‘Army of Thieves’ movie review: Netflix prequel makes for a goofy and fun heist drama
The Hindu
Director-actor Schweighöfer injects a great deal of verve, charm and romance into this spin-off of Zack Snyder’s ‘Army of the Dead’
Set sometime before the events of Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, Army of Thieves while lacking in the crucial Z factor, is goofy and fun nevertheless. While zombies are roaring and rampaging in Las Vegas—eating up intrepid television reporters on the way, Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert (Matthias Schweighöfer) is a teller at a bank in Potsdam, Germany.
His only break from his boring life is posting his safecracking videos on YouTube, which have no views until he has one and a mysterious message. Sebastian is invited to safecracking tournament, which he wins and is then recruited by a beautiful jewel thief (they are always good-looking) Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel).
Gwendoline offers Sebastian a way out of his humdrum life by conquering the Mount Everest of safecracking — the three safes created by Hans Wagner (Christian Steyer). The locksmith actually created four safes named after his musical namesake’s famous Ring cycle operas – The Rhinegold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. The last safe has vanished off the face of the earth. What are the possibilities that it would surface in a certain casino vault in zombie-infested Las Vegas, considering the safes belong to billionaire Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada)?
