King of Thieves - Film Review

Caine
Broadbent
Gambon
Winstone
Courtenay
Whitehouse
Oh and Charlie Cox who played Basil - the one who has yet to be caught.

Flippin 'eck what a cast!!

It's very hard to do a film when the viewers know the outcome. Worth keeping in mind when assessing a film.

Simple plot. Old geezers do one last job. They pull it off but have no regard to CCTV and get arrested within 6 weeks, except for Basil.

James Marsh (director) knew that it's a dull tale but with a stella cast it might work. It does.

To see such names in the same film made it very watchable. Lots of dark humour, laugh out loud moments and the very essence of the film : crime makes you miserable.

The characters maintain a friendship but hate each other as much as the Old Bill. They're greedy, nasty old men without any identity inside the law. Crime gives them meaning and a lot of porridge..

Their ill health, bumbling oddities yet criminal ambition to pull of the very unlikely, makes this film worth a glance.

I've seen reviews saying there's no action, no plot, no problem for the police to catch the gang etc. Yup that's the story and hence the cast to make something out of very little.

Well I say little... Up to £14m was stolen (maybe a good deal more, who knows..) Very little has been returned.

One angle taken in the film is that much of what was targeted by the gang was stolen items stored in the vault by other criminals.

With any bank job or the like I find myself wondering how I would escape, hide the dosh and start a new life. Evidently it aint easy, unless your name is Basil..