Dir. Paris Leonti, UK, 2008, 99 mins
Cast: Geoff Bell, Paul Nicholls, Justin Salinger
Review by Carol Allen
Initially somewhat confusing this movie eventually settles down into a competent heist thriller with a couple of neat twists.
Using the Germany 2006 World Cup competition as cover, a group of football fans plan to rob a London bank. In the opening sequence the group cheekily persuade the airport desk clerk to check them in early to establish their alibi. They then pile into their white van and speed off to the job. The actual heist appears to be remarkably badly planned, both on the part of the robbers and indeed the film makers. It's difficult to work out who's who and what exactly they're doing. When they crash the van backwards into the bank blocking the exit, one of them Chubby (Nicholls) is badly injured. The disguise qualities of their traditional stocking masks are virtually nil and they're making so much noise as they rush round like headless chickens, that it's no surprise when the police turn up.
We're then into a hostage siege situation, as the story settles down and the police chief (Shaun Williamson) tries to negotiate with the robbers. There is though a brain behind this robbery, taxi driver Alex (Bell) and he has an escape route planned, via a carefully disguised pre-excavated tunnel. But even though you wouldn't always think so from the somewhat leisurely story telling, time is marching on and they have to catch that plane to Germany to make their alibi stick.
We're well into the film before the characters start to emerge with any clarity, but when they do Bell gives Alex an appropriate air of authority and Salinger makes an impression as his nervous number two Norman. Nicholls, the best known face in the cast, has little chance to establish his character before spending the largest part of the film unconscious. Robert Boulter plays Jay the rather irritating, dope smoking and wired baby of the group, who talks in Ali G style hip-hop speak. "Why do you talk like that", snaps Norman to him at one point. Yes, why? It's very annoying!
Lisa Shelley makes her mark as the frightened hostage they use to negotiate with the police through the wrecked van, as does Matt Brown as the doctor brought in to treat the injured Chubby, who is forced to play most of his role naked apart from his knickers.
The tunnel sequences are sometimes a bit tricky to follow in terms of sorting out what's happening in the semi darkness, but the film does eventually wind up some tension and has a nicely ironic ending. Football fans should though be warned – there are no football sequences whatsoever in this movie.
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