Director: James Marsh
MPAA Rating: R
Runtime: 108 Minutes
King of Thieves is the latest entry in the “old guys doing young-people stuff” genre, and while it compiles an impressive cast, it fails to deliver on its promise of depicting the most thrilling real-life heist to ever take place in London. Michael Caine stars as a retired thief who, after the passing of his wife, decides to get the band back together for one more job, bringing in a younger lad (Charlie Cox) whose technical knowhow will help the old-school crew make off with millions in cash and jewels.
Comprised of a powerhouse group of players, including Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Paul Whitehouse, Michael Gambon and Ray Winstone, King of Thieves sets itself up to be something like The Expendables of heist films, but there’s an immediate and noticeable lack of style, with the film opting for a variety of old-people jokes instead of capitalizing on the distinguished crew of older gentlemen it has at its disposal.
Marred by a generic and, at times, baffling score, the picture as a whole feels more akin to a BBC special than a feature one might watch in a theater, made worse by bland cinematography that contains none of the flair or excitement a story such as this deserves. After we’re quickly thrust into the heist, Caine’s character, Brian Reader, leaves the gang after a seemingly pointless argument, stating he wants nothing to do with it.
Cox, who plays Basil, tries to bring Reader back in the fold after the score, agreeing to give him half his earnings, but after being expelled from the group himself, he informs Reader that he only has £40,000 to offer him. Oddly, this enrages him, and, even though Reader voluntarily left the gang and wanted nothing to do with them, he makes it his life goal to get the money he thinks he’s owed.
The constant double crossing and backstabbing perpetrated by the men cause them to quickly be found by police, who initially start surveilling them after catching one of them on CCTV, and the clock starts ticking for the men to make a clean getaway before the authorities catch them.
On the police side of things, we see the detectives putting the pieces together, but director James Marsh makes the strange stylistic choice to have none of them speak a single line of dialogue throughout the entire runtime. Granted, there’s few moments dedicated to their presence, but it’s a strange choice and causes an even bigger rift to form between the audience and whatever is happening in this movie.
One of the only creative flourishes Marsh utilizes in King of Thieves is sporadically flashing back to some of the actors’ previous films, in largely split second clips. This happens only a handful of times and although the final tribute during the climax is slightly cute, it’s hardly the denouement it’s attempting to be.
King of Thieves is a wasted opportunity to showcase London’s most prolific heist utilizing a group of knockout actors, but the resulting narrative is a flaccid, tonally awkward bore filled with cheap jokes and a paint by numbers script that does everyone involved a disservice.
