Are they having a laugh? This true-crime cockney heist caper resembles nothing so much as a Hillman Imp getaway car with a forged MOT and a pound of Tate & Lyle in the petrol tank. It must have seemed like a good idea, and, in fact, a less starry and lower-budget film on the same subject has already been attempted.
The 2015 safety deposit box robbery in Hatton Garden, London, hilariously carried out by a bunch of geriatric criminals who tunnelled through a concrete wall, has duly been turned into an excruciating tongue-in-cheek film version with bus-pass movie icons in the leading roles.
First among equals is Michael Caine, playing top crim Brian Reader. The film represents him as basically nice, while conceding in the final reel that his character is still un-hilariously suspected in the matter of a murdered police officer. Well, it’s a tasty thespian crew: Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon, Paul Whitehouse and Ray Winstone. Charlie Cox plays “Basil”, the mysterious younger tech genius in charge of disabling alarms. He’s supposed to be nervous and posh, a bit like one of the “chinless wonders” who drove the minis in The Italian Job. This earns him some 70s-vintage homophobic joshing. There are serious faces behind the camera too: screenwriter Joe Penhall and director James Marsh, doing what can only be described as their less-than-finest work.
For more read the full f article at The Guardian
