User reviews

Thief Mike Daniels (Albert Finney) plans to break into the biggest bank in England for one last haul. His team sets up a false office in order to interview architects with the idea they can coax the suitable candidate into mapping out their underground digging job. Down-on-his-luck American Stephen Booker (Martin Sheen) seems to be the ideal candidate for the job, but he scoffs at the idea of being a criminal. That is until he finds out his wife (Susannah York) reallllly wants to start up her interior decorating business. OH NOES! So he descends (literally) into a life of crime in order to finance her dream. The "loophole" of the title refers to the fact they will break into the vault through the ground and set off a motion detector, but when the cops arrive they will see no one inside the bank and think it is glitch. I'm a sucker for bank heist pictures for some reason and this one definitely falls into that category. Unfortunately, while it has a great cast and is well made, it really takes no risks. There is some tension in the final third as rain starts to flood the sewer system and the men must rush to get out, but even that is handled rather mundanely. Sheen also sticks out like a sore thumb and it is easy to believe the role was written for a British fellow (his wife is a Brit after all) and then changed to an American to increase potential markets. Still, it is worth a look at least once if you loves you some men digging in confined spaces.

LOOPHOLE has a nifty concept that sounds too good to be true, yet impossible. The unemployed American architect (Sheen) comes to England to devise a plan on robbing the safe from under the city sewers at a British bank. It actually works until.... Along the line, it's more of an adventure than a crime film, but with stars such as Albert Finney and Martin Sheen, don't get too excited about it. This really isn't your typical "bad guy" movie, rather it is tame and subtle. Both actors in their time were known to perform in novelish dramatic roles that appealed mostly to the adult crowd, so there's no modern class here, but maybe Susannah York's towel dropping scene might grab your attention. The end is peculiar and uncertain, right after you've gone through seeing a successful heist well done. All in all, an interesting movie, but if early 80s dramatic acting performances isn't your cup of tea, then you will find LOOPHOLE to be pretty boring.

Albert Finney was an exceptional actor, very good in all the movies, those made in his youth and those in his maturity. Very convincing in this "Loophole" too. Martin Sheen also does a good role as an architect forced to become thief. Susannah York very credible as his wife. All the other actors, Colin Blakely, Jonathan Pryce, Robert Morley, etc., are good. Some who wrote reviews complained that they did not understand or like the end of the movie. The guy who dies and we see him floating on the water, we can imagine that he drowned or had a heart attack. And Martin Sheen goes out of the building exactly as he tells Albert Finney he will, when the water retreats, you only have to imagine this, it's not that hard. Very pleasant surprise is the music of Lalo Schifrin, which, unfortunately, is not as great as in films like "Bullitt" or "Mission: Impossible". What's missing the movie is more suspense, that's all.

Another heist movie. This is a cut above average with an excellent cast: acclaimed British film and stage actor Albert Finney. Martin Sheen who had just been shot to fame by Apocalypse Now, alongside Johnathan Pryce,Colin Blakeley, Robert Morley, Susannah Yorke, Dinah Booker and Colin Blakeley. All respected character and lead actors.

Albert Finney plays the leader of a criminal gang whose latest raid has come up short. He plans to break into a vault containing safe deposit boxes. In order to locate the exact location of the vault, he needs the help of an architect who can pinpoint where the tunnel needs to emerge. This is where Martin Sheen comes in.

Worrth watching for the cast giving good performances.

Actually a competent little thriller , utterly and totally ruined by a lousy bewildering last 10 mins or so ! .... Honestly its unbelievable and makes no sense whatsoever !

Well done scriptwriters / director for ruining a nice little film that could have been well more regarded , but now i would tell anyone who thought of watching this movie to avoided it as it truly offers up one of the most unsatisfying and stupid endings you could ever think of !

This is a very good caper film. The crooks are very professional, and they do not use any forms of violence. Martin Sheen plays a down on his luck architect, drawn into assisting with a large bank heist involving the use of the underground sewer system. The pace of this film is slow, but it keeps the viewers interest. Jonathan Pryce appears in this film in an early role as one of the crooks. Albert Finney is great as the leader of the gang, and Colin Blakly is equally good as his assistant. Susanah York does not have much of a part as Martin Sheens wife. I give this film a nine out of ten. It is definitely worth a look. See it if you are a fan of caper films, see it even if your not a fan of caper films.

"Loophole" is a disappointingly dull, visually unappealing caper movie. I can recommend it only to genre addicts. The characters are anonymous and cold; you don't connect with them, so you don't care what will happen to them. Still, this minor picture isn't really bad...until its really LOUSY finale. Without revealing it, I can say that the "solution" the screenwriter finds to the characters' problems shows offensive incompetence on his part. The ending (presented as a twist) is simply unacceptable and I can't believe that these respectable actors agreed to play in a film that ended is such a LOUSY way.

Despite a decent cast Loophole is a mediocre heist movie that lacks characterisation, style and tension. It's methodical storytelling which offers nothing new to the genre and a bank robbery story that has been done many times before and since to better effect like The Bank Job (2008), Buster (1988) and King of Thieves (2018), and although these were based on true stories the fictional Loophole, based on the novel by Robert Pollock, did inspire a real life criminal gang known as the Sewer Rats to commit similar robberies.

This low budget British movie made in 1981 looks more like it was made for TV than a theatrical release and is quite satisfied to simply exist than have any ambition. Albert Finney does the best he can with the material as does Martin Sheen in what looks like a cynical attempt to appeal to the US market by having an American star in the cast. He plays an architect living beyond his means and in deep debt who, despite wanting to do the right thing, accepts the bank job that criminal Finney has masterminded in the City of London by using his knowledge of the buildings' architecture.

John Quested's uninspired by the numbers direction condemns this movie to the instantly forgettable pile and it looks like most of the budget went into the underground sewer scenes in the finale. In the hands of a more visionary director it could have been much more exciting but this is a dull, plodding, lacklustre exercise and Lalo Schifrin's lousy score certainly doesn't help matters. You won't want to see this more than once if at all.

Actually, I haven't seen the movie -- but three men in Texas rented this movie and were inspired to re-create the crime in 1984. They held a bank president's wife and daughter hostage in exchange for a ransom of $48,000. Once the money was left in a garbage can, the men used the sewer system to gain access to the false bottom of the garbage can... just like in the movie. However, the FBI arrested one of the men, who ratted out the other two, and they were all tried and convicted. Actually, they almost got away with it -- except the woman they'd counted on to be their alibi "remembered" that they'd been at her house in the afternoon, not the morning. Amusingly, the appellate court judge who heard their appeal started his summary of the case with the line, "The background facts to this case read like a movie script." There's a reason for that, Yer Honor! (If you want to read the case, it's United States v. Moore, 786 F.2d 1308.)

I don't think writers understand what being an architect means or how they work ...its especially clear in this film because the need for an architect is totally bogus ... being an architect sounds glamorous and exciting but its a crappy paying profession that anyone interested in making money would never take on ... an architect that designs, builds and lives in that house is as rare as finding an atmosphere on the moon

Wow, how refreshing to watch a truly adult film with no crap-- no cgi, no overbulked "star" flexing his muscles in your face, just a good story and a realistic theme incorporating the pressures of married life/bringing up kids, with a great exploration of an alternative morality thrown in. No wonder we have to go back to this 1981 to find it -- on tv. What a shame, but how rewarding!

Ignore the low scores, this is a good film.

It's dated and seems a bit wobbly here and there, but the script and acting are excellent.

I understand why they used Martin Sheen, not because he is a fine actor, it was to get financing and possibly attract a US audience.

The movie shows that even honest people can be lured by the 'Big Payday', and commit crime. This is what the movies premise revolves around, and does it well. Martin Sheen, an architect, finds himself in a situation, where financially he is stretched by his families lavish lifestyle. He's approached to help a band of crooks pull off a heist in a banks security box room. Initially he is duped into thinking he is employed to help extend an office building, but discovers it's a ruse.

He confronts the leader of the crooks and reveals he has worked out the ruse, then is told of the real reason they approached him. He refuses to help, at first, but after his bank threatens to foreclose on his mortgage, and he realises his kids would have to leave their private schools, he agrees to help.

What follows is a classic mix of heist, greed, desperation and redemption.

I hope you watch this movie and make your own mind up.

It could do with being redone with modern techniques, script and a bigger budget.

This excitingly off-beat, unfairly overlooked, intelligently crafted British heist thriller has a loot to shout about! Not least being the engagingly written, tautly plotted screenplay that clearly attracted such a wealth of sublime acting talent! John Quested's dynamite crime thriller about a seasoned, tightly-knit crew of experienced blaggers planning and executing an audaciously lucrative heist has demonstratively lost none of its fascination! Alongside the razor-sharp filmmaking by Quested, the nuanced performances are irresistible, and the driving, atmospheric score by maestro Lalo Schifrin is a defining factor in elevating this engrossing narrative's dramatic intensity.

It's always a rare treat watching a finely honed, artisan genre feature with so many supremely gifted actors. Another pleasingly aspect of 'Loophole' is that the credible dramatic elements are no less robustly expressed than the frantic, thrillingly tense heist itself. The gifted director's lean, no-frills approach is remarkably effective, drawing the viewer deep into the protagonists increasingly precarious, unrelentingly harsh subterranean environment, thereby giving their pragmatic actions a stark authenticity so frequently absent in its glossier, hyperrealistic counterparts. There's one especially evocative interlude wherein the cool master thief Mike (Albert Finney) and the plainly anxious architect Stephen (Martin Sheen) silently take tea together before finalizing their partnership which proved most eloquent, and for me, rewarding subtleties like this separate the cinematic wheat from the chaff!

It's always a rare treat watching a finely honed, artisan genre feature starring so many supremely gifted actors! Another pleasing aspect of 'Loophole' is that the credible dramatic elements are no less robustly expressed than the frantic, thrillingly tense heist itself. The gifted director's lean, no-frills approach is remarkably effective, drawing the viewer deep into the protagonists increasingly precarious, unrelentingly harsh subterranean environment, thereby giving their pragmatic actions a stark authenticity so frequently absent in Loophole's glossier, hyperrealistic counterparts. There's one especially evocative interlude wherein the cool master thief Mike (Albert Finney) and the plainly anxious architect Stephen (Martin Sheen) silently take tea together before finalizing their fateful partnership which proved most eloquent, and for me, rewarding subtleties like this separate the cinematic wheat from the chaff!

This movie is really faithful to the Robert Pollock's novel, written eight years before. The only book written by this novelist. A book that - according to the legend - inspired Albert Spaggiari to prepare and pull the famous world known Nice - France - bank heist, in July 1976, where the gangsters used the sewers net, the big city intestines, to drill a tunnel and then have access to the safe deposit room. It was a really terrific and terrifying adventure, that Jose Giovanni put on screen in 1979 in LES EGOUTS DU PARADIS. Back to this one, it is very realistic, because Spaggiari and his men could have had the very same problem as the gangsters here...I won't spoil any further.... I like the characters and all the details shown here concerning the preparation and the heist itself. I love the ending, but I understand that many people do not.