'Ocean's 8' Review

For years, Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) has been planning the biggest heist of her life, targeting the world famous Met Gala. She must assemble a highly skilled team featuring hackers, con artists and a suburban mom in order to pull off a job worth over $150 million.

A cast can only do so much for a film. With the newest addition to the 'Ocean's' franchise, it's been the film's main draw, with the impressive crop of high-quality actresses looking to bring in a new audience into the series. Although the talent delivers big with genuinely enjoyable performances, they can't cover the film's weaknesses that spawn from its writing.

'Ocean's ' really fails to capitalise on its great ensemble with a complete lack of character or development, leading to each and every character is incredibly disposable. Each character has a very basic introduction and a moment to showcase what they will bring to the group but after that, they are left with very little to progress them throughout the rest of the film. The character interactions with one another revolve entirely around Sandra Bullock's Debbie so we don't get a great deal of this diverse cast mingling with one another. With this, the film does lack some personality, as none of the characters really feel any different from one another. There are no distinguishable traits other than the skills they bring to the team as the film hopes your admiration for these actresses will be enough to get them by.


Although the writing leaves a lot to be desired, these actresses try their best to add a fun energy to the film and succeed in doing so. Bullock and co are a joy to watch but it is Sarah Paulson who really stands out. Her character receives the best treatment from the script, with her being shown to have some form of a backstory, personality and just simply being an integral part of the heist. Paulson is fantastic with her character having the most hands-on approach allowing her to shine more than her co-stars. There is no weak link with stellar performances all around but you can't help but think how much more enjoyable they would be with better writing.

Not only does the writing leave the characters underdone, there is a sheer lack of drama and tension which in a heist film is a problem. The film's idea of creating tension is having Helena Bonham Carter look at a necklace long enough for it to be scanned or bus-boys stalling whilst taking a tray of dishes to a kitchen. There is never any moment where you feel as if the protagonists are in any real danger of being caught as they don't run into any real hiccups along the way. Although the heist itself is fun, it could've done with a bit more intensity in order to add more excitement to the final act. It has to be said that the heist itself is still enjoyable regardless, with some clever tricks, great costumes and the cast's charm shining through.

'Ocean's 8' gets by with its stellar cast, but the film's lack of character and drama stops it from being anything more than average. Although the film has its moments and is fun and enjoyable, you can't help but feel that it has come short of its potential. There is some optimism for if there is to be a sequel but also plenty to work on as well.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Truth Review

'Truth' is the latest biographical drama to hit the big screen and is the story of CBS News asking the question of whether George W Bush fulfilled his duties in the military. Now would 'Truth' create a suspenseful drama full of interesting twists? Or would it be a poor look at the true events of 2004?

'Truth' is the story of  CBS creating a news story questioning the presidents duties in previous wars. Once the authenticity of the report is questioned, producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) and lead anchor Dan Rather (Robert Redford) are heavily questioned as controversy surrounds them and the rest of the team involved with the story.

With the huge success of 'Spotlight', it seems like we're going to get a huge influx of these media investigations and it'll become the next over saturated trend in film.  Being perfectly honest, if they were all at the high quality of 'Spotlight', I would have no problem with it. However they could all end up being like 'Truth'. 

'Truth' is not a bad film to be fair. It's very boring though. The film struggles to really grab the attention of the audience and this is a problem with it's 2 hours and 5 minutes run time. This is far too long for this film and you will find yourself checking your watch hoping for the end to finally come. The subject matter really isn't that interesting and most of the time spent is trying to see if the documents used are legitimate sources. They spend time checking old typewriters and Microsoft Word to see if they match up. How riveting. 

What was great about 'Spotlight' was seeing all of the members of the team show a real passion to their story and really putting in the effort to create a great story and publish the truth. In 'Truth' Mary and Dan seem to be thee only ones really pushing for this. We see the other members of the team trying to contact sources on the phone and that's about it. We hear about other contacts doing work but we never see them so how can we appreciate or have interest in what they are doing? You can't really.

The CBS team

The film is really quite bleak as well. The settings of the film are all very dark and gloomy which I don't think helps in keeping your attention. It's all just so drab. Once the camera focuses on the likes of a computer screen, it hurts your eyes as you haven't been exposed to the brightness. This should happen once you leave the cinema really, not a couple of times during the feature film.

Truthfully, I don't even think there was much of a need in this film being made. The purpose of the film is questioning the presidents duties. But in the end it isn't even cleared up or pushed any further. It just ends with them continuing to question the motives of Mapes and the legitimacy of the documents. The questions put in the first place are just dropped and that's it. With this being the outcome it made the experience worse for me. With it not being particularly interesting throughout the film and not having a great payoff or any at all really, I couldn't help but leave feeling disappointed. 

The performances in this film are something to be positive about though. Cate Blanchett produced a strong performance as troubled but determined Mary Mapes. The conflicts that the character goes through was shown clearly through Blanchett's acting and was a saving grace for the film. Robert Redford was also very good as Dan Rather. Being Scottish, I don't have a great knowledge of the man so I wouldn't be able to tell you if the depiction was accurate or not. All I know was that Redford produced a performance that we expect from an actor of his calibre.

Strong performances from Redford and Blanchett

At the end of the film, it started to add a bit more humour to the film. These short bits made the film a bit more enjoyable. In the end though it was too little too late for me. If the film had done this throughout most of the film, it would of created a bit more life in it and made it more entertaining for the audience. 

Final Verdict: Truth = C-

'Truth' overall is not very interesting nor exciting. I would not recommend that you go out and see this. Not one for the ages and I will probably have forgotten all about this film by next week. Nothing really memorable and I wouldn't say that you'd be missing anything if you decide to pass on 'Truth'.

So if you've seen 'Truth' what did you think? I hope you enjoyed it more than I did. Once again thank you so much for reading, it means a lot!

By Angus McGregor