Caine unable to save Thieves

Review

King of Thieves (M, 105 mins) Directed by James Marsh Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★1⁄2

The Hatton Garden heist in London was cooked up by four men aged 60 to 76. They had a younger accomplice – known as Basil – who had access to the keys and alarm codes that made the job possible.

Over Easter weekend 2015, the gang accessed a safety deposit company’s premises via an elevator shaft, then used industrial drilling equipment to breach the vault.

Once inside, they helped themselves to vast amounts of cash, jewels and gold. Much of the haul was undocumented and uninsured.

Like me, you probably read about the heist, and immediately thought ‘‘give it a couple of years and that’ll be a film with Michael Caine’’.

Well, we were wrong. It actually took three years for this retelling of the robbery to make it to the screen. There was another film released last year (The Hatton Garden Job), but no one seems to think much of it, so the field was

I’ll pay money to watch Michael Gambon in nearly anything, but he’s as credible as a refugee from a Christmas panto here.

still wide open for James Marsh

(Man on Wire) to do the story justice. But, no.

King of Thieves has a passable crack at being watchable and entertaining, but is also ultimately let down by some pedestrian pacing and being far too in love with one idea: That old blokes working as villains is inherently hilarious.

Caine, Ray Winstone, Tom Courtney, Paul Whitehouse and Jim Broadbent play the central four, with only Broadbent really rising above the expected as the possibly psychopathic lieutenant to Caine’s genial guv’nor.

Caine, who can still turn in a great shift if needed, is doing not much more than self-parody here. The grit of Harry Brown and the pathos Caine brought to Paulo Sorrentino’s Youth are missing.

A couple of scenes featuring Michael Gambon as a decrepit alcoholic the gang apparently trust to store the loot should have been reshot. I’ll pay money to watch Gambon in nearly anything, but he’s as credible as a refugee from a Christmas panto here.

King of Thieves plays like a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be. While the dialogue and tone often veer into gratifyingly dark places, the next moment will be nothing but lazy gags and creaking cliches. It is occasionally a crowdpleaser, sometimes a not-bad heist thriller, but too often it’s just a fairly average comedy.

The only true crime is that such a brilliant yarn has still not been given the on-screen treatment it deserves.