Deliberately doomy and tortuously long (with lots of shots of people in rooms thinking), this is a crime film with distinct ambitions in the direction of stature. The lugubrious Bernard Hill can scarcely raise a smile as the alcoholic computer gadgets expert reluctantly drawn into a big-time caper of increasing complexity. The first half of the film concerns his entrapment (via the stepson who lives with him, running from lodging to lodging), the second the planning and execution of the raid (on a major holding bank) itself. There's too little of such crustily amusing dialogue as the gang boss (Derek Newark) employs with his tunnellers (`Thanks lads. If you hurry you might just catch the last tube') and just too much gloom and doom. The slow motion at the beginning is maddening, although it does set the film's stately pace in which the bursts of action towards the end come as a welcome relief.

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes