King of Thieves

"King of Thieves" is a movie based on a daring robbery in April, 2015 where a group of mostly elderly men managed to steal between 13-15 million British pounds. Oddly, however, the film is far from compelling and a bit of a disappointment.

The cast includes many excellent elderly British actors..Michael Caine, Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay and Michael Gambon among others. However, the film just never worked for me for one huge reason....there was no reason given to like or care about these nasty old men. In most of the great heist films, there is a hook...a reason to either care about the men or hate the folks about to be robbed so that you pull for the criminals. Here, however, there is no compelling reason...none. And, if they didn't provide that, perhaps it could have worked with an injection of humor....but this was something clearly lacking in the movie. With the actors involved, I really wanted to love the film but found myself curiously disconnected and bored. Not a terrible film but one that simple wastes the talents of these great actors.

By the way, as a history teacher I usually hate when true stories are embellished...I want the plain unvarnished truth. But considering the amount they stole was changed ten fold in the story, why not further embellish it to make it interesting?