Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
National treasures
KING OF THIEVES CRAZY RICH ASIANS
Cert 15 Running time 108 minutes Cert 12A Running time 121 minutes
There’s a hoard of British acting gems on display in this straightforward real-life heist drama. Based on the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary of 2015, it sees Michael Caine, Michael Gambon and Tom Courtenay play the OAP bank robbers who stole £14million of jewels, gold and cash over the Easter Bank holiday.
With all three national treasures being knights of the realm, this is the most ennobled gang of robbers since Robin of Loxley renamed himself Robin Hood and took up residence in Sherwood Forest. Saying that, Kevin Costner’s Robin was memorably only a prince of thieves.
Caine plays Brian Reader, a bereaved lifelong criminal who recruits a team of venerable villains who are all suffering variously from diabetes, and dodgy knees, ears and eyes.
Others included in the ranks are Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent and The Fast Show’s Paul Whitehouse.
Charming as the actors are, the script makes clear they have violent dispositions and aren’t lovable old rogues.
The audacious and lucrative robbery is quite genius in its simplicity, using a lift shaft for access and then drilling through the vault wall. To turn off the alarms, Caine recruits a mysterious young electronics expert played by Charlie Cox.
After a stately introduction, the story heats up with the heist, and the aftermath proves there’s no honour among thieves as greed and duplicity threaten to take the lustre off their success.
Last year’s woeful film, The Hatton Garden Job, attempted the same story with Larry Lamb and Phil Daniels.
But this film is a far superior version and is definitely at its best when the cast are let loose, with Caine still capable of a regal temper and Winstone a heavyweight working-class threat.
Plus, all the actors carry the memories of their distinguished careers, which the film cheekily plays on towards the end.
It’s impossible to begrudge these diamond geezers one more chance in the limelight. This uplifting crowd-pleasing romcom is a sunshine-filled party of outrageous glitz and glamour.
A modern riff on Cinderella sees a Chinese-american woman flying to meet her boyfriend’s super-rich and snobby family in a fabulous looking Singapore.
The familiar formula is invigorated by a wealth of charming and ridiculously attractive international talent.
Led by US star Constance Wu, the cast sees Brit actress Gemma Chan rubbing shoulders with former Bond girl Michelle Yeoh and Malaysian hunk Henry Golding. US rapper Awkwafina heads the exuberant supporting players who provide much of the humour.
Following Marvel’s Black Panther, this is another sign Hollywood is belatedly waking up to the possibility of making money by producing mainstream movies which appeal directly to the underserved non-white audience.
A huge global hit already, it was delayed in reaching our shores, presumably so as not to have to compete with Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, whose audience will enjoy this lively celebration of strong-minded, self-made women. Misjudged, misfiring and overbearingly macho, this sci-fi action comedy sequel is easily the worst in the fourstrong franchise.
When a hi-tech alien hunter crash-lands on Earth, a US mercenary and a scientist team up with war-damaged army veterans to fight it.
The original 1987 classic was an allegory for the Vietnam war and a blockbuster smash. It was directed with spirit by John ‘Die Hard’ Mctiernan, and fortified by the commanding presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There’s no one of his stature here, and writer and director Shane Black’s last film – The Nice Guys – bombed at the box office. In his typical back-slapping style, Black mixes blood-splattering violence with boring banterheavy bromance, while casually exploiting Tourette syndrome for cheap laughs.
His workaday storytelling isn’t helped by the studio cutting a scene after Black cast a friend who was a registered sex offender – and failed to inform his bosses or the unfortunate female lead Olivia Munn.