By Emily Rotthaler– After Red Notice, Netflix recently released another thief movie named Army of Thieves. Besides stealing objects and Interpol as the law enforcement agency in pursuit, however, the two movies have barely anything in common.
Main character of Army of Thieves is awkward, German bank teller Sebastian Schlecht-Wöhnert who is played by German actor and director of the movie, Matthias Schweighöfer. Because of his hobby of cracking safes, he is recruited by a group of criminals whose plan is to crack a series of three highly complicated, mythical safes.
The safes were built by locksmith Hans Wagner in a series of a total of four safes called ‘The Ring Cycle’ andfollow the story of Richard Wagner’s famous opera ‘The Ring of the Nibelung’. Each of the safes is named after three of the opera’s four parts ‘Rhinegold’, ‘Siegfried’, and ‘Valkyrie’.
There is also a fourth safe, that is seen as the holy Wagner grail not only because it is the most complicated, but also because Hans Wagner locked himself in it on purpose and never left it again. This safe, the Götterdämmerung, however, is the object of desire in Zack Snyder’s horror/action movie Army of the Deadwhich is the sequel to this movie.
Army of Thieves, which is also based on a Snyder story, is wildly but refreshingly different. This is not only because of the personality of the characters but also because of the casting of some native actors of different countries and languages into roles with the same nationality. This gives the movie an extra boost of authenticity because the lines spoken in other languages don’t sound forced or americanized as they do in so many other movies.
Oh, and of course let’s not forget about the zombie apocalypse that is simultaneously happening in the US while the movie takes place in Europe. But don’t be deterred by the zombies as they do not play a big role in this movie and are just building up the story for the sequel.
Despite being confused and a little deterred because of the zombies in the beginning, I enjoyed the movie a lot. The story was a little abstract but thoroughly thought through and consistent. The main characters were unique and cast just right.
From knowing Schweighöfer from previous German movies, I was excited to see him in an international movie and now after watching the film I think there couldn’t have been a better fit for the role of Schlecht-Wöhnert. His authentic German accent work perfectly with his characters struggles with the English language and he displays the right amount of awkwardness and genius to make the strange character work.
Speaking of strange characters, the movie also had to offer some more of those. Brad Cage, the leader of the criminal gang that Schlecht-Wöhnert joins, for example, imagines himself to be a real-life action hero. And the leading Interpol investigator, Delacroix, is so obsessed with catching the gang that he loses his marbles more than just once.
All of this makes for a highly entertaining movie, that unlike Red Notice doesn’t just aim at easy entertainment but is suspenseful, funny, and weird at the same time.
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