Review: King of Thieves

A crime film where the characters actually ask - on more than one occasion - which one of their group is the "king of thieves" (or words to that effect) is a crime film with too much time on its hands. Maybe they should have pulled out a league table with everyone ranked according to crime skills; it arguably would have been more fun than this dour adventure.

But hey, look - it’s Michael Caine heading up a bunch of old school UK actors all playing criminals who pulled off a recent real-life big time diamond heist – this has got to be a must-see for fans of crime capers, right? Sadly, no; rather than being a thrilling romp – or even a tense tale of high-stakes criminality – this combines a remarkably un-thrilling heist with a collection of universally unlikable characters to create a film that takes an all-star cast (Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone, Michael Gambon, and Charlie Cox, to name a few) and drains all the charm out of them. 

It's almost tempting to recommend this on that basis alone: making those guys seem dull and flat is an achievement in itself. But for reasons difficult to fathom -  perhaps due to sticking a little too close to the facts about the real Hatton Garden robbery - this constantly swerves between a mildly knockabout romp and a collection of unlikable fellows arguing with each other. Worse, the crime itself is one of the least thrilling sequences in cinematic crime history, involving as it does drilling a few holes and knocking a cabinet over, which possibly could have been fun to watch if it didn't take up most of the films middle section.

Crime films probably shouldn't glorify real-life criminals (though having the police claiming such a skilful robbery could only have been undertaken by a crack European crew does leave you scratching your head a little considering how straightforward this film makes the crime seem) but the final act goes out of its way to show pretty much everyone as either extremely petty, deluded, or a nasty thug. Which is only really a problem because earlier it seemed happy to shape up as the last hurrah of a bunch of decent guys who just wanted to show the world they still had it in them.

No-one comes out of this mess looking good, but there's enough raw charisma up on the screen to keep the events at least watchable (especially when the film cuts to old clips of the cast from previous, much better crime movies). If someone had figured out exactly what kind of film they were making, this probably would have worked out fine: everybody involved deserves better.

- Anthony Morris

Review: Stan & Ollie

It’s the early 50s, which means it's been a long time since Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (John C Reilly) were at their Hollywood peak. But Stan - the brains and drive behind the team - has a plan: a series of live performances across the UK to build interest in a film version of Robin Hood with them as the leads. That’s fine with the easy-going Oliver, even though his health isn't exactly at its best.

The tour gets off to a shaky start.  Shabby hotels, tiny venues, small crowds: this isn't exactly what either of them signed up for. So they start doing a bit of self-promotion, and it turns out their fanbase isn't quite dead yet. But as sales increase, so does the pressure. Their partnership has some not-so-hidden fault lines from a betrayal (Ollie did a movie without Stan) at the height of their fame; are they even going to reach the end of their final tour? 

The story is fine but forgettable; it’s the performances that stand out. Nina Arianda and Shirley Henderson are excellent as Stan and Ollie’s wives (who arrive halfway through the tour), providing some interesting new angles on the main duo while being interesting characters in their own right.

Often with biopics what's really being sold is the impression of the main character(s) - the story is barely there (there's a reason why Walk Hard was able to nail all the musical biopic cliches so well), and is usually little more than a recreation of their big moments. To some extent that's fine: the chance to see some much-loved, now-dead performer one more time is far from the most ghoulish thing Hollywood is peddling. But if the performance isn't up to scratch, there's not much of a movie left.

Good news: both Coogan and Reilly are spot-on physically and vocally throughout without ever veering into parody. While no doubt both men were more nuanced that they're portrayed here, both performers are utterly convincing at conveying their core attributes. Coogan is the nervous striver still pushing himself, Reilly is the jovial fellow who feels it's time to finally relax and enjoy what he's achieved in life.

Their friendship, flawed though it may be, is the emotional heart of this film. Around that, both offstage and on, this is full of classic comedy bits skillfully and hilariously performed; thankfully the drama is largely in service to the comedy, not the other way around.

- Anthony Morris

Review: Happy Death Day 2U

College student Tree (Jessica Rothe) thought she was done with being murdered. But it turns out the Groundhog Day-like time loop she was trapped in on her birthday – one that forced her to relive being murdered over and over again until she figured out how to survive – wasn’t some supernatural coincidence, but a science experiment gone wrong. And now? How do parallel timelines sound? And this time there's a whole new killer; guess we're doing the time warp again.

The first Happy Death Day did a decent job of combining slasher thrills with a murder mystery, but it was Rothe's charming and increasingly quirky performance that made it work. After an opening that threatens an ensemble approach - and it's legitimately impressive the way they managed to get everyone from the first film to return - the focus returns to Tree, and it's clear this consistently entertaining sequel is steering into her strong points.

That means the slasher side of things is kept to a bare minimum (which is probably a good thing - writer-director Christopher Landon doesn't have much of a flair for stalk-and-slash) in favour of a wacky campus comedy feel complete with crusty Dean and a bunch of straight-out slapstick scenes. It's a mix that works well, with each element playing off the other to keep things moving fast.

The first film was surprisingly compassionate towards Tree - her initial bad behaviour wasn't because she was a bitchy bad girl who needed to be taught a lesson, but her struggling to cope with the recent death of her mother. This opens to door for a fairly obvious twist this time around, but it's handled well; the film's heart now even extends to a couple of characters who were given a raw deal the first time around.

If you haven't seen Happy Death Day it definitely wouldn't hurt to check it out. This film flows pretty much seamlessly from the first with a whole lot of callbacks and at least one very smart tie-in to something that wasn't even a mystery the first time around (though we never do find out what set off the car alarm in the first film... I smell a trilogy). But there's enough of a built-in explanation here to get you up to speed; prior knowledge is not essential.

While the rest of the cast are fine, and the minor characters given bigger roles this time out handle their workload well, Rothe is easily the standout star of this franchise. She’s perfect for the film’s silly side, handles the horror moments effortlessly, and sells the surprisingly strong emotional moments well. Why she didn't become a bigger star after the first film is something of a mystery: whatever the reason, it’s good to have her back.

- Anthony Morris

Review: Cold Pursuit

Liam Neeson might make the same movie every year, but it's not the same same movie, if that makes sense (it doesn't - ed). He plays gruff older dudes put in bad situations, but they're not (exactly) the same dudes, and they're definitely not the same situations - The Commuter and Cold Pursuit have almost nothing in common beside Neeson and a body count, and the Taken movies are a different thing entirely again. His movies seem the same from a distance because they all scratch the same itch: the desire to see a bunch of chumps get what's coming to them.

So on that scale, this is a winner all round. Nils Coxman (Neeson) is a snow plow operator in a small ski resort town who, despite his taciturn nature, pretty much has it all (he's even been awarded citizen of the year). Then his son is found dead, seemingly of a drug overdose, and while Nils' wife (Laura Dern) is clearly shattered, Nils seems to be holding it together - until he goes out to the shed to kill himself.

He's all set to pull the trigger when he learns that his son's death was no accident: he was murdered by a drug cartel after he and a buddy made off with a (relatively minor) amount of product. This is a Liam Neeson movie in 2019, so we all know what that means. Soon drug dealers start turning up dead - or more exactly, not turning up dead, as Nils takes their bodies, wraps them in chicken wire, and dumps them in a frozen river (the chicken wire means the fish can get at them to eat the flesh - he read it in a crime novel).

The cartel, led by a smug wealthy upper middle-class jerk nicknamed Viking (Tom Bateman) take note of their missing underlings, and leap to completely the wrong conclusion, blaming a rival group of Native American drug dealers. Soon Nils doesn't have to do much at all to keep the body count rising, but as the corpses stack up, eventually someone's going to figure out who started it all.

Director Hans Petter Moland is adapting his own earlier work here, having previously told this story in the 2014 Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance, so he has a pretty good idea of where the laughs are. It's not quite up there with the Coen Brothers but it shares something of their dark sense of humour: the rapid demise of numerous characters (each one's passing is marked by a black title card) develops into the film's most reliable punchline, to the point where actually showing the people being killed becomes beside the point.

That's not to say that this doesn't have its share of violence; at one point a severed head makes a memorable appearance, and various examples of snow plowing equipment prove lethal in Nils' hands. But the dark humour gives the deadly hijinks a dimension beyond the usual body count, pushing it closer in tone to an Elmore Leonard adaptation than one of Neeson's grimmer kill-fests.

But this is still a Liam Neeson film. He hasn't served up a dud for a while (Taken 3 maybe?) and for an actor currently specalising in a fairly limited oeuvre he's doing a remarkably solid job of keeping it fresh. Anyone who's plowed through Charles Bronson's 80s work knows that's a pretty impressive achievement; whatever you might think of the kind of films he makes, it's hard to deny that - bungled interviews aside - he's doing something right.

- Anthony Morris

Out now: A Star Is Born

To be honest, this swooningly entertaining version of the Hollywood classic (the third to date) should be titled A Star is Dying; while it’s Lady Gaga’s Ally that’s the focus of the title, the film itself – co-written, directed and starring Bradley Cooper – keeps its eye firmly on Cooper’s country rock legend Jackson Maine. 

 

This works to its advantage in the first (much better) half: he’s out looking for booze (not a good sign) after yet another stadium show when he ends up in the drag bar where Ally is performing (she’s the only non-drag act and the only one singing live). They spend the night together hanging out, talking music and – in her case – punching out a cop, and it’s a wonderfully romantic start to their lives together. Soon he’s asking her up on stage with him and she’s totally won over; can a happy ever after be far off? 

 

Well, he’s a drunk who’s losing his hearing, she’s moving on up and has a shady UK manager steering her towards “superficial” pop, and there’s going to be more than one sad song sung before this is done. Cooper is gruff but vulnerable and his story has heart, but Gaga’s the real star here on stage and off: Ally’s coming-of-musical-age lights up the screen in ways he can’t touch.

 

(A Star is Born is out now on DVD and Blu-Ray through Roadshow)