Starring: Michael Caine, Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Charlie Cox, Ray Winstone, Michael Gambon, Paul Whitehouse
Director: James Marsh
Release date: 14th September 2018
It’s Easter 2015, and a group of 4 elderly crooks and con-men decide to rob the world famous Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company in London and take whatever they can from the safe boxes held within. The group is led by Brian Reader (Michael Caine) and also includes Terry Perkins (Jim Broadbent), John ‘Kenny’ Collins (Tom Courtenay) and Daniel Jones (Ray Winstone) and they are helped by a mate of Brian’s called Basil (Charlie Cox) who has a key into the building. The heist is planned with extreme precision but ultimately a broken piece of machinery stops them and forces them to come back the next day to complete the job. The heist is done and the thieves scatter….
The movie is based on the incredible true story of a daring heist that happened in London only a few years ago. It’s thought that the total value of the haul was around £200million. All of the robbers were very experienced in their fields but ultimately received prison sentences for their roles in March of 2016. Each was jailed for 7 years, but Terry Perkins died in jail in February of this year. A substantial amount of the cash has never been recovered.
The first thing that will draw you to this movie is the incredible cast. Seriously… where would you find Michael Caine, Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Sir Michael Gambon, Paul Whitehouse and Ray Winstone all in one cast?! I love all of them dearly as actors and so watched the film with a bit of excitement. Michael Caine, ultimately in the lead role, is funny and charming but also very menacing as well. In fact they all spend the first half of the film acting like your own grandad would and the way they talk to eachother makes you laugh. It’s only when the chips are down and loyalties and loot are being divided that they all show their true colours and become very vicious towards eachother… Ganging up in groups against the others.
I really loved the use of old film footage for each character when they were being arrested. It was also funny to hear Charlie Cox talk in his native British accent, rather than the American one he does for the Daredevil US TV series. Was kind of weird seeing Jim Broadbent being so menacing and threatening as well. We’re so used to seeing him play characters like Mr Gruber in Paddington 2 and being Bridget’s dad in the ‘Bridget Jones’ movies that it kind of takes you aback when you see him doing stuff like this. He’s certainly one of the most versatile actors working at the moment.
The language used is extremely coarse and I don’t think there’s any swear words that were left out, but at the end of the day, it’s the way the characters would have spoken themselves.
I absolutely loved this movie and remember the events of the Heist back in 2015 quite clearly. The thing that seemed to surprise people the most was the ages of the robbers. Most were portrayed as OAP’s and it was somewhat unbelievable that these old men could have pulled off such a huge and daring crime.
One of the best movies I’ve seen in a while, I’ll definitely be going to see it again. It has everything you could want from a movie like this; a few laughs, believable characters, swearing that makes you laugh, lots of action and a cast of acting legends.
Go and see ‘King of Thieves’, you definitely won’t be left disappointed.
Overall: 9/10
