Oddball safecracker charms in Zack Snyder’s ‘Army of Thieves’

One of the unlikeliest heroes to emerge from Zack Snyder’s horror-action flick “Army of the Dead” earlier this year was an oddball safecracker named Dieter.

Part nerdy Eurotrash, part pretentious busybody, Dieter was never going to make it out alive. He was like one of those guys wearing a red shirt in “Star Trek.” Sooner or later, Dieter was gonna be gone.

Well, that turns out to be dead wrong: Dieter has escaped — by way of the prequel, “Army of Thieves,” an improbable film starring this strange, fussy German creature who eats cheese and cucumber sandwiches and wears turtlenecks with suspenders. It’s a film no one really demanded and yet is loads of fun.

“Army of Thieves” takes place in the months before “Army of the Dead,” which was set in a Las Vegas overrun by a zombie apocalypse. But zombies aren’t really on the menu here. Don’t tune in for undead thrills.

Instead, this is Dieter’s show — acted and directed with glee by Matthias Schweighöfer — with a plot that leads us right up to the time when he joins the gang of safe robbers in a very gnarly Las Vegas. Shay Hatten, who helped write “Army of the Dead,” gives us a story of a small-town bank clerk who lives his best life as a master safecracker in a previous robbery crew.

The film is a hoot as it celebrates previous thrillers — the use of a Nixon mask during a robbery, a bicycle chase an underground safe-cracking competition and the obsessive tracking by an unhinged detective.

Those of us who have watched the “Army of the Dead” know what’s in store for him in Las Vegas so giving him a moment in the sun is only fair, the disposable sidekick come good.