THE MISFITS
US, 2021, 94 minutes, Colour.
Pierce Brosnan, Tim Roth, Nick Cannon, Rami Jaber, Jamie Chung, Hermione Corfield, Mike Angelo.
Directed by Renny Harlin.
Here is a piece of heist nonsense, a very undemanding action time-passer.
The film introduces us to a group of young adults with particular talents to facilitate robberies, like donning various disguises, a skill with explosives… They band together to approach a veteran thief who has spent time in prison, Richard Pace, played with his old style by Pierce Brosnan.
They all arrive in Abu Dhabi which features almost as a character in the film, the modern Emirates high-rise city, a centre for luxury living, surrounded by desert. It also holds a huge prison.
Pace encounters his daughter, Hope, who is earnest about civil rights, UNESCO and the fate of children around the world. In fact, it is she who is organised the meeting so that the group of thieves will work with her father to extract a huge amount of gold bars, preserved to fund terrorist activities, but held under strict guard in the basement of the prison.
The film offers an opportunity for the supporting characters to show a variety of styles, especially Thai a singer and dancer Mike Angelo, the explosives expert who also likes to dance. Also along is The Prince, played by the producer of the film, Rami Jaber, who works from the United Arab Emirates but is also based in Finland, the home country of the director, Renny Harlin, who directed one of the Nightmare in Elm Street films as well as Die Hard 2, an up-and-down career with directing action films, generally, for over 30 years.
Also cast is a calmly bewildered -looking Tim Roth who was responsible for the safety of the gold.
All kinds of shenanigans for the theft, disguises, distractions (a car exploding at the same time as the basement bought explodes), misdirection in terms of where the gold is, escape routes…
But, is a kind of film where Pierce Brosnan outwits them all, stealing the gold – but, ultimately, preserving it for a donation to UNESCO.
Rather slight – and generally not well reviewed.
