Do Time With ‘Ocean’s 8’

For many good reasons, lots of people will be pulling for the all-female crime caper Ocean’s 8 to score a major box-office heist, or at very least, to deliver a much better night at the movies than the terrible all-female Ghostbusters reboot. The good news is that it is better. Not that it would take all that much.

Co-scripted by Olivia Milch (the upcoming Barbie movie) and Pleasantville and The Hunger Games writer-director Gary Ross, Ocean’s 8 is a light, fun, moderately twisty addition to the mega-moneymaking franchise. It’s also a great excuse for classy, smart, sharply funny dames like Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and Sarah Paulson to to mix it up with scrappy, screen-grabbing movie newcomers including Awkwafina and Rihanna.

The setup is simple. Bullock, playing Debbie Ocean (the larcenous, estranged sister of the purportedly deceased character George Clooney played in his Ocean’s flicks) gets sprung from a five-year prison sentence, promising that she’s seen the light and will stay on the straight and narrow. Like hell she will. Bent on avenging herself on a scummy, scam-y ex-boyfriend (Richard Armitage, who replaced Damian Lewis), she handpicks a team of fellow criminals to execute a daring plan she’s been masterminding while in stir.

The caper involves snaking precious jewels—$150 million worth—during Manhattan’s glitzy and prestigious fundraiser, the Met Gala, with the help of no-nonsense, androgynous bosom pal Blanchett; crooked jeweler Mindy Kaling; rich suburban mom with itchy fingers Paulson; Caribbean tech wiz and hacker Rihanna; flaky, passé fashion designer Helena Bonham Carter; and Awkwafina as a street-smart punk pickpocket. Then there’s their mark, an obnoxiously self-centered, insecure celebrity socialite, played to the hilt by scene-stealing Anne Hathaway.

Ocean’s 8 is a light, fun, moderately twisty addition to the mega-moneymaking franchise.

It’s all fun and games, but what keeps the movie from ever really taking off is its lack of tightrope suspense, high stakes and, particularly disappointing, physical action. Couldn’t any of the female characters be wily, crooked and possess some extraordinary physical or mental skill that would make her the only person in the world for the theft? At least we get jokey camaraderie and droll putdowns (Blanchett, Bullock and Awkwafina rule the roost here); swanky threads by Prada, Givenchy, Alberta Ferretti and Stella McCartney; much attitude; a slew of cameos (Serena Williams, Katie Holmes, Olivia Munn, two Jenners and a Kardashian, among others) and Hathaway’s shrewd, showy performance that goes hard on self-deprecating humor.

As usual, Helena Bonham Carter scores laughs by buzzing along on her own dotty wavelength, but the patchy, underwritten script does her and Paulson no favors; their impact fades because their roles and character motivations seem so random and tangential. Danish cinematographer Eigil Byrld (Tulip Fever, House of Cards) kisses everything with a big, sleek glow, but the soundtrack’s overused pop songs—like Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” and Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good”—hit us over the head with the already evident girl power/vengeance theme.

So, Ocean’s 8 may not be the tight, groovy, sexy, super smart, action-packed caper we hoped it would be. But with the cast members clearly having such a good time playing badasses and zinging each other, it still delivers a nice contact high at the movies.