STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Richie (Ian Oglivy) and the gang return, this time to pull off a heist in a bank vault, with the express intention of being caught. They are sent inside, and reunited with their old friend Briggsy (Patrick Bergin), who they want to break out in order that he can be reunited with his dying wife. However, as an old friend is returned, so is an old enemy in the shape of Vic Farrow (Billy Murray), a nasty piece of work who wants to initiate a war with his side and theirs as the breakout commences.
While 2014's We Still Kill the Old Way, from the same director, Sacha Bennett, may have seemed like quite a throwaway, irrelevant gangster flick, it obviously spawned enough of a cult following that this follow up piece has been made. Another attempt to blend the old school crime caper with a more modern, hard hitting style, despite a different premise, Bennett has produced a result much the same, which means that this is pretty much as average as the last film. And it doesn't help that Stealing doesn't carry quite the same dramatic impact as Killing.
Although, as others have noted, stealing isn't even what the plot revolves around, as much as a break out, which is a trade descriptions breach if ever there was one. It's clear from the commentary afterwards that Bennett was trying to pull off a fun filled vibe to the films (which he hopes to repeat with another one!), but there are times when it threatens to interfere with the tone of the film, in the shape of some awfully choreographed fight sequences, and a wobbly mixture of darkness and light, such as Vince Blackwood's murderer character, who provides an uneasy resolve in the end pay-off.
There's a notable chemistry between the characters, and they feed off each other well, and Murray is always a great villain, but, ultimately, this will leave no more or less an impression on you than the last one. **
