There’s surprising fun in this summer’s army of bloody zombies. A film that makes the prospect of Zack Snyder partnering with Netflix something oddly hard to deny.
Snyder correctly predicted his popularity (he quickly became one of the most-watched streamers of all time). And begin developing a backstory called The Army of Thieves months before landing. It was his liveliest entertaining proposition in years.
The result is an unusual and changing genre and director:
While Army of the Dead is a horror film with theft. Army of Thieves is a horror-free, more formulaic and less memorable. But still smoothly effective, a strange next step for the Army franchise (direct sequel and anime backdrop – Series). Also, on the way, which oddly works.
Thieves followed German safe burglar Matthias Schweigofer Dieter. Before he landed in Nevada six years ago when a zombie epidemic broke out. But with the same abundant energy, a dynamic adventure that pushes zombies into the background.
We see him on TV screens and in dream series, but never up close. The characters don’t like worrying about the impending apocalypse. Dieter is theoretically just a safe robber who posts tutorials on YouTube that no one sees while grappling with the boring life of a lonely bank clerk.
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But one day, he receives a mysterious message that leads him to Gwendolyn (Game of Thrones alum Natalie Emmanuel). Who lures him into being part of his team of thieves (Guz Khan, Stuart Martin and Ruby O’Fee) to find the most of the impossible vaults. In this world.
Nothing is essential in Army of Thieves Space Expander, a dedicated fan-service backstory to characters we know will die later, but Schweigöfer, who also serves as director, keeps his frothy style alive with a flick of the surface tone. , never insist on film as something it is not; it connects the dots with almost enough charm.
How we follow diverse teams from city to city:
Multi-seater Netflix movies don’t have to be sniffed and safe to be safe. What the film visualizes on the table is a more exciting representation of what it means to break a safe, some lovely effects leading us into the mechanics of the safe while Dieter works his magic. This is a pure trick that gives liveliness to an often non-binding process.
The lunatic is hard to resist, but going to Schweigöfer’s gym, the warm, balanced show that Ryan Reynolds often tries and often fails to do, and he’s as confident behind the camera as he is in front of the spectacular Hans. Zimmer scores, a beefy studio sound that should have produced more Hollywood work.
Emanuel, who showcased the charm of romance in the hilarious TV series “Four Weddings and a Funeral” from 2019, lends some of it to a sweet if a little bloodless romance with Schweigöfer.
That’s a bit too long for a film that should feel roomy to the touch, with more than two hours, with the final action sag slightly due to the inevitable double-crossing and “oh, but it really happened” revealing overflow (their story reversal isn’t quite as good as movies seem to think). But there’s an exciting and cursed sadness that comes at the very end, given the fate of Dieter’s character (given the ending of The Black Widow), ending the film in one fell swoop.
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Relaxing in old-fashioned genre films is great fun:
As the endless stream of cheap TV movies continues on the platform, a vital combination breaks down here. It’s enough to hit familiar, simple beats with finesse, nothing more, nothing less. This also makes the new western watch The Harder They Fall a winner), and the power of the low stake of Army of Thieves marks it as one of the best entertaining originals. From Netflix these days (it’s a heist movie about theft, not a heist movie, say, trauma).