ARMY OF THIEVES

ARMY OF THIEVES is a prequel streaming on Netflix to the zombie thriller ARMY OF THE DEAD and follows the comic adventures of a German safecracker as he’s recruited by a mysterious woman to join a gang of thieves for a series of incredibly difficult heists. The movie sets up ARMY OF THE DEAD, because the final planned heist is the one that’s centrally featured in the previous movie.

Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighofer) is a bank teller and an aficionado of heists who calls himself “The Safecracker” in a series of videos he hosts on YouTube about the world’s most intricate safes. One day, he receives a mysterious invitation to come to an unknown location at night, only to find that he has been enlisted to participate in a safecracking competition, in which the top contestant will be added to a gang (or “army”) of thieves.

Dieter is thrilled to find that the gang – featuring leader Gwendoline Starr (Nathalie Emmanuel), and fellow members Korina (Ruby O. Fee), Brad Cage (Stuart Martin) and Rolph (Guz Khan) – wants his assistance to crack the four toughest safes in the world, which are each named after an opera in Wagner’s “Ring” cycle of operas.

There is vast wealth to be found in each one of the safes, but they also have astronomical odds against being opened, ranging into trillions-to-one chances. But Ludwig is excited for the challenge, and joins them, beginning a flirtation with Gwendoline that spurs jealousy from Brad, instigating a fierce rivalry.

Can Ludwig pull off the daring mission to which he’s been assigned? Or will infighting and the dogged pursuit of an Interpol agent named Delacroix (Jonathan Cohen) ruin everything?

While ARMY OF THE DEAD had some dark laughs throughout most of its running time, ARMY OF THIEVES is a much lighter and funnier movie. Those expecting this to feature plenty of zombie action like DEAD – in which the thieves escape their heist only to find themselves running for their lives across a zombie-infested Las Vegas – might be disappointed.

That’s because THIEVES only briefly refers to the zombie apocalypse and only shows zombie attacks in a couple of short TV news reports and in a couple of quick scenes amid the news and in Dieter’s nightmares. The focus here is squarely on the series of heists and on Matthias’ hilariously wimpy reactions to the dangerous events surrounding him, and Schweighofer (who also directs the movie splendidly) delivers an outstanding comedic performance as he gasps and shrieks his way hysterically throughout.

Thus, aside from the quick zombie cutaways, THIEVES stands on its own as a crime caper and succeeds by being entertaining in its own right. The plot smoothly jumps from one heist to another, with the locks shown cracking via slick visual effects of the vaults’ interiors.

The movie’s tour de force action centerpiece of the movie occurs when, due to a betrayal, Ludwig is forced to hop a bicycle to escape the police. The stuntwork and cinematography on this sequence are absolutely top-notch.

The one weak spot of the movie is that the plot is pretty thin aside from the heist sequences, putting it solely on the shoulders of its able cast. The movie’s climax is also a letdown, merely setting up the transition to the events in ARMY OF THE DEAD rather than serving up another comic and exciting set-piece.

While the movie’s tone is mostly light and humorous and the plot’s action sequences could have easily made this a TV-14 movie, sadly there’s a fairly large amount of strong foul language in ARMY OF THIEVES. It also asks viewers to root for the thieves. ARMY OF THIEVES is only appropriate for adults with extreme caution.