King Of Thieves (2019) - Movie Review

In some of my other reviews, I’ve bemoaned what feels like the status quo in regards to the treatment of older actors. The notion that, in order to get anything of worth out of folks like Robert De Niro or Morgan Freeman, they have to be stripped of their dignity and paraded around in stories where their age is part of the joke. Now, I get the underlying reason why people like De Niro accept those kind of roles (they want to put money away for their kids, so they’re not exactly picky with their scripts), but at the same time, essentially selling out doesn’t mean that one has to throw away any and all standards in the process.

It is with this in mind that today’s film, the latest from filmmaker/documentarian James Marsh, immediately wins points with me purely out of the acting on display. This is as far from dignity-stripping as you can possibly get as, while Joe Penhall’s writing doesn’t shy away from ribbing the geriatric state of the main characters, their efficacy and genuine menace is never brought into question. Editors Jinx Godfrey and Nick Moore even make it a point to highlight that these guys have played hard bastards before, like Michael Caine in the original Italian Job or Ray Winstone in 1979’s Scum, which strengthens how they still manage to pull it off today.

That aspect of remixing works of old to highlight the same thing happening in the present is strewn across the entire production, showing Marsh’s knack for blending fact and fiction to make for some invigorating visuals. The way clips of the cast’s older films are spliced in with their work in this film has a similar air to it that the editing in Vice did, except here the use of sampled material doesn’t come across nearly as goofy. It even extends to Benjamin Wallfisch’s soundtrack work, as his heart-racing heist jazz compositions give even the duller moments a decent rhythm, and he manages to turn pieces like The Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy and Happy Together by The Turtles into solid backdrops for hard bastards at work.

And they’re not just hardened; they’re also a bunch of conniving bastards, all out to backstab those around them while feigning ignorance whenever they get called up on it. It makes even the more subdued performances like Tom Courtenay’s John Kenny Collins feel right within the main dynamic, balancing out the grit of Caine, Winstone and even Jim Broadbent in one of his most intimidating turns ever to make the interpersonal bickering feel like it has a real edge to it.

So, the acting is great, the direction is that on point that I’m starting to realise just how much I love James Marsh as a director, the soundtrack is incredibly striking, and the editing adds some surprisingly layers to the overall package; all sounds great, right? Well, here’s the problem: As good as all of the contributing elements are, they unfortunately aren’t enough to get past how arthritic the pacing for this is. It’s annoying slow in all regards, to the point where moments feel like it was intentionally designed to be that crawling, and as good as the banter between the characters can be, it can’t override the limpness of the reason why they’re bantering.

Every so often, I come across a film that feels like it’s a lot more fun to break down into its individual elements than it is to actually watch it in full; previous subjects like Whiskey Tango Foxtrot had a similar effect on me. While I do admire quite a few of the production and casting choices here, and it’s definitely a thrill to see Michael Caine be menacing again after all this time, I can’t really get past the fact that this isn’t that engaging in the moment. From the director of Man On Wire, one of the greatest heist flicks ever made, that just isn't good enough.