There’s a push in Hollywood currently, rightfully so, to make more movies with strong female leads. One of their methods is to take popular franchises with an all-male leading cast and rebooting it with the roles reversed. Ocean’s 8, obviously falls into that category as an all-female reboot of 2001’s: Ocean’s 11 (which is a reboot as well).
2016’s Ghostbusters: Answer The Call was the last attempt at role reversal, and it didn’t work out well at all. I liked Ghostbusters more than most, but still feel that it feel short. Because of that movie’s flop, Ocean’s 8 will automatically start out with a handicap with movie goers, and will have an uphill battle out of the gate. Take a look at the new trailer and then I’ll give you some of my thoughts:
Danny Ocean’s estranged sister Debbie attempts to pull off the heist of the century at New York City’s star-studded annual Met Gala. Her first stop is to assemble the perfect crew: Lou, Rose, Daphne Kluger, Nine Ball, Tammy, Amita, and Constance.This trailer actually looks really good. Also a lot of the cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway…are all solid choices. Even Rhianna was a smart casting choice. While she may not have proven yet to be that great of an actress, she will definitely drive many to go see it with her star power alone. Mindy Kaling is usually funny on TV, hopefully she’ll do well in a movie like this.
Also, judging from the trailer, it looks like this movie is correcting a mistake that hurt Ghostbusters severely: keeping the movie in the same universe as the original. With Bullock playing Danny Ocean’s sister, it makes this movie not so much a straight reboot as it is a continuation of the franchise from the point of view of a different set of characters. I can see Bullock saying something like, “Danny had a crew, and that went well. I’m going to put together a crew of my own.” Boom. It all makes sense. You make the fans of the original happy and the new cast is free to do their own thing. This will definitely help make the movie feel more authentic as well, as now characters can make references to past movies or if the studio is really smart, we could even see cameos from the original cast.
One more thing that might be a bit of a spoiler: if you watch the trailer near the end without blinking, you can see Bullock sitting in front of a tombstone that appears to have the name “Danny Ocean” on in. Is Danny really dead…or is that just what he wants people to think?
I definitely think this movie deserves a chance. The first trailer is well done and seems interesting; more-over, they’re not completely negating the past 3 movies to make this one. I’m excited to see more. Let me know what you think!
Ocean’s 8 releases June 8th, 2018.
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