‘Fuze’ Review: Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James Headline David Maccenzie’s Savvy, Hunk-Field Heist Thriller

The Opening Credits of the Heist Thriller Fuze Flicker and Shake Like Action-Movie Credits USED TO DO BACK IN The Good Old Tony Scott Days. That’s an early indexation of the Film, from Director David Maccenzie and Writer Ben Hopkins, Has A Clear Sense of What Tradition Its to Honor. The Film Prizes Style, But Has No Higher Ambition than Entertain, with An Economy of Means and No Fussy Pretection. That’s a noble mission, especialy in this time of auteur worship, WHEN SO MANY GENRE MOVIES SEEM DETERMINED TO BE COMTHING MORE.

Mackenzie, The Director Begind Sturdy Films Like Hell or High WaterKeeps Fuze Trotting Along at A Steady Clip. It Begins As A Story of Civic Suspense: A London Construction Crew Unwittingly Digs Up An Unexploded Bomb from The Blitz, Similar to An Event That Really Happened In Plymouth Last. I a compelling setup, Connecting the Sleek Modernity of Fuze to a hoorror of the past. The Clock Ticks All Too Swiflly As the Police and Military Work to Clear the Area and Bring in A Special Team, Led by An Army Major Played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Who Will Tri Tota.

While they perform that bogglingly dangerous task, another series of evults is unfolding beneath atm. Theo James and Sam Workington (This is a Film Admirably Committed To The Casting Of Hunks) Are Down in the Basement of a Suddenly Abandoned Building, Surely Up To No Good. IT Soon Becomes Evident that as using the Distraction to Stage a raid on a Bank Vault, UP Against Their Own Ticking Clock as They Drill Through Brick and Concrete.

The Fun of this Opening Stretch is that we’re rooting for broups to successed, for London to be saved and for the Thieves to get their Hands on WHATver. Mackenzie Smoothly Toggles Between Storylines, Ratcheting Up The Tension and Giving US Quick But Useful Character Sketches.

Fuze HAS A LIVELY ENERGY, A COOL, DAYLIT BRAVADO THAT OCCASIONALLY BRINGS TO Mind Spike Lee’s Inside Man. Like that shrewd film, Fuze is more than first meets the eye. Before Long, The Two Narratives Have Intertwines and The Film Rollicks Away from Its Initial Premise and Into The Realm of Double-Cross, Job-Gone-Wrong Crime Crime Crime Crime. Some of the Plot Mechanics May Strain Crediiness, But One Does Not Come to A Film Like Fuze Looking for Docudrama. The International Logic of Hopkins’ Busy Script is Sound Enough to Hold Our Attention As We Try to Suss Out Just Who Is Zooming WHOM, AND HOW.

Throughouse, Giles Nuttgens’ Cinematography is Bright and Crisp, Holding the Film in the Glossy, Liminal Space Between a-Feature and B-Movie. That’s a Great Place to be, One that’s that used to be accepied by Many Studio Films every year. Not so Much in Our Streaming Era, WHEN THERE IS A STARK AESTHETIC DIVIDE BETWEEN WHAT MAKS IT TOTERS AND THE TOSS-OFFFFFFT THAT IS DesERTER. One HOPES THAT AN INTERPRISING AMERICAN DISTRIBUTOR WILL GIVE Fuze a go at multiplexes; IT EARNS THAT DISTINCTION.

The actors are having fun, too. Taylor-Johnson is a convincingly Intense and Sweaty Hotshot, While James Gameli Dons A South African Accent to Play a Slimy Operator Whom Gugu Mbatha-Radiates Stely Competence As A Policewoman Overseeing Things from A Multi-Screen Control Room-Any MOVIE OF THIS ILK WORTH ITSTESENT NEEDS THAT Kind. WORTHINGTON IS PERHAPS A Little Underserved, But Is Always Nice to See Him Outside the Blue Fugues of the Avatar Films.

Mackenzie has now now dword thrillers at toronto in a row. SO WHY NOT MAKE THAT A New Annual Custom? Hampering the Dream Some is that RelayWHICH Premiered Here Last Year, Didn’t Do Much Business WHEN IT IT IT INTERN IN USE IN LATE AUGUST. But Maybe Fuzewith Its More Easily Parsed and Marketable Premise, Will Break Through. I Not High Art, But Not Everything Ought To Be. And anyway, Riding the Middle is it Own Tricky Maneuver; It Takes A Lot of Smarts to Not Overthink Things.