Fuze

When an unexploded WWII bomb is discovered right next door to London's Paddington railway station, the police race to evacuate the locale and to cordon everything off ready for the army bomb disposal team. That unit is commanded by 'Maj. Tranter' (Aaron Taylor-Johson), a veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan, who swiftly sets up safe zones and informs the chief superintendent (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) that this is a live device that might take a while to make safe. Meantime, somewhat serendipitously, a group of men are waiting in one of the now cleared flats poised to drill through from it's basement into the bank next door so they can relieve it's vault of the contents of some doubtlessly illicit safety deposit boxes. Now is this just coincidence for Sam Worthington and his crew - under the guidance of 'Karalis' (Theo James)? Well when the cops start to close in and the gang are forced to take an especially smelly escape route to a nearby house, the wheels start to come off this meticulously planned heist. Or do they? Meantime, an eagle-eyed corporal working at the site starts to suspect that things are not what they seem? What is going on? For a change, someone decided to spend the cash on some real scenarios and on an ATJ who knows how to hold together an action thriller (and squeeze in a shower scene, too!). There's virtually no CGI here and though the plot is a bit on the balding side, I did like the denouement and was glad that Ben Hopkins and David Mackenzie had the courage of their convictions as the conclusion quite entertainingly knits and holds the threads together. With some pyrotechnics, gun and wrench action this was a surprisingly decent watch and even if James definitely doesn't impress, I enjoyed this.

Quietly released on HBO over this past weekend, David Mackenzie's FUZE is a clever heist film carried by four top-shelf leads: Aaron Taylor-Johnson as bomb disposal expert Major Will Trantor, Theo James as bank robber Giorgio Korales, Sam Worthington as the mysterious "X," and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Chief Superintendent Zuzana Greenfield. Written by Ben Hopkins, Mackenzie's film -- like his earlier HELL OR HIGH WATER -- steadily ratchets up the tension in this London-set bank heist caper. When an unexploded WWII bomb is excavated at an inner-city London construction site, bomb disposal experts descend and begin the delicate job of defusing and removing it. Standard operating procedure requires a full evacuation radius of 800 yards. Together with the London Metropolitan Police Service, they begin the arduous task of going door-to-door, removing shop owners and residents to a safe distance. Natch, a neighborhood bank and its employees are also part of the evacuation cull -- well, you see where this is going. As Worthington and James, embedded within the now-emptied apartment flats with their own crew of determined bank robbers, put their plan into action -- all is not quite as it seems. With Mbatha-Raw's suspicions growing, the plot takes several surprising turns, resulting in an unconventional but rewarding conclusion. Taylor-Johnson, James, Worthington and Mbatha-Raw capably deliver nerve-shredding performances in this highly enjoyable heist thriller that breathes some welcome originality into a genre that has seemingly exhausted every way to rob a bank. Sometimes all it takes is a 500-pound WWII bomb to blow up the formula.