4/5 stars

A wafer-thin plot is offset by a bunch of charismatic performances in this super enjoyable, all-female update of the Ocean’s heist series. The brief is simple: cast a team of A-list actresses and let them have the fun that is usually reserved for men. As breezy entertainment, Ocean’s 8 works deliciously.

When con artist Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) is released from prison, she teams up with old friend Lou (Cate Blanchett) to steal a multimillion dollar necklace during New York’s famed Metropolitan Museum Gala.

It’s a big job and a crew is needed, so hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), fence Tammy (Sarah Paulson) and fashion designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter) are contracted. The gang plan to remove a prized Tiffany’s piece from model-actress Daphne Kruger (Anne Hathaway), and smuggle it out of the museum. But can they break the tight security cordon?

Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (1955), the undisputed classic of light caper films, similarly relied on the charisma of its stars, Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. But that film had a carefully constructed crime at its core, as well as some heady dramatic conflict. Ocean’s 8 suffers by comparison because the heist itself is mundane, and the crime proceeds without a hitch.

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While there’s little fun to be had working out how the thieves will extricate themselves from tight corners, the cast seem to be having a great time in front of the cameras, and that enthusiasm is infectious.