Ocean's 8 - review

Ocean’s 8 is a prime example of the perfect con. The unsuspecting punter is sucked in to the film, entertained and astonished by the array of talent on show and it is only once they have left the cinema that they realise they’ve been had.
The plot holes start to appear and you begin to over-analyse everything you’ve just witnessed but sometimes you can just accept it and admire the sheer audacity of the crew involved in stealing 110 minutes of your time and your heart.
Here, unlike the infamous Ghostbusters reboot, a group of women have seamlessly and effortlessly stolen a franchise from the men and the audience will have no complaints.
At no point during the film are you left thinking, “I wish there were more men in this film”. In fact any time a male character was introduced, it was like “Meh”... and not just because one of those men was James Corden!
If anything, it would have been nice to just spend more time getting to know the team as some of the characters are criminally underserved by the script.
Of the seven members of the crew (yes, seven. We’ll get to why it is called Ocean’s Eight in a minute), here is a quick ranking of them based on screen time and impression made:

1. Sandra Bullock
2. Cate Blanchett
3. Sarah Paulson
4. Rihanna
5. Helena Bonham Carter
6. Awkwafina
7. Mindy Kaling

Yes, the film might pass the Bechdel Test with flying colours and Rihanna sinks the memory of Battleship but one can’t help but wish that more time had been spent introducing the characters and scenes of them interacting as a group.
This is an odd request because the film does take its time in getting through the first act before the heist begins and a lot of that is on the shoulders of writer/director Gary Ross.
Ross is probably best described as similar to Ron Howard, “a safe pair of hands”. His films come in one time, on budget and meet expectations but he is not really known for a particular visual style or flair.
This is something that Steven Soderbergh (director of the Ocean’s trilogy) has in spades and brought to Ocean’s Eleven in particular, giving it a pace and polish that allowed it to zip through exposition effortlessly and introduce characters quickly and with charm and hutzpah.
It is what Eight is ultimately lacking to give it some extra energy and help raise the stakes because the biggest problem the film has is that the stakes never feel all that high. It never feels as though the outcome of the heist is ever in jeopardy.
The film doesn’t need the “getting revenge on the former boyfriend” subplot and could easily have been reworked as a plot about getting even with a former female partner-in-crime and it would have worked just as well.
I know that Debbie Ocean has been planning the job for 5 years, 3 months, 12 days or whatever but in that time the filmmakers could have added a bit more polish to the script or editing.
Of course that is not to say that there are no diamonds in the rough. Quite the opposite as there are elements that shine bright like a diamond (Rihanna reference), brighter than the Toussaint necklace that is the prime mark of the Met Ball heist.
Anne Hathaway is delightfully ditzy as movie star Daphne Kluger who is hosting the Met Ball; the shock realisation of how good Sandra Bullock is at speaking German; the delight of creating a subplot in your head that Bullock was the woman who plays off star-crossed lovers Blanchett and Paulson in a sequel to Carol; and a whole five stars just to the costume designer for Cate Blanchett who is dressed like the goddess she is in every single frame.
For those of you good at maths, you will notice a slight discrepancy between the title of the film and the number of people in the crew. This is one con that won’t take a genius to work out given how the film plays out and certain aspects of the promotional campaign.
Ocean’s 8 tagline is “Every con has its pros” and this perfectly encapsulates the end result. Just like a diamond, it has flaws but you’ll be too dazzled by its beauty to care all that much.

3 stars

Interstellar - review

With 2010's Inception Christopher Nolan explored the inner mind. With Interstellar, Nolan has decided to "dream a little bigger darling" and has set his sights on outer space to deliver a grand, awe-inspiring, wondrous 2014 A Space Odyssey.

The McConaissance goes out of this world as Cooper, a former pilot/engineer who now makes his living as a farmer on an Earth that is dying. He is given the chance to lead a mission to search for inhabitable planets beyond our solar system using Interstellar travel.

This leads to the central crux of Interstellar. Humanity versus the human race.

Several times Cooper is reminded of the sacrifices he must make to complete the mission:

"I've got kids, professor.
Then get out there and save them. We must reach far beyond our own lifespans. We must think not as individuals but as a species."

"You might have to decide between seeing your children again and the future of the human race."

On the one hand you have a mission to save the human race, on the other it is boiled down to our humanity and own individual survival instinct and Cooper's will to keep his promise to see his children again.

The awful truth of what this will take is demonstrated following a message from home after a visit to one of the new planet's surface.

To go into the plot and science in any more detail would do the movie a disservice and also possibly require a PHD as there is so much more to this film than the trailers have given away.

This is the type of film where plot and dialogue can take a back seat in the space shuttle as you strap in for the audio visual experience that Nolan, Zimmer and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema have dreamed up (sometimes literally as there are times when Hans Zimmer's booming score overpowers the dialogue).

It also wears its influences on its sleeves like a host of NASA mission patches, with the biggest patch belonging to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Not only are there certain themes and plot similarities between them but also the A.I. robot companions resemble the black monoliths plus both films reliance on practical effects in filming that ground them in reality whilst simultaneously taking us to galaxies and universes we could only dream of.

It is said that Man's reach exceeds his grasp but when that man is Christopher Nolan and he is reaching for the stars, the result is still an extremely powerful, moving, exhilarating cinematic experience.

4 stars

Rio 2 - review

Having never seen the original Rio, there was some quick Wikipedia-ing during the adverts to find out what I'd missed and was relieved to see that it was not much other than your standard fish out of water (or bird out of cage) scenario so it would be easy enough to follow.

The neurotic, domesticated bird who has moved to Rio and learnt to fly and had children with the last female Blue Macau now has to deal with moving to the Amazon (not Amazon.com but that might have been funnier) when they discover a secret tribe of Macaus.

All of the voice return for the sequel so that must have been in their contracts unlike a certain Orange Wednesdays advert from a couple of years ago!

Not only did they pack in an inflated voice cast but they unwisely attempted to squeeze in too many subplots.

There is Blu attempting to win Jewel's father's respect; the handsome ex-boyfriend which promoted jealousy; the Ferngully/Avatar "outsider joins tribe to defeat threat to environment"; a Cockatoo revenge plot; Amazon's Got Talent auditions; the list is endless and no subplot is given the opportunity to be fully fleshed out resulting in an uneven mess.

At first I was surprised that Rio 2 wasn't released in June/July to coincide with the World Cup but I realised that a) Fox needed something to capitalise on the Easter holiday market and b) this film is possibly anti-football.

I say that because the home of the blue Macaus which is under threat from loggers is situated in Manuas. Now Manuas is where they have built a brand new football stadium which has been beset by problems ahead of the World Cup and the England game that will play there.

Are the loggers in the film there to bulldoze the land to make way for the football stadium? Or am I reading too much into the film?

Either way, with a plot stuffed fuller than a taxidermist's menagerie and prioritising random musical interludes that feel shoehorned in now Anne Hathaway has won an Oscar for Les Mis over jokes, the desire for any more Rio films is as endangered as the titular blue macau.

1 star