Knockoffs
(originally posted on IMDb 14 November 2018)

Of course, "Ocean's Eight" is a retread, so were the last three Ocean's movies--all being inspired by the 1960 Rat Pack film, which itself, another heist or con-artist picture, wasn't exactly the most novel notion ever filmed, either. At least, this entry is honest about it, and as Sandra Bullock's Debbie Ocean suggests, the only way to con a con is to tell the truth. Not only is the entire formula a knockoff, but the heist itself is pulled off by passing off knockoffs as the genuine articles. There's the retro stewardess uniforms at a fashion show, the all-female imitation of the painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware" hung in the gallery next to the original, which aptly is akin to this female-realigned spin-off standing beside its male-oriented predecessors, and there's the 3D printer producing knockoffs of the jewels they plan to steal. Even this idea may've been stolen from "The Good Thief" (2002), which itself was a remake.

I'm not so sure that a crime picture that revels in women's love for outlandish dresses and diamonds empowers the gender as much as some critics might fancy, and, indeed, Bullock's Ocean partly makes a joke of that in her scene talking in front of a mirror; moreover, these Ocean's pictures always seemed to rely for their appeal upon glitz and glamour, from the con, its place (originally, casinos), the style of the movies, to the assembling of a team of stars, and this one delivers on all that just as well--except for, perhaps, that the heist isn't convoluted enough. Sure, it's improbable, if not ridiculous, but all of it's rather simple and explained. Even the inevitable final, or twist, con is ho-hum. Yet, at least, unlike the 2016 "Ghostbusters," this one doesn't have pretensions of being anything more than what it is.