If there would be one thing to take away from King of Thieves, it would be the reminder of the need to keep up with time.
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A promising premise where senior citizens attempt to break into a safe deposit facility would require a brilliant screenplay and upbeat direction to pull off a satisfactory genre heist. Despite being based on the actual real-life burglary of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company in 2015, King of Thieves failed to sparkle no matter how much valuables the crew made off with.
Led by ringleader Brian Reader played by Michael Caine, the heist started off merely as an encouraging tease by his crew members Terry Perkins (Jim Broadbent), John Collins (Tom Courtenay), Carl Woof (Paul Whitehouse) and Danny Jones (Ray Winstone) that took place at a funeral.
These folks would have otherwise spent their days playing with Chinese-imported fireworks and sharing a drink or two at their neighbourhood pub. It took a young alarm specialist who reached out to Reader before he was convinced to have yet another attempt at reviving their glorious past.
Unlike the Ocean’s where much of the fun reside in the process that dramatically unfolds to entertain, director James Marsh decided to let the seniors be real and suffer the harsh realities of their own physique. Sloppy techniques and weak finishing that required a timeout just so that the weary crew could return the following night with appropriate gear.
Most viewers would have given up on the onscreen characters the moment they decided to call it for the night with the heist halfway done. The average screenplay by Joe Penhall didn’t help with the dull dialogue that ensued either. At this point in the film, the crew began to break away from one another as they gradually became consumed by their own newly-found conscience or greed.
One might also observe how the old ways would not fit in a new era where the world revolves around the Internet. With the proliferation of security technology and advanced crime-solving police force, it would be only a matter of time before the aged tactics would wear off to reveal their tracks.
If there would be one thing to take away from King of Thieves, it would be the reminder of the need to keep up with time. These were reflected through the number of flashback images of their younger selves inserted periodically. While there were still some tricks up the sleeves of the seniors, both the crew and the film required much more to remain relevant by today’s standards.
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