Ocean’s 8 Parent Guide

Working the gender reversal theme, Ocean’s 8 attempts to make everything old new again by recycling past templates into a girl power party that exudes more marketing strategy than it does heist intrigue.

Remember Danny Ocean? He’s the kingpin of the original movie Ocean’s 11, played by Dean Martin and later George Clooney (Ocean’s 11, Ocean’s 12 and Ocean’s 13). In this franchise sequel we meet his estranged sister, Debbie (Sandra Bullock), who is going to prove she has robbery – and revenge – in her genes.

Released from a roughly five year jail sentence, Debbie Ocean schmoozes her way through the parole interview saying she regrets her previous crime, was stupid to get involved with a con artist (Richard Armitage) and just wants to go home and pay her bills. But, on the way “home”, she shoplifts a wardrobe and fakes her way into a posh hotel for the night. The next day, she’s putting together a plan to steal a $150 million Cartier necklace off the neck of celebrity Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) at the uber-swanky annual Met Gala in New York City.

Turns out, she was making big plans during her jail time.

Her partner in crime is Lou (Cate Blanchett), who, assuming she really does have the chops to pull off a complicated theft, seems highly underemployed as a con watering down bottles of vodka while waiting for Ocean to show up in her life.

Now they need a team, and it’s here where we work through the usual checklist. Security cameras require a computer hacker: Nine Ball (Rihanna). Check! Someone needs to get close to Kluger… how about a fashion designer (Helena Bonham Carter). Check! Who has light enough fingers to nick the necklace? Pickpocketing skateboarder Constance (Awkwafina). Check! And how do we get the diamonds off the necklace and smuggled out from intense security detection? Gem cutter Amita (Mindy Kaling) joins the fray, along with a suburban mom named Tammy (Sarah Paulson) who has past experience fencing stolen goods. Check and double-check!

And yes, that only adds up to seven but trust me… there will be eight.

In case any teens are intrigued with this story of women swimming in a script replete with luxury brand product placements and way too much concern about nit-picky details, parents will want to note a few other issues—aside from the fact stealing jewels could have serious life consequences (none of which are portrayed in this movie). The fantastical story depicts a character smoking marijuana (an increasing trend in PG-13 movies), along with some verbal nods to pot use. There are profanities throughout, including a single and partial sexual expletive. And a brief sexual scene veers toward a Fifty Shades theme but, fortunately, ends quickly.

Offering some comedic moments, Ocean’s 8 flounders as an engaging and entertaining experience. The one “bad guy” isn’t really a focus for much of the movie. Half of the cast end up sitting around in a typical plan-the-job warehouse while the main players cook up the robbery. And just about when you think the film is coming to a rather early conclusion, James Corden appears as an insurance detective in what feels like an appendix bolted on to extend the run time.

Unlike the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, which featured intelligent women who didn’t have to act like men to prove their point, this franchise’s female redo attempts to demonstrate the “Anything he can do, she can do better” cliché. Such rhetoric hardly justifies their actions, nor does it add any depth to this amply-explored movie genre.

About author

Rod Gustafson

Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since 1977. He founded Parent Previews in 1993, and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and (of course) on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children.