“Though it arguably lacks a little ‘oomph’, in certain places, King of Thieves is nevertheless tremendous fun…” – Wayward Wolf.
Compare and contrast, if you will, two 2018 cinematic releases that are based upon actual events.
Bart Layton’s American Animals, is a tale of young impressionable college students who, by way of an attempted heist at their own University library, aimed to get rich quick whilst simultaneously making a name for themselves, whereas James Marsh’s King of Thieves, chronicles the still relatively fresh-in-the-memory events of the jewellery heist that transpired down on London’s Hatton Garden, back in 2015.
Whilst both films are similar in their subject matter, it’s the manner in which the respective protagonists go about their nefarious deeds that couldn’t be any more different.
In Layton’s American Animals, a combination of anxiety, lack of experience and a general naivety ultimately prove to be the boys’ undoing, whereas Michael Caine and his grizzly cohorts couldn’t really have been any more lackadaisical in their approach if they’d tried.
At least that’s how they’re depicted.
Just how close to the truth such a depiction actually is, only Brian, Basil, Billy, Terry, Danny and John will know. And that is of course assuming that they’ve somehow managed to watch Marsh’s film from behind the bars of their respective prison cells.
One would suspect that they probably have.
Authentic depiction or not, one thing is certain, King of Thieves is high on entertainment, and in Michael Caine, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone and Tom Courtenay, Marsh’s film boasts a stella cast portraying masterfully this long-in-the-tooth gang of career criminals. Lock Stock and Six Smoking Pensioners…. And Charlie Cox… if you will.
Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?
Admittedly it is possibly a little harsh to lump Paul Whitehouse into that pensioner bracket together with the rest of Dad’s Army. Mr Whitehouse, at a mere sixty tender years of age, is after all a good decade or so younger than the majority of his fellow cast members here. Then again, he does now officially qualify for a free bus pass. So, let’s just say he’s in on a technicality.
We digress…
Perhaps it’s down to the casting of so many recognisable ‘national treasures’ in Marsh’s film, but there’s definitely a generous sense of empathy that’s generated towards this ‘loveable’ gang of rogues as they go about their business with their collective carefree, bordering on languid approach to the task.
Been there, seen it, done it.
Oh, but how things change when the cracks begin to appear and the problems mount up, laying bare the rather ugly traits of greed, power and duplicity for all to see.
Indeed, it’s quite the transformation watching the likes of serial nice guy Jim Broadbent morph from a cuddly old bugger into something of a devious back stabber, though this is not exactly new territory for Broadbent if one casts one’s mind back far enough. His tremendous portrayal of uber-snide Detective Chief Inspector Roy Slater in John Sullivan‘s timeless sitcom, Only Fools and Horses, remains to this day one of his most convincing and memorable roles.
Though it arguably lacks a little ‘oomph’, in certain places, King of Thieves is nevertheless tremendous fun, with a strong emphasis on the comedic element of what, presumably, would have actually been a very serious undertaking for all involved.
What King of Thieves may lack in pace and energy it more than makes up for by way of the on-screen chemistry between the cast members who, it’s unimaginable to consider, weren’t having an absolute blast in making this film.
Not a classic by any means, but one that will probably sufficiently please both fans of the heist movie genre and nostalgia buffs, alike.
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