Ocean’s 8 film review: Star-studded heist flick full of sparkle

She has been behind bars for five years, eight months and 12 days.

Debbie tells the parole board that she is a reformed character who now wants to lead the “simple life”.

But as soon as she is out of the door, she starts pulling confidence tricks to blag free hotel rooms and expensive cosmetics.

It turns out she is giving her criminal brain a quick workout.

Her eye is on a much bigger prize: a $150million Cartier necklace.

The first part of her plan is to hang the jewellery around the neck of preening actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) when she hosts the glitzy Met gala.

To achieve this she needs to sign up struggling fashion designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter) who is tasked with persuading Daphne that the necklace is the perfect accessory for her big night.

Then she needs to recruit a crew of criminals for an enjoyably convoluted heist.

Debbie assembles a team including her former partner Lou (Cate Blanchett), jeweller Amita (Mindy Kaling), hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), fence Tammy (Sarah Paulson), and pickpocket Constance (rapper Awkwafina).

The heist involves lots of quirky details such as a spiked bowl of soup and a clever switch with a convincing fake necklace in a toilet cubicle.

But the genius of Soderbergh’s original was the way the preposterous twists just kept stacking up.

Here director Gary Ross shows his hand early and devotes too much time to the aftermath when an English insurance inspector is tasked with retrieving the necklace.

This could have been a perfect role for a veteran character actor.

But instead of Bill Nighy or Jim Broadbent, Ross goes for current flavour of the month (on US TV at least) James Corden.

Fans of the chat show host will probably appreciate seeing his cheeky shtick transferred to the big screen but a drier delivery would have been more effective.

Ocean’s 8 is an entertaining yarn but Ross plays it too safe for the film to really sparkle.