We have two movie reviews for you today with ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Ocean’s 8’. One movie is getting a ton of summer hype despite not being a blockbuster release and the other is racking in money at the box office. Submit your 0-100 rating for each of the movies by clicking here. What did we think? Find out below…

Jeff (90/100): Holy hell, what a fucking creepy and just downright messed up movie. It takes a lot for a horror movie to really scare me and put me on the edge of my seat, but props to ‘Heredtiary’ for achieving the feat.

Let me start by saying that this movie is miserable, disturbing and may not be something for everyone. I can’t even really say I enjoyed the movie in a sense that it was a “fun” watch. It boils down to the fact that I can appreciate what the creators did with the genre and the experience of what they offer. So many horror movies fall into clichéd traps and bore viewers with the same old horror tropes that bog down the genre. ‘Hereditary’ pulls from classic horror movies and themes but puts its own twist on everything. It’s hard to talk about the movie without spoiling anything, but the story is engaging and keeps you wondering what the hell is going to happen next.

The biggest thing that contributes to the actual horror of the movie, for me, is the pacing. Director Ari Aster, in his first movie nonetheless, uses roller coaster type pace, with some speed and sharp turns, that throws you off and messes with your head. The story and script land punch after punch of brutal scenes and imagery. Again, as I stated above, the movie is fairly disturbing and won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But in a world where so many movies just feel stale or more of the same, you have to commend the risks this movie takes to try and establish itself as a unique submission to the horror genre.

I can’t wrap this review up without mentioning the stunning performance from Toni Collette. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Collette nails another performance, but this is truly one of the better jobs someone has done with a horror movie character in quite some time.

Most people I’ve talked to have loved experiencing this movie, but there are people who either can’t take everything seriously (some people I saw it with laughed at some of the scenes) or just don’t connect with the chaotic and disturbing nature of the film. If you liked other A24 horror movies ‘The Witch’ and ‘It Comes At Night’, I’d imagine you’ll like this one as well. (But hey, I guess you’ll have to decide for yourself, because I highly suggest giving this movie a chance.

Side note: A24 continues to pump out great movies, which all contrast the big time, mainstream blockbusters that soak up the box office. They’ve released a ton of great movies in the last year, including ‘First Reformed’, ‘Lady Bird’, ‘The Disaster Artist’, ‘The Florida Project’, ‘A Ghost Story’ and more.

KenJac (79/100): I was extremely excited going into this movie because of the hype from critics, word of mouth, and on social media. I left insanely disappointed, feeling confused as to what I was missing. ‘Hereditary’ has an art-house horror film “we’re so meta” pretentious vibe to it, which is very much not my thing at all in the horror/suspense/supernatural genre. That detracted a lot from what was an otherwise beautifully shot movie with great practical and CGI effects and incredible acting jobs. I really can’t emphasize how much Toni Collette and Alex Wolff killed their performances. Gabriel Byrne may as well have been a mannequin because he contributed fuck all to the movie. All those aspects really don’t make up for the brutal, and I mean brutal, pacing.

The first 15-20 minutes set a tone that I was getting excited for, climaxing at the first “Oh shit!” moment. After that, it was an hour plus of total filler. The last 20 minutes picked up big time and sort of keeps you on your toes, but some of the scare sequences were so bad that my whole theater was literally laughing out loud. To reiterate, I was terrified going into this because of the feedback I had gotten. Yet there I was, cracking up at some laughably corny occult sequences. I’d love to see Ari Aster direct something different because I really loved his shooting style, but this didn’t do it for me at all for what it was billed as being.

Can I emphasize again how long it felt? The original director’s cut was three hours long. It was already such a drag in that middle hour, if there was another hour added onto that I would have walked out by the 50th tongue clicking noise. To wrap up, from a technical standpoint it was very well done which is why I rated it as high as I did. It just totally missed the mark for me as being a scary movie. This would easily be in the 90’s with 50% less ‘Mother!’ and 50% more ‘It Follows’, at least from a pacing standpoint.

Jeff (69/100): Ah man, what a letdown. I didn’t really have high expectations, but with ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ being my favorite movie, I had some hope that this would be a nice addition to the ‘Ocean’s’ movie library. Not to mention the cast is fantastic, you really can’t go wrong with actresses like the ones they lined up (apparently you can, though). It certainly isn’t terrible, but it boasts plenty of flaws and moments that made me scratch my head and groan.

The biggest problem with this movie is the fact that it misses the original ‘Ocean’s’ director, and heist movie master, Steven Soderbergh. ‘Ocean’s 8’ feels like a dollar store version of a Soderbergh movie, from the script to the story, visuals and more. It wants so badly to be an ‘Ocean’s’ movie and it just comes off as too forced. I understand trying to make the style and feel similar to what Soderbergh did with the originals, but it doesn’t feel genuine or natural. Even some of the scenes and moments were almost beat for beat repeats of what we saw in ‘Ocean’s Eleven’.

I think there’s no question or debate about the cast and their performances because they all turned in a great effort. But they were severely handcuffed by an incredibly weak script. The performances actually made the script look even worse because of how easy it was to see that the actresses had little to work with. Chemistry between the members of the original crew is what made that movie so enjoyable, where in ‘Ocean’s 8’ the script really never captures enough charm to have the characters play off each other perfectly.

I can’t go without mentioning the villain, who I won’t name due to spoiler potential. But the villain is just not fleshed out at all and you never really connect with the motives behind the heist and the events of the film. Andy Garcia as Terry Benedict in ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ was such a home run and pulled the viewer into disliking him enough where you were able to understand Danny Ocean’s reasoning for doing what he does. That doesn’t happen in ‘Ocean’s 8’ at any point whatsoever. I really don’t even want to get into the B-plot with James Corden, which felt out of place and ruined the pacing of the final act.

Overall, this is a watchable movie and enjoyable at times. They hit some of the marks they aim for, but the majority of the movie you feel as though they tried too hard. It feels like such a hollow and empty story, which is a total disservice to an all-star cast. Also, the studio spoiled some stuff in the marketing of the movie, which is a wildly ridiculous move and took away from a few key events of the film. ‘Ocean’s 8’ is a movie worth renting or watching on a streaming platform once it comes out, but if you go into it expecting a great ‘Ocean’s’ movie, then you’ll be disappointed. I guess it is better than ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ at least? Yeah, I’ll settle on that.

Side note: There are two cameos in the movie that, as a big fan of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’, I absolutely loved.

KenJac (68/100): ‘Oceans 8’ is one of the most archetype examples of a shitty script doing a disservice to pretty good acting jobs. The keyword for this movie is frustrating. From a slow as hell start to an absolutely stumbling finish, it just failed to deliver on what it promised to be in basically every way.

First off, you have to give it to the cast, there wasn’t a single bad performance. Every issue I have with this is structural, like the fact that the movie took an hour just to put the team together. And the team itself felt just so, blah. You would think making a fresh spin on the franchise they might go away from giving them the absolutely generic group of specialists for their crew. From there, the actual heist was fun and had some unique twists, but also some utterly predictable (thanks, marketing team) spins to it. The closing 25 minutes was utter garbage as well. They shoehorned James Corden into a role which made no fucking sense whatsoever other than to help sell more tickets. Maybe even more frustrating than that was *SPOILER ALERT* when they pull off the heist they have a sequence of them spending their money a la ‘The Italian Job’. It worked in that movie because they set it up, but it fucking failed miserably in ‘Ocean’s 8’.

All in all, it just felt like a cheap imitation of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’, which really sucks as a fan of the franchise. They tried really, really hard to make it Ocean’s-ey and it came off as so fake. The feeling I got from the script is that it was something fan-made and submitted in a Newgrounds forum. For Soderbergh, who produced, its pretty disappointing. I’m not sure how involved he was, but if he saw what was going on he probably should have given some creative direction. I mean, he directed ‘Logan Lucky’ (now streaming on amazon prime vid for prime users) which was one of the better movies last year, so it’s not like he lost his touch. I don’t know if my hopes were too high or something, but I’m just disappointed.

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So ‘Hereditary’ is officially over the 69/100 average to receive the Officially Buttered label, while ‘Ocean’s 8′ misses out by a few points. We want to see what your movie ratings are for the year 2018. Click the links below to submit your rating for everything released so far this year.

January: https://goo.gl/forms/nNzX19HbebeQMUAA3

February: https://goo.gl/forms/DWG9TJMISLzUunsu2

March: https://goo.gl/forms/k0dL5ozOrhwJ2Bk03

April: https://goo.gl/forms/Z218hqWq3XGyqi9C3

May: https://goo.gl/forms/f5aYcpJHnBMmkcs52

June: https://goo.gl/forms/1sfizEF3LCTcXFrh2

You can subscribe to Lights, Camera, Pod and listen to our new episode, dropping early Thursday morning, where we will go in-depth about ‘Ocean’s 8′ and build our movie character heist teams with PFT Commenter.