We Still Steal the Old Way

Enjoyed being carried along by the charm and wit of this light hearted gangster flick. Perfectly cast

Sequel to the 2014 We Still Kill the Old Way, the majority of the original cast return for a superior outing.

This time the Archer gang are up for a prison escape, but can the old timers still do it using the "Old ways"?

Truth be told I had a great appreciation for the first film despite only hitting it with a 5/10. It was very well made but the realism and subject matter made me a tad uncomfortable and it damaged the film for me. This time around most of that subject matter is absent and with the same cast and fantastic writing it was logically bound to be better.

Sadly also absent is James Cosmo who played Arthur in the first film, he was a great character and he was missed. Thankfully the remaining cast are present and do a fantastic job without him as well as the new villian Billy Murray and fellow industry veteran Patrick Burgin.

A third movie has been announced but the more I look into it the more I get the impression its been cancelled or at best delayed. I'd love to see this rounded out into a trilogy because regardless of my opinions on the first film they're very well made movies.

The Good:

Well put together

Solid cast

The Bad:

Violence looks oddly tame in places

No James Cosmo

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

America is no longer the home of the free and the brave.............actually I already knew that one

I absolutely loved the first movie, We Still Kill The Old Way. I caught it by chance last week whilst staying in a hotel, never heard of it before, but for some reason it drew me in with it's old school teach-the-kids-a-lesson tip of the cap to Lock Stock and Reservoir Dogs feel. I loved that so much that I went and looked it up and found there was a second film, couldn't wait to get it on! After an hour, couldn't wait to get it off! I couldn't finish it, seriously I turned it off 20 minutes before the end. The acting is terrible, the plot has nothing to do with stealing anything... I thought this would be an Oceans 11 type of a deal but nope, it's based around a prison break! The story is packed full of cringey lines trying too hard to make you care about the characters and their past but it just fails with half assed lines like "remember how we did this and remember you did that" so much it becomes distracting. If this was animated it would be like a scooby doo cartoon at times. I'm genuinely sad at how bad this was after being so pulled in by the first film. Shame. The idea of old retired gangsters coming back to mop up the scroats of today had some top potential, but its squandered over here.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Richie (Ian Oglivy) and the gang return, this time to pull off a heist in a bank vault, with the express intention of being caught. They are sent inside, and reunited with their old friend Briggsy (Patrick Bergin), who they want to break out in order that he can be reunited with his dying wife. However, as an old friend is returned, so is an old enemy in the shape of Vic Farrow (Billy Murray), a nasty piece of work who wants to initiate a war with his side and theirs as the breakout commences.

While 2014's We Still Kill the Old Way, from the same director, Sacha Bennett, may have seemed like quite a throwaway, irrelevant gangster flick, it obviously spawned enough of a cult following that this follow up piece has been made. Another attempt to blend the old school crime caper with a more modern, hard hitting style, despite a different premise, Bennett has produced a result much the same, which means that this is pretty much as average as the last film. And it doesn't help that Stealing doesn't carry quite the same dramatic impact as Killing.

Although, as others have noted, stealing isn't even what the plot revolves around, as much as a break out, which is a trade descriptions breach if ever there was one. It's clear from the commentary afterwards that Bennett was trying to pull off a fun filled vibe to the films (which he hopes to repeat with another one!), but there are times when it threatens to interfere with the tone of the film, in the shape of some awfully choreographed fight sequences, and a wobbly mixture of darkness and light, such as Vince Blackwood's murderer character, who provides an uneasy resolve in the end pay-off.

There's a notable chemistry between the characters, and they feed off each other well, and Murray is always a great villain, but, ultimately, this will leave no more or less an impression on you than the last one. **

Well the plot and acting wasn't something that would occur in the real word, but the characters are really likable, love the plot shift.. is fun to watch on a very good d.