Ocean's Eight (dir. Gary Ross)

You're unlikely to find many movie-goers who asked for another Oceans heist incarnation, especially since the A-list contingent of Clooney, Damon, Pitt et al are all on the wrong side of 50. But what about a female centric interpretation? Surely the climate couldn’t be more timely, with the news inundated daily with #MeToo sentiments and Hollywood feeling the force of the female empowerment struggle, a rat-pack heist caper where the men turn the tables on their male counterparts is exactly what’s needed to show women can be as wickedly coy. Then how it’s then, that this $75 million vehicle, lead by Hollywood royalty in Sandra Bullocks, along with the likes of Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling and Rihanna never gets its feet of the ground? Is it too much for Hollywood to work with a great idea and subsequently create a tent-pole release that justifies the giddy anticipation? Ask The director of the "Ghostbusters (2016)" remake Paul Feig about that and you’ll get a similar indignant expression.

In a similar fashion here, director Gary Ross is a clearly misunderstood choice to helm this picture, as it negates everything the female led cast are there to sell. But that’s the least of the problems here, as for a semi-parable of female empowerment with the osccasonal whip smart asides from our leading gang - why is it so insufferably dull? Thankfully we exist in the same universe as those Clooney prequels, all of which differed drastically in quality (11 is good, 12 is horrible and 13 is meh), and it should be noted that "Ocean's Eight" is the least offensive of the proceeding sequels, though is just as ramshackle.

Bullock plus Debbie Ocean - sister to Clooney's Danny who has seemingly met an untimely demise whilst his fellow criminal sibling Debbie was serving time in a women’s prison for art theft- though she was merely a pawn in much larger game orchestrated by her slimey ex art dealing boyfriend Claude Becker (Richard Armitage).

After being paroled, Debbie wastes little time in meeting up with her former criminal mentor Lou (Cate Blanchett) to get back on their next con. Their days of rigging bingo halls are behind them, and the former incarcerated con has been planing her most daring heist for five years.

Their plan is simple. Lift a heavily fortified $150m necklace from the delectable neck of the Met Gala's celebrity sponsor Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), during her appearance at the function in New York City. Once they lift the jewels, they’ll fence them and split the goods, but as the title suggests, this isn’t a two-person job, and so they need a team. In come the disparate conglomerate, with once-world renowned now turned fashion washout (Rose Weil) Helena Bonham carter, jewelry forger Amita (Mindy Kaling), computer hacker Nine-Ball (Rihanna), serial pick-picketer Constance (Awkwafina), and experienced fencer Tammy (Sarah Paulson). With her team cast, the criminal clan assemble the intricacies of the heist by getting their plan in motion. Rose cons her way into becoming Daphne's personal stylist and thus is able to recommend the prized jewels, Nine-Ball types furiously on the computer and is able to alter the cameras to give the team some lee-way when lifting the necklace, whilst the rest of the team navigate their way into jobs within the back-room staff of the highly publicized event. "Oceans Eight" is likely to attract the female crowd as a result of its all star cast, and if I take my cynical hat off for one second, the most impressive element of Gary Ross' female reboot are some of the charismatic lead turns. Hathaway and Blanchett are always good value for money, with Paulson and Kaling also offering the odd comedic quip in a sporadically humorous tale. Though on a ensemble level, much like the drama as a whole, there’s a lack of energy within the mileu. The rest of the performances are shamefully underwritten, with the script by Ross and Olivia Milch (of TV's Dude) are clearly more interested in the individual character traits instead of any substantial nuanced character development. James Corden has a brief cameo as the sharply dressed and strangely astute insurance agent, who is given the task of tracking down the fleeing swindlers, and offers some much needed hilarity - and given that not too long ago his voice-performance in "Peter Rabbit" would turn me to stone, is a reminder that his skills are clearly evident when he's basically playing himself.

Add to the mix the distracting jazz inflicted score, which sits as a bed underneath the malfeasance on screen. This never gels into something with any depth, and is clearly a motif borrowed heavily from the Soderbergh interpretations as a way of juxtaposing the fast-talking gags; here the comedy is notable only by its absence, and given the talent on screen, is even more of a transgressive misstep. Expect "Ocean's Eight" to rip up the box office however, and as it should do. Unfortunately for all those involved, this rigid heist drama won’t make headlines for its critical consensus as opposed to its progressive attitudes towards female empowerment - and the roles for women in Hollywood. If the success of "Ocean's Eight" causes studio heads in la la land to invest more time in female-lead storylines, than that can only be a good thing. It’s just a disappointing caveat that with the potential for a deliriously entertaining mad-cap thriller, with a terrifying poised cast amounts to nothing more than a glitzy and shamefully smug formulaic mess. Rating 2.5/5