 2.
Overseas the film was released in 16 countries alongside the United States and made $12.2 million in its opening weekend. Its largest markets were Australia, Mexico and Brazil. By its third week of release, the film had an international total of $70.9 million. Its largest markets were United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Mexico, and Brazil.
Home media
Ocean's 8 was first released on Digital HD on August 21, 2018. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment then released the film on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD Combo Pack on September 11, 2018. The film debuted at the top of the NPD VideoScan First Alert chart for the week ending on September 15, 2018.Critical reception
According to several media outlets, Ocean's 8 received a generally lukewarm response from critics. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 69% based on 347 reviews, and an average rating of 6.27/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Ocean's 8 isn't quite as smooth as its predecessors, but still has enough cast chemistry and flair to enjoyably lift the price of a ticket from filmgoers up for an undemanding caper." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on reviews from 50 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". According to BBC News, while critical reviews of the film were "broadly positive", "most had some reservations". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, the same score earned by Ocean's Eleven and Thirteen.Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and praised the cast, saying, "Ocean's 8 is a heist caper that looks gorgeous, keeps the twists coming and bounces along on a comic rhythm that's impossible to resist. What more do you want in summer escapism?" Alonso Duralde of TheWrap called the film "slick, charming and funny," though added it never quite kicks into high gear" and said, "Cinematographer Eigil Bryld gives the proceedings the high-gloss of a SkyMall catalog, which is appropriate for a movie about robbing a legendary Cartier necklace at fashion's most exclusive event...And between the sheen and the talented performers, Ocean's 8 does eventually coast on froth and good will."
Varietys Owen Gleiberman said it is "clever enough to get by" and wrote "Ocean's 8 is a casually winning heist movie, no more and no less, but like countless films devoted to the exploits of cool male criminals, it lingers most...as a proudly scurrilous gallery of role models." He found Hathaway "commanding at every moment" and believed Bullock projected "the debauched insolence" and ideological drive of "a hungry criminal", but lamented the scarcity of impressive dialogue for Paulson and Blanchett, who "don't get a chance to create indelible characters". In The Boston Globe, Ty Burr was more impressed by Blanchett's performance and said, apart from Hathaway, the film largely depended on the "established personas" of the actors.
Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 out of 4 stars and said, "Some movies are more about parallel play than actual playground interaction, and despite a screenful of terrifically skillful talents, Ocean's 8 never quite gets its ensemble act together. It's smooth, and far from inept. But it isn't much fun. That's all you want from a certain kind of heist picture, isn't it? Fun?" Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper said the cast "banters beautifully, but the heist is a bit too breezy", lacking a "formidable, hiss-worthy villain" and "darker, more challenging, more nuanced adventure".
Response from actors
Kaling and Blanchett attributed the lukewarm reception to the dominance of male critics and a lack of diversity among mainstream film reviewers. In an interview with Yahoo! Movies, Kaling cited actress Meryl Streep's criticism of Rotten Tomatoes and said, "There is obviously an audience out there who want to watch things like , what I work on, what Sarah works on... I think white men, critics would enjoy , would enjoy my work, but often I think there is a critic who will damn it in a way because they don't understand it, because they come at it at a different point of view, and they're so powerful, Rotten Tomatoes."Several film journalists strongly disagreed with claims that the reception had been dictated by the gender and ethnicity of the critics. Guy Lodge, a chief film critic for Variety, highlighted the fact that several female reviewers, including Emily Yoshida from Vulture and Time magazine's Stephanie Zacharek, concurred with the general lukewarm response. Justin Chang, an Asian-American critic for the Los Angeles Times, argued that film criticism needed increased diversity, but "We negate the possibility of sympathetic imagination when we assume that someone’s particular affinity for a work of art will be dictated in advance by specifics of race, gender and age." He instead argued that the benefits would be a broader pool of talent and perspectives. Donald Clarke from The Irish Times pointed out that film had received a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a better score than Ocean's Twelve.