King of Thieves

A great cast and a good old heist - what's not to enjoy? I remember hearing about the Hatton Garden stuff when it happened and subsequently saw the television miniseries on ITV in 2019. That aforementioned show is very good, as is this 2018 film. It's a pretty simple film to make and act, hence why there are three films about this premise out there. However, that doesn't stop it being entertaining to see unfold. The casting is obvious but, again, suits the production's needs perfectly. Michael Caine (Brian), Jim Broadbent (Terry), Charlie Cox (Basil), Michael Gambon (Billy) and Ray Winstone (Danny) all feature. Caine and Cox give the more memorable performances, but they all act well enough. I like how the film portrays all of the criminals as criminals, none of them are good people and aren't shown as such. I also rate the humour, which is minor but nevertheless amusing in most parts. There's a few other little things that I appreciated, including the archive footage edit of the main group. Each to their own, but I enjoyed 'King of Thieves'.

Based on a real and pretty daring robbery, this tells the story of a group of disgruntled old codgers who disabled the state of the art security systems in London’s Hatton Garden then burrowed their way into a room full of safety deposit boxes where they promptly filled their boots. It’s initially a team effort between the young tech wizard “Basil” (Charlie Cox) and the wily, recently widowed, Reader (Sir Michael Caine). They realise that to get the job done, they have to get some of his equally aged pals out of retirement and so assemble a cracking (or creaking) team and meticulously plan their operation. What is quite clear from this stage of the film is that none of these people particularly like the other. Terry (Jim Broadbent) and Reader have history and Kenny (Sir Tom Courtenay), Danny (Ray Winstone) and Carl (Paul Woodhouse) wouldn’t trust each other with their milk money. Like most heist films, the best fun for me is always at the planning stage, and barring a few hitches with a burglar alarm, a security guard and an hungry fox things go remarkable smoothly. It’s the aftermath that sees their plan and the film begin to unravel. Despite an amiable effort from Sir Michael Gambon as their dipso fence Billy “the Fish”, their internecine plotting and counterplotting actually becomes quite tedious, vulgar and what started out as one of those stories where you quite liked the idea ended up, for me anyway, with them deserving whatever the very rushed denouement could provide. Indeed, it really just peters out into a damp squib at the close that even this formidable combination of theatrical and cinematic knights can’t really enliven. Cox looks like he is enjoying his time with these luminaries, but he might be in a bit of a minority. Pity, it had potential, but it’s a bit disappointing.

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