King of Thieves had an interesting true story premise for sure and while the cast itself is filled with some legendary older actors, the script writing needed some work, the direction was pedestrian and seems like Michael Caine was miscast.
King of Thieves
(2019)
Genre(s): Drama, Crime
Lionsgate | R – 108 min. – $21.99 | March 26, 2019
Date Published: 03/24/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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Lionsgate provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2.5/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: A famous thief in his younger years, widower Brian Reader (MICHAEL CAINE), 77 years of age, pulls together a band of misfit criminals — Terry Perkins (JIM BROADBENT), Danny Jones (RAY WINSTONE), John Collins (TOM COURTENAY), Carl Wood (PAUL WHITEHOUSE) and Basil (CHARLIE COX) — to plot an unprecedented burglary at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. The thieves, all in their 60s and 70s except for one, manage to escape with allegedly £200 million worth of stolen jewels and money. When police are called to the scene and the investigation starts, the cracks between the eccentric gang members begin to show as they fight over how to share the goods and become increasingly distrustful of each other.
Quick Hit Review: I was kind of really looking forward to watching King of Thieves if only for its wonderful veteran cast, led way by the great Michael Caine alongside Jim Broadbent and Ray Winstone. It also was the latest in the old-man crime trend for Hollywood of late. While the cast is great, though Caine perhaps was miscast based on what I read on the real Brian Reader, the plot itself was on the dull side and not entirely engaging where despite these actors, I had a bit of a hard time rooting for them. Unlike, say, an Ocean’s 11 where the gang is stealing from an asshole, I wasn’t sure why they needed to do the job other than, at least in the part for Reader, it was out of sheer boredom following the passing of his wife. The film also had a rather cheap made-for-TV quality about it. Of course, it’s possible a good chunk of the budget was set aside for this cast, and no doubt plenty of indie movies have been done on the cheap yet still looked professional, here it just felt pretty small in scope under the direction of James Marsh, having previously directed Eddie Redmayne to an Oscar for The Theory of Everything, so clearly he is a solid filmmaker, sadly along with the limited budget, the script was slightly pedestrian. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.5/5 |
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This release comes with a matted slip cover and inside is the redemption code for the Digital HD copy. The only feature included is King of Thieves: A Bloody Good Idea (12:15; HD) making-of behind-the-scenes featurette. Previews – The Vanishing, All the Devil’s Men, Between Worlds, Hunter Killer |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| Lionsgate releases King of Thives onto Blu-ray presented with a 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. The picture quality is pretty standard for a new release, detail is fairly sharp and colors are bright in keeping with some of the lighter moments and modern day (well, 2015 anyway) setting. |
AUDIO – 3.75/5 |
| The included DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is perfectly serviceable for the crime-dramedy genre, the bulk of which is dialogue heavy via the center channel with some minor usage for the front and rear channels outputting the ambient noises and the score. |
OVERALL – 2.75/5 |
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Overall, King of Thieves had an interesting true story premise for sure and while the cast itself is filled with some legendary older actors, the script writing needed some work, the direction was pedestrian and strangely enough, of all of the actors, seems like Michael Caine was miscast. The Blu-ray release has good video and audio transfers, though the bonus feature was basic. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.