Directed by David Mackenzie | Written by Ben Hopkins | 98 min | ▲▲▲ for genre fans, ▲▲ for everyone else
An earlier version of this review appeared on FITI during the coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival 2025
Scots filmmaker David MacKenzie has carved out one of the most impressive thriller and action CVs at the movies thanks to his work on Hell Or High Water, Outlaw King, and the superb Riz Ahmed picture Relay from last year. This new picture, a heist movie with some cunning misdirection, includes MacKenzie’s typically confident handling of suspense and action beats. It unfortunately doesn’t stick the landing.
The core cast here are a trio with decidedly mixed charisma: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, and Sam Worthington. They do reasonably well, especially James who’s required to do the most emotional heavy lifting. The movie needs Taylor-Johnson to bring a little swagger, which he has struggled elsewhere to do — Hollywood keeps trying to make him a star in movies like this and this but it doesn’t take — maybe it’s time to remove him from those James Bond casting lists. It turns out here he’s fine as a military man with a sketchy record, a bomb disposal expert called in when unexploded ordinance from the Second World War is found at a west London construction site near Paddington and Edgware Road — excellent and pretty accurate use of geography and locations. The real star here is cinematographer Giles Nuttgens and the portrait of modern London rife with CCTV and a wildly diverse population, he makes it feel real even as the plotting gets increasingly outrageous. Terrific tactical use of drones.
The cops evacuate the city for one square mile, and that logistical stuff is terrific. Helping to coordinate the operation is Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Honor Swinton-Byrne working from police headquarters, both providing a capable balance to the testosterone deployed elsewhere. As it happens, just as the cops shut down power to the area, a group of bank robbers start up their gennie and get to the business of breaking into a basement vault while a local (Elham Ehsas) whose family is evacuating also has a role to play. The question is, how did the criminals plan this if the bomb was buried in the ground? Stick around to find out.
Loved the editing, love the score, and love the twists, most I didn’t see coming. This is the kind of thing that a number of TV series have done well in recent years, or the odd Guy Ritchie picture, but it’s so much fun to see one done so confidently for the big screen — Relay brought similar quality across the board, though for the record I preferred that one to this for a reason that will shortly become clear.
Speaking of 007, I know they have Villeneuve on the next one but MacKenzie would be a good choice to consider after him.
The movie wraps up its plot in an entertaining manner at a very concise hour and a half, and we’re all ready to go home. I’d almost recommend people do right there, but cue the text: 10 Years Earlier, triggering a brief prequel coda that almost ruins everything that went before. I predict it will piss a lot of people off, as it did me: It’s poorly shot, using a lot of obvious CGI on a set rather than on location. It’s jarring compared to the rest of a movie that brings an authenticity that comes from shooting on the streets of London. Was it done in a rush at the insistence of producers? Who can say, but it’s inessential, providing information the movie doesn’t need if the filmmakers trust the audience to piece the relationships together, which they clearly don’t.
Still, this is an overall recommendation for Fuze. Just keep your head down for poor decisions in the late stages.
