Netflix gives us a sophisticated heist replete with humor and suspense. From Zach Snyder's story, only a couple of undead abut a heap of incompetent, comical live ones.
Army of Thieves
“I’m the woman who’s going to change your life forever.” Gwen (Natalie Emmanuel)
A heist with a touch of zombie and many laughs is my kind of heist. In fact, Army of Thieves, a prequel written by Zach Snyder to his Army of the Dead, has few of the undead and more good humor coupled with three famous, challenging safes.
If you are a lover of heist movies, you’ll be satisfied with how safe-cracker but heist-newbie Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighofer, also director), the cheese-and-cucumber eating nerd from Army of the Dead, is engaged by Gwen (see quote above) to help crack Hans Wagner’s (Christian Steyer) trilogy of unbreachable Ring Cycle safes: Das Rheingold, the Valkyrie, and the Siegfried (you get the Wagner connection and the mock-heroic spin as you may remember the more serious underground safe-cracking game in Fight Club).
Dieter’s suspenders-over turtlenecks are only one of the many clues that we are in for unconventional fun with a most-unlikely hero. The three segments of the film are obvious, and the humor comes partly because small-town bank clerk Dieter has no criminal experience and partly because of the inept French police, headed by Delacroix (Jonathan Cohen). Further spicing the plot are love interests for each man, Gwen (She offers him a “life less ordinary”) and Beatrix (Noemie Nakai) respectively.
Given the distracting women, it’s a wonder the heist actually comes off. But it does with charm. Naïve and uncool Dieter is an ace at cracking safes and handles the usual heist disruptions with fear and competence, even the last safe with 72 trillion possible combinations. He’s a first-rate tumbler listener.
Army of Thieves is as good a takeoff on heist movies as you will see this year. So, chuckle to know that combining suspense with humor is alive and well on Netflix.
Army of Thieves
Director: Matthias Schweighofer (The Manny)
Screenplay: Shay Hatten (Army of the Dead), Story by Zach Snyder
Cast: Schweighofer, Nathalie Emmanuel (Furious 7)
Run Time: 2h 7m
Rating: TV-MA
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com
