Gary Ross – Tripping Through Gateways

Starting 1984, Hollywood gave us about two Tom Hanks films a year through 1990. Some more memorable than others, but Hanks proved himself a pretty reliable comedy actor. Hanks has always come across as a nice guy in Hollywood and thus endeared himself to the audience.

1988’s Big is the story of thirteen year old Josh. A shorter kid, after a humiliating night at the Carnival where he is too short to get on a ride with a girl he likes, he stumbles upon the Zoltar Speaks “game”. The machine grants him his wish…to be big.

Josh wakes the next morning to find he is an adult. His mother reacts poorly and Josh goes on the run. As the story goes on, Josh gets the help of his best friend as they try and relocate Zoltar, only to find out it could take weeks to get the information they need.

This leads to Josh taking a job in data entry at a toy company…but he quickly climbs the ranks when a chance meeting with the head of the company who is impressed with Josh’s understanding of toys. This is one of the things that makes the film a lot of fun. Everyone mistakes Josh’s youthful innocence as brilliance and even a real man. He finds himself in a growing relationship with co-worker Susan. His complete naiveté over cut throat business practices and male pissing matches convinces Susan Josh is just mature and above it all. Initially the relationship is not all that troubling. She has no reason to think he is thirteen and a thirteen year old in a grown up body…and it is pretty funny when she suggests staying over at his place and this leads to an incredibly wholesome night of playing games and the two sleeping in bunk beds.

I am not sure who thought it was a good idea to actually have the two have sex…it is not Revenge of the Nerds territory…but it is just to close to the line of being gross. This is largely in how they write themselves into a corner when Josh confesses his big secret to her. It then feels a bit like an adult grooming a teen.

I think one of the really nice story points is how Josh becomes pretty enamored with grown-up life. He starts to ignore the goals of returning to his old life…only realizing that he is missing so much away from his friends and family.

Hanks is the glue that holds this all together. He is remarkably charming and really sells the “kid” in a grown up body better than almost anyone before or since.

Big is still a pretty charming and fun film thirty some years later.

We have not seen an Ocean’s followed by a digit movie in eleven years. And that has been okay. I really enjoyed the first and third films of the series led by the husband of Amal Clooney and Angelina Jolie’s ex-husband. But I had not really given much thought over the years to another installment.

Set shortly after the apparent death of Danny Ocean, his sister Debbie gets paroled. She promises the parole board she just wants a quiet life. But you do not have much of a movie if she weren’t lying. It turns out that Debbie has been working out a big heist the entire time she was in prison. She joins up with her former partner in crime Lou. Lou is a semi legit nightclub owner with a shady past of working scams with Debbie.

They assemble a team of “the best at what they do” ladies. There is jeweler Amita, hacker Nine Ball, pick pocket Constance, disgraced Fashion designer Rose and fencer Tammy. They set out to steal a very rare necklace that almost never sees the light of day at the yearly Met Gala.

There is not a lot of depth to the characters, they exist more for their skills than anything. But that is to be expected in a heist film in general and a larger ensemble one even more. Heist films are about the heist, the characters just need to have some unique flavor. And thankfully, they do. Each character has a distinct personality from the others. This may seem like I am contradicting myself, but being a loose sketch that does not go to deep does not mean characters are not memorable or distinctive from other characters in the story.

When it comes down to it, a heist movie should be fun. You should be trying to work it out, see if you can find the flaws and if the plan actually covered it. If the final reveal is satisfying, you have done good. And Ocean’s 8 is quite a bit of fun. The choice to make the heist crew all female makes for a bit of a twist on the Ocean Franchise giving all sorts of creative costume and fashion changes (as I imagine guys would all end up in tuxes). The Met Gala setting also allows for fun interferences.

Ocean’s 8 is a fun heist movie. I enjoyed the performances, the set up and the results. When the film was announced, I recall some negative responses of “Who asked for this”? But I honestly find that a dumb question. Most movies were not “asked” for. Nobody was saying “I need a movie about Oscar Schindler…but Speilberg made a powerful film anyways. Was I asking for another Ocean’s heist film? No. But we got one and I had a lot of fun watching it.

Tag: Gary Ross

Growth Spurt (Big, 1988)

Crime Time (Ocean’s 8, 2018)