Oi you mugs, look lively for the latest Brit Crime Caper Based On Real Life Villains. Jason Statham is the garage-owning geezer in a pickle over debts during the early ’70s. Saffron Burrows is the Tasty Posh Bird who approaches him with a foolproof scheme to rob a Baker Street bank. Other people from previous Brit Crime Capers Based On Real Life Villains are quickly recruited. But all is not as it seems. Tasty Posh Bird is really working for government and the entire heist is a front to recover compromising photographs of a royal who is not named as Princess Margaret.
Until now this story was protected by a D-Notice gagging order though the ‘revelatory’ film it inspired is never as exciting as that sounds. Trouble is we’re only too familiar with British toughs from the ‘70s and indeed, have a good deal of trouble avoiding them in any media. An unmemorable script and several erratic acting performances don’t exactly help either.
To be fair the film is competently directed by Mr. Donaldson (Cocktail, World’s Fastest Indian) and there is decent fun to be had with the evil Toffs and facsimiles of scenes from The Great Escape. It’s just enough to keep us onside. But only just.