In 2016, an action crime film called "The Fall of London" was released around the world, in which a series of London landmarks were blown up.
"The Fall of London" has nothing to say, everyone is also familiar with it, this article is going to talk about the "Fall of London" screenwriter Gudgarst's own directorial debut:
The Thief's Lair
As can be seen from the poster, the police officers wearing bulletproof vests are armed with sophisticated guns, which is the biggest selling point of the film.
At the beginning of the film, a few lines slowly appear on the screen:
"2,400 a year, 44 times a week, 9 times a day, one bank robbery every 48 minutes, this is the global capital of bank robbery – Los Angeles"
These few lines of words instantly made the expression unconsciously serious.
The overhead cash truck in the center of the screen makes the viewer, like a god, foresee that a robbery against it will take place, and it is as helpless as an ant.
Director Goodgast apparently learned from The Fall of London and stopped giggling but set his sights on the well-known city of Los Angeles.
In addition to a movie dream factory called "Hollywood", it is also a city with a high incidence of robberies.
In 1997, there was a famous bank robbery in the north of Hollywood, and after two heavily armored robbers completed the robbery, they stood outside the bank door with guns and exchanged fire with the police who arrived for 44 minutes.
Knowing this, you can understand why the film emphasizes that the story is set in Los Angeles.
Because of this, it's really common in Los Angeles...
Back in the film, at dawn the escort truck stops in front of a donut shop, and two guards get out of the car to buy breakfast.
The guards in the car were obviously very lax
As a result, two private cars appeared at this time, and the masked robbers who got out of the car raided them.
In order to control the guards as quickly as possible, the robbers even stood on the front of the car with rifles and ordered the driver to get out of the car through the bulletproof glass.
Seeing that the driver is unwilling to cooperate with the presence of bulletproof glass, the robbers do not talk much nonsense.
In just a few seconds, the whole process from drilling to lifting the bulletproof glass was completed directly with the instrument, which made the action movie lovers addicted.
The two guards may not want to tie their hands, but as soon as they touch the gun, they are shot on the spot by trained robbers.
Originally it was just a robbery crime, but now there are two more lives of murder, so in the face of the police who rushed to the scene, the robbers simply let go of their hands and feet.
After suppressing the opponent with the fierce firepower of the guns in his hand, the robbers drove away from the empty escort truck and fled, leaving only the body of a companion who died of stray bullets.
Friends who are familiar with the American police gunfight movie will definitely have a sense of déjà vu about this gunfight scene.
Yes, the film is clearly on a gunfight scene, a reference to the classic 1995 action crime film The Line of Fire.
So the whole movie not only allows the characters to suppress fire, change the clip, run the transposition of these actions, but also very elaborately show the effect of one shot and one hole.
In the final battle with the robbers, the robbers were also allowed to operate machine guns and strafe the car group.
The police who dodged around and the shattering of the car glass more intuitively showed the terrifying power of real guns.
In addition to the realistic gunfight scene, the film does not adopt the common "one-hammer trading" model for how to rob the bank, that is, as long as the robbers have results every time they do it.
On the contrary, like the air escort trucks that were hijacked in the first place, the true purpose of the robbers could not be guessed until the last minute.
Although the protagonists are a group of rough men, in the whole process of the cat and mouse game, the two sides compete not in marksmanship, but to see who calculates the next step first.
In the end, the robbers paved the way for several robberies, and finally exchanged 30 million "safe" dollar old dollar bills from the Federal Savings Office, and we thought everything was settled.
What I never expected was that this pile of carefully calculated money would turn into a pile of waste paper.
The reversal of this ending not only transforms the identity of the real robber leader, but also makes the movie more of a detective-like suspense.
To sum up the above two points, it is no wonder that some fans directly believe that it is a combination of "Thief Of Fire" and "Very Suspect".
Although the gunfight and bank robbery were a pass operation, it was dizzying to watch.
But when it comes down to it, the unsatisfactory part of the film is the handling of the plot.
The entire film is 149 minutes long, which is close to the 171 minutes of "Thief Line".
Just as the gunfight scene makes people see "The Line of Fire", the plot of the film is easily reminiscent of the previous game.
In particular, Gerald plays the male protagonist of the righteous side, because of the mixed style of acting with his colleagues, so that his wife chooses to take her daughter and divorce her.
This has a mysterious parallel to Al Pacino's passion for losing time with his wife in The Line of Fire.
The only difference may be that this film has an extraordinary attachment to the depiction of emotions.
Delicate male delicate emotions are expressed, such as the part where the male protagonist returns to the car to sob after secretly meeting his daughter through the barbed wire.
At this time, he realized his previous asshole behavior, and the scene was very tearful.
But that's all, there are many side plots in the whole film, but the headache is that each line will be unclear and redundant.
Because apart from embellishing that cops are not absolutely good and evil, they are not of much use. Bloated, rough, and gives the impression of tickling the boots. Whether it exists or not, it neither affects the direction of the story nor sublimates the whole story.
In addition, there is a little dissatisfaction, that is, the soundtrack of the film is inactive.
Although I don't expect such a movie that costs only $30 million, I can invite Hans Zimmer to perform the soundtrack.
But as the successor of "Thief of Fire", the soundtrack of the film did not mobilize the emotions very well, giving people the feeling that the gears were not embellished with lubricating oil, and everything was not so smooth, which was a pity.
And it is these two points that prevent such a rich and real gunfight police movie from gaining a better reputation.
But for director Goodgast's debut, we don't have to be too harsh.
There are many hormonal gunfight scenes to watch, and the logical setting of the central bureau of the central planning bureau is not bad, but it is limited to the embarrassment of literary drama. The well-known rating website Rotten Tomatoes has a very honest evaluation by film critics:
"The Thief's Lair" offers an above-average police robbery movie.
To put it bluntly:
Qualified or above, excellent is not enough.
And Uncle Shi's personal opinion is:
Its gunfight scene is more stunning, if it is an action movie lover, you can not hesitate to pounce on it, and you like suspense film literary and artistic films;
The production cost of this film is 30 million US dollars, and the global box office is only more than 80 million, which is in a situation of barely guaranteeing the capital.
But that's not as good as discouraging investment from continuing to be bullish on this story, and the filming of "Thief's Nest 2" has been put on the agenda, and this sequel is still written and directed by Goodgarst and is expected to be released in 2020.
With the experience of producing the first part, perhaps we can expect that the sequel will bring more surprises.