In 2008, Walter Moreland (Liam Cunningham) leads a team salvaging a wreck when the Spanish police confiscates the treasure. Unbeknownst to the authorities, the treasure is more than what it appears to be. It's a road map to a greater treasure and Moreland needs to steal it back. The big problem is that the government has placed it in an unbreachable vault in the Bank of Spain. In order to solve the problem, Moreland hires genius engineering college student Thom Laybrick (Freddie Highmore) who is tired of being recruited by big oil. They have an opportunity during the 2010 World Cup.
This is a fun little caper. It's not that complicated. Liam Cunningham is always great. The two problems are Freddie Highmore and the vault. Freddie is always going to look like a kid and I can't see him as a romantic lead. Astrid Bergès-Frisbey may as well pat him on the head. He is probably never going to heat it up. He's going to be an adorable puppy even on his death bed. The second is the vault construction. I don't really see how it's set up. It's essentially the gold idol in Indiana Jones. In Indy, the premise doesn't need explaining because it's such a small part of it and it is what it is. In this movie, the scale construct is central to the story and so it needs to work. Couldn't they place more counterweight which they do in the emergency situation anyways? Couldn't they just do that earlier? I'm not sure if the story is mechanically sound. Overall, this movie is a good escapist fare although two hours may be unnecessarily long.
This is a fun little caper. It's not that complicated. Liam Cunningham is always great. The two problems are Freddie Highmore and the vault. Freddie is always going to look like a kid and I can't see him as a romantic lead. Astrid Bergès-Frisbey may as well pat him on the head. He is probably never going to heat it up. He's going to be an adorable puppy even on his death bed. The second is the vault construction. I don't really see how it's set up. It's essentially the gold idol in Indiana Jones. In Indy, the premise doesn't need explaining because it's such a small part of it and it is what it is. In this movie, the scale construct is central to the story and so it needs to work. Couldn't they place more counterweight which they do in the emergency situation anyways? Couldn't they just do that earlier? I'm not sure if the story is mechanically sound. Overall, this movie is a good escapist fare although two hours may be unnecessarily long.