Ocean's Eight  (M)
110 Mins ★★★

Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) has had more than five years to plan this job.

That's the amount of time she's spent behind bars, waiting for her chance to make a profit and get revenge on the man who put her there.

After quickly mourning the death of her con-artist brother Danny, she sets about building on her $45 worth of funds and seeks out her old friend Lou (Cate Blanchett).

With her help, Debbie wants to accumulate $20,000 and a team of seven to steal some "blingy, big old Liz Taylor jewels".

Barry Wetcher

Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter and Sandra Bullock are among the award-winning cast on display in Ocean's 8.

READ MORE:
​* Ocean's 8: Why Sandra Bullock almost quit acting over Hollywood sexism
* Bullock says women of Ocean's 8 'will fight right back' against sexists
* The five movies you must-see in June
* Ocean's 8 cast revealed - and it's girl power all the way
* A gender-flipped Ocean's Eleven won't solve Hollywood's sexism problem

There are a few added degrees of difficult though. Cartier's six-pound diamond necklace not only has a name –The Touissant –  it hasn't been out of its vault in 50 years.

Debbie believes the upcoming Met Gala could provide the perfect opportunity for it to finally get an airing, especially if its draped around the neck of someone like actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway). Then it's just the small problem of committing one of the globe's biggest jewellery heists at perhaps America's most exclusive party in a venue with what's believed to be the most sophisticated security system in the world.

Barry Wetcher

At times, Ocean's 8 feels more like a sorority comedy than a heist caper.

Through three installments peppered throughout the noughties, George Clooney and his band of brazen brothers-in-crime entertained audiences with a mix of swagger, sleight-of-hand and snappy one-liners. But while boasting perhaps an even more impressive cast (they have four Oscars, two Emmys, eight Grammys and six Golden Globes between them), this Ocean suffers from shallow plotting and tepid characters.

While there is plenty of fun to be had from the set-up and setting, writer-director Gary Ross' (The Hunger Games, Seabiscuit, Pleasantville) movie is blighted by underwritten characters, an underwhelming nemesis and a seemingly unending desire to remind people just what a star-studded event the Met Gala is.

Where Danny's squad had four or five memorable characters, Debbie's really only has two (Bullock's leader and Helena Bonham Carter's kooky Irish designer), with the rest portrayed as single-skilled, one-dimensional "criminals". Because of that it feels like a House Bunny or Pitch Perfect fraumance rather than a compelling crime caper.

That said, there are some moments of clever misdirection, last-minute hitches and double-crossing, no little art amongst the cinematography and editing and a terrific performance from Hathaway (The Intern). But the late appearance of James Corden as an insurance investigator only serves to remind one what could have been.

Serving a similar role to that of the hilarious Hilary Swank in Logan Lucky, he makes you wish this had that comedic heist movie's (affectionately referred to by many as Ocean's 7/11) characters, chaotic nature or sheer chutzpah.

 - Stuff