Robbery

To be honest, when I saw this title I mistook it for the film ROBBERY directed by Peter Yates in 1967. I began to see the error of my supposition when I heard the characters talk about dollars and Vietnam and yet no US accent, and note currency with Queen Elizabeth II on it.

Alas, this ROBBERY of 1985 is an Australian TV production featuring Simon Chilvers as a police chief who suspects some of his staff members are "bent" and gets lovel Regina Gagailas to keep must closer than just an eye on a particular individual... and that she does not very willingly to start with, but then she hoists it up to major bang.

Do not expect this story to make logical sense. Instead, it presents a rather unusual angle on crime: former servicemen plan a military-like heist, robbing bookies of A$4.5 million, getting those bookies on their trail and police just after.

Strong acting, very TV-fitting photography but no comedy. Everyone in earnest in some unidentified Oz city, with first class action sequences, stunts and chases. Plus an out and out un-typical ending! 7/10.

One of the great things about living in Los Angeles is that I can find really obscure titles and occasionally a hidden gem. We have a store called Cinefile that has so many titles that you just can't get a your local Blockbuster or mom/pop video store. "Robbery" intrigues me and after viewing it I have to say that the quality of the film was definitely made for television or direct to video. But the storyline and premise had a lot or potential. The planning and execution of the robbery was displayed very well, and kind of reminded me of "Heat" although in a very less dramatic fashion. I still couldn't tell if this was made in England or Australia. What was really great about the story was the precision and discipline of the robbery crew going up against the mob who wants to get the stolen money.

The police were pretty much relegated to the sidelines in this film although you can tell that the writer and/or director tried hard to make them relevant by having one of them be a mole inside the mob. If this film had a $10 million then we could very well had a hit.