Michael Caine stars alongside an ensemble cast in the true crime thriller film King of Thieves.
Based on the story of the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary, a group of old thieves plan and carry out what is considered to be England's largest heist.
Caine stars as Brian, the mastermind behind the whole heist. He is joined by Jim Broadbent as the menacing Terry, Tom Courtenay as the deaf and sneaky Kenny, Ray Winstone as the crazy Danny, Michael Gambon as the simple Billy the Fish and Charlie Cox as the young alarm specialist, Basil.
The cast is wonderful and work well together. They are witty, old and English through and through.
I enjoyed watching their chemistry as the group come together after each being away from crime for a number of years and seemed to fall together perfectly.
The dialogue was real and the audience is able to see exactly how the heist dissolves.
The story was good early on, but ended up being drawn out and rather dry.
The film introduces the characters well, carries out the heist well and initially shows how everything falls apart well.
But being so dry on action meant that when things were falling apart it was just slow.
There was a lot of built up suspense, so much so that it stopped being suspenseful, and without much action it failed to really be memorable.
After the heist and a series of double crosses, it is a slow burn to get to what really was a suitable and enjoyable ending.
I was a fan of parts of this film, but over all it seemed to really lack an identity and a steady tone.
You would be laughing at the beginning of a scene and two minutes later you were supposed to be on the edge of your seat as Michael Caine says he’s going to kill someone.
It wasn't a black comedy, nor an action-thriller. I found it more lacked action, but was still intense until there was a conversation that used old person's humour.
It was a muddled mess as you weren’t sure who to root for.
There wasn't a distinguished protagonist outside of Caine and more just some anti-heros and likeable antagonists.
Despite King of Thieves having an experienced and immensely talented cast that charms your socks off, they can’t save a story that doesn't know where it is going from scene to scene.
The film also features so very clever flashback clips that show the old actors from their previous heist and crime films as younger versions. It was brilliant and visually funny.
I was very interested and excited for King of Thieves after seeing the cast, reading about the crime it's based on and the films trailer, but was ultimately underwhelmed.
If you go for the stellar cast you will not be disappointed.