First Hit: This was an entertaining film that was efficiently paced and based on the 1971 London bank robbery.
There is very little background development or information about the characters of this event which is fine because the action, plots and subplots propelled the film.
However, I did want to know more about the previous history between Terry, the head thief, (played by Jason Statham) and Martine Love (played by Saffron Burrows).
My reasoning is that there is a continuing story line involving the jealousy between Terry’s wife and Martine and it kept cropping up and wasn’t fleshed out. Otherwise, each of the characters has some background built into their story line and it’s enough to accept this at face value and roll with the action of the robbery story.
The story involves compromising pictures of a member of the royal family, crooked members of Scotland Yard, members of the high government who like kinky sex, the local police, a charismatic black radical leader, a sex club owner, a Madame, and a high level government secret service team.
All these characters have something at stake in the safety deposit boxes that are robbed. It begins when Martine is being pressured by high government officials to find someone to rob a bank and collect pictures of a royal family member’s sex romp. If she finds someone to do this robbery the drug charges against her will be dropped.
The deal also includes the robbers getting to keep the ill gotten gains. The robbery and story line gets more complicated when some of the stolen items mean as much to the people that were stolen from, as the royal family’s compromising pictures mean to the government.
With multiple plots revolving around the robbers and the people who were robbed the action is quick, engaging and the outcome was satisfying.
Overall: This isn’t a great film; however it is interesting, fast and well paced with strong enough acting resulting in a very entertaining film.