How to Rob a Bank review – Amazon’s anti-capitalist caper is far from a riot

Nicholas Hoult, Anna Sawai and Pete Davidson play Robin Hood in this simple-minded and unexciting attempt to mix social commentary with action In case you were somehow blissfully unaware, America is in a very dark place and Americans are not very happy about it. Last week’s midte

Nicholas Hoult, Anna Sawai and Pete Davidson play Robin Hood in this simple-minded and unexciting attempt to mix social commentary with action In case you were somehow blissfully unaware, America is in a very dark place and Americans are not very happy about it. Last week’s midterms saw a historic blue wave propelled by the high cost of living and the low trust in those making decisions, but restoring any small shred of faith in the system and any vague semblance of financial equity is still unlikely to come any time soon. It’s therefore theoretically ideal timing for films that provide some sort of rousing David v Goliath catharsis, a win on-screen when one feels entirely out of reach in real life.

But like Paul Greengrass’s muddy and muddled peasant revolt drama The Uprising which crashed and burned in September, David Leitch’s How to Rob a Bank can’t quite find a way to capture a moment that should be easy to capture. The director is best known for synthetic action films that prioritise noise above all else, from Deadpool 2 to Bullet Train to Hobbs & Shaw, a tonal through-line that could be most generously described as “annoying”. Continue reading...