The Art of the Steal

It works hard to be fun but Jonathan Sobol's comedy heist flick comes across like a third rate Guy Richie adaptation of an Elmore Leonard knock off.

Kurt Russell and his half-brother Matt Dillon were part of slick gang of thieves that specialise in art forgeries; caught red-handed with some booty in Poland, the shifty Dillon hands over brother Kurt to save his own neck, who does five years in a Warsaw hell hole. Fast forward to today and the down-on-his-luck Russell feels he has no choice but to once again get back into the heist game with his brother when an opportunity to steal Seuret's pointillist masterpiece Model, Rear View drops into his lap. However, Interpol, with the help of former thief Terence Stamp, are tracking their every move…

You've seen this before and you've seen it done better. While it's fun having Kurt Russell back on the big screen (he hasn't made anything of note since 2007's Death Proof and that was dire), the man can't save derivative material like this. Jonathan Sobol, who wrote the script, was after an Expendables-esque team up of old fogies with Russell, Stamp and Kenneth Welsh, which would have been fine, but it doesn't quite pay off; there are too many young men involved and Matt Dillon is only fifty. The script reaches for cliche at every available opportunity – everyone has a name, like Dirty Ernie, or Ponch, or Crunch, or Uncle Paddy, and Kenneth Welsh's begorrah accent is from a different era entirely.

The cast do try, however. Russell and Dillon circle each other in the hope of drumming up some chemistry but everything falls flat; Jay Baruchel’s job is to bring the Jay Baruchel (his dialogue is essentially a running commentary) and Jason Jones's vexed Interpol agent is working a different tone of humour to everyone else. The only one to really come out of this mess with his head somewhat held up is Terrence Stamp who, sitting slumped in corners in big coats, hands in pockets, seems to be aware that it's not going well at all.

It's just not fun. It sounds like fun, and the script probably read like it was going to be fun, but this is tired and old.