It stars Odunlade Adekola, Femi Adebayo, Toyin Abraham, Broda Shaggi, Adebowale "Debo" Adedayo aka Mr Macaroni, Lateef Adedimeji, and Ibrahim Chatta. Not even the occasional joy of seeing these fine actors riff with one another can save it.King of Thieves ( Agẹṣinkólé) is a 2022 Nigerian thriller film produced by Femi Adebayo and directed by Tope Adebayo and Adebayo Tijani. “King of Thieves” is a disappointing mess that lacks both suspense and a clear identity. I highly recommend reading the source material instead of spending nearly two hours watching this film. Penhall based his script on an intriguing, informative Vanity Fair article by Mark Seal. Could he secretly be orchestrating a complicated plot to sow distrust amongst his team in the hopes they’ll all off each other and leave the riches to him? Is it Winstone’s brawny Danny Jones, the muscle of the team? Or is it Gambon’s Danny the Fish, the fence with a very small bladder and a very big booze habit? The deserving heir to the throne is obviously the one who doesn’t get caught. This leads to the only spark of intrigue “King of Thieves” offers: Who earns the film’s title? One could predict that it’s Brian Reader, who masterminds the heist yet walks away right in the thick of things. In keeping with the proverb about “honor amongst thieves,” the alliance starts to fray as soon as the team succeeds. Meanwhile, Marsh overcompensates with unnecessary quick cuts and on-the-nose needle drops, drawing attention away from the mechanics and the minutiae of Reader’s plan. Somehow all this manages to sit onscreen generating little interest. Reader’s plan involves drilling through walls, pushing over heavy cabinets, a perpetually drunk fence, a lookout who can neither hear nor stay awake and a skittish young safecracker named Basil ( Charlie Cox) who is way out of his league. The fun of films like this is reveling in the often Rube Goldbergesque ways someone can steal something. At the funeral, his partners in crime keep talking about old victories and Reader becomes hungry for an invigorating score.Ī heist film is only as good as the execution of its caper set pieces. “King of Thieves” starts out with Brian Reader (Caine) reminiscing with his wife ( Francesca Annis) just before her sudden death. Here, the idea seems to stem from boredom more than anything else. But both versions of that film stacked the deck with reasons that force their characters’ hands. I mentioned “Going in Style” because both films concern themselves with rowdy old men who choose robbery as a means of trying to outrun the Grim Reaper. When one character makes a joking reference to Alec Guinness’ brilliant Ealing comedy “The Lavender Hill Mob” the comparison does this film no favors. The result invites confusion and ultimately indifference on the viewer’s part. But James Marsh (“ The Theory of Everything”) can’t decide if he’s making a light comic caper like “ Going in Style” or a heavy, terrifying crime drama like “ Mona Lisa.” Not even a master of both genres like Caine can navigate the wildly shifting tone of Joe Penhall’s sloppy script. With this cast and this story, “King of Thieves” should have been a homerun for any director. Imagine the surprise when the true villains turned out to be several senior citizens with rap sheets as long as their lifespans. The caper was so intricate and well-executed that investigators initially assumed it to be the handiwork of a much younger European robbery syndicate. Those men were responsible for 2015’s Great Hatton Garden robbery, the biggest jewel heist in London’s history. And the advanced ages of these actors make them as unlikely a band of suspects as the real-life crooks they portray. That’s a lot of robbery expertise for one movie.
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