Ocean’s 8

“A cooler-than-thou band of criminals, a smoothly executed grand heist, flawless costumes.” The ingredients established by 2001’s slick Ocean’s Eleven (and its two under-par sequels) receive a feminist spin in this stylish update to the franchise, said Tomris Laffly in Time Out. Sandra Bullock plays Debbie Ocean, an ex-con who recruits an all-girl team to steal a Cartier necklace from a self-absorbed movie star (Anne Hathaway) during New York’s Met Gala. Perhaps the worst flaw of this lacklustre film is how “uninterested” it seems in its female characters, each of whom is given just a single defining character trait, said Kevin Maher in The Times. So Mindy Kaling plays “a diamond specialist who hates her mum”, Rihanna is “a computer hacker who has a sister” – and on and on, down a cast list that also includes Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham Carter. Yet to judge from the money the film has earned in the US, no one cares that it’s neither witty nor sly, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator. The best that can be said for it is that it shows women can now make “dull formulaic” franchise films too.