The Hatton Garden Job

The Hatton Cross Job is a fictional story based on facts. In Easter 2015, the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company was robbed by four old lags.

Matthew Goode plays the unnamed young man who recruits the old timers with their various ailments who know how to steal the old way. Goode is bankrolled by some East Europeans but an ex copper is on to him.

This is an efficient, low budget film. A couple of actors like Stephen Moyer drop in for a scene or two. It is not too far departed from the lovable ageing gangsters trope, reminiscing and joking about the good old days when the villains lived by a code. Then wondering where the next dose of painkillers have got to.

This film tells the story of a group of older criminals and a young man, who team up to rob a safety deposit box company in London. It turns out that they have successfully pulled off the biggest heist in the history of Britain.

"The Hatton Garden Job" could have been a thrilling heist film, but I think it is pretty flat. Most of the film shows them in an enclosed space drilling holes with Hilti equipment. It is not that interesting, to be honest. Even though there are several occasions where they are close to getting caught, or something big happens, none of these instances offer any thrill or highs. The film comes across as too descriptive and plain to be exciting.

It's not clear exactly how closely 'The Hatton Garden Job (2017)' sticks to the true events it is based upon, given that it spends time dubiously setting up Hungarian gangsters and extortion-minded dirty cops as a danger to the composite character that serves as the protagonist. As such, it occupies the space between a straight realistic retelling and and an embellished crime caper while taking only the most boring elements of each. Though the editing and on-the-nose narration are clearly trying to recreate that 'Guy Ritchie' kind of style - and doing it poorly at that, even they can't liven up what eventually amounts to four blokes sat in a room while a drill bores through a wall and the flick bores the audience. On top of that, the characters are cardboard cut-outs without any real personality or motivation and the movie opts not to explore the moral questions raised by such an obviously criminal act - which is actually overtly glamorised here. 5/10

I enjoy heist movies and was so looking forward to this but what a disappointment. It felt as though it had been filmed in one go over a weekend, the sound quality was dreadful and the characters, by and large, were little more than comic book characters.

The crucial thing: the meticulous planning and preparation that went into this heist was almost entirely omitted from the film. One moment they're mumbling inaudibly over a few flat pints and the next they're drilling through the vault wall and opening safety deposit boxes to some loud rock music.

This is at the bottom of the barrel as far as heist movies go and the worst film I've seen for several months. Don't waste your time unless you really, really, don't have anything better to do.

I am afraid the quirky cinematography was very distracting or maybe it was covering for a poor script and some only passable acting.