***This competition is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! The two winners will be contacted soon!
This coming Monday sees the DVD and Blu-ray release of King of Thieves, the latest film from acclaimed director James Marsh (Man on Wire, The Theory of Everything), which features a cavalcade of legendary British actors including Michael Caine, Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon and Paul Whitehouse who team up to pull off a brazen heist. You may know the job from our own headlines as “The Hatton Garden Heist,” described as the biggest and most daring heist in British history.
It’s a good slice of old-fashioned heist movie fun which morphs in its latter half into something with surprising touches of the dangerous and sinister as suspicions and loyalties start to inevitably turn.
To celebrate the film’s release, we have two copies of it on DVD to give away, thanks to the lovely folk at Studio Canal.
To enter the competition simply answer the following question: in which classic British film does Michael Caine famously say the line, “you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”?
a) Alfie b) The Italian Job c) The Ipcress File
Please email your answer to rosstmiller@thoughtsonfilm.co.uk with the subject heading “King of Thieves competition.” Please also include your delivery address details so we can easily send the prize out if you win.
Now for the technical part:
UK residents only
Entrants must be 18 or over
Winners will be chosen at random
The prize for each entrant is one DVD copy of King of Thieves
Prize is non-transferable
Competition ends on Sunday January 27th at 11:59pm GMT
Prize will be sent from PR/studio
King of Thieves is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray from January 21st. You can already rent/buy the film digitally.
I'm a freelance film reviewer and blogger with over 10 years of experience writing for various different reputable online and print publications. In addition to my running, editing and writing for Thoughts On Film, I am also the film critic for The National, the newspaper that supports an independent Scotland, covering the weekly film releases, film festivals and film-related features.
I have a passion for all types of cinema, and have a particular love for foreign language film, especially South Korean and Japanese cinema. Favourite films include The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I think it’s fair to say that the run up to this year’s Oscars has been a little messier than usual, from unexpected and bizarre wins at other awards shows (Vice winning Best Editing at the BAFTAs, anyone?) to ridiculous decisions by the Academy to change the show around.
The latter has proved a particular point of contention with both those in the industry to onlookers on social media, with choices such as not letting all the songs be performed to introducing a Best Popular Film category (whatever that means) to not airing four categories live; Editing and Cinematography proved a particular issue, sending the folks of Film Twitter into a Hulk-like rage.
Thankfully all of these decisions except for the one to not have a main host have taken the walk-back of shame; I look forward to Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair again. Of course there’s still the issue of plenty of thoroughly deserving films, filmmakers and performances not being up for any Oscars at all (*cough* Toni Collette! *cough*) but of course that’s not an issue unique to this year.
The show must go on, as they say, and I thought a week out from this year’s ceremony I’d throw my hat into the ring as far as predictions goes. Below I’ve listed what I think will win in each category, as well as what I personally would like to see pick up that little gold man come next Sunday evening.
Best Picture
Want to win: A Star is Born Will win: Green Book
Lead Actor
Want to win: Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born) Will win: Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody)
Lead Actress
Want to win: Olivia Colman (The Favourite) Will win: Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
Supporting Actor
Want to win: Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) Will win: Mahershala Ali (Green Book)
Supporting Actress
Want to win: Emma Stone (The Favourite) Will win: Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Director
Want to win: Alfonso Cuarón (Roma) Will win: Alfonso Cuarón (Roma)
Animated Feature
Want to win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Will win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Adapted Screenplay
Want to win: BlacKkKlansman Will win: BlacKkKlansman
Original Screenplay
Want to win: First Reformed Will win: The Favourite
Cinematography
Want to win: Roma Will win: Roma
Documentary Feature
Want to win: Free Solo Will win: Minding the Gap
Foreign Language Film
Want to win: Roma Will win: Roma
Film Editing
Want to win: BlacKkKlansman Will win: Bohemian Rhapsody
Sound Editing
Want to win: A Quiet Place Will win: Bohemian Rhapsody
Sound Mixing
Want to win: A Star is Born Will win: Bohemian Rhapsody
Production Design
Want to win: Roma Will win: The Favourite
Original Score
Want to win: If Beale Street Could Talk Will win: Black Panther
Original Song
Want to win: Shallow (A Star is Born) Will win: Shallow (A Star is Born)
Makeup and Hair
Want to win: Mary Queen of Scots Will win: Vice
Costume Design
Want to win: Black Panther Will win: The Favourite
Visual Effects
Want to win: Avengers: Infinity War Will win: Ready Player One
Animated Short
Want to win: Bao Will win: Bao
Live Action Short
Want to win: Marguerite Will win: Marguerite
Documentary Short Subject
Want to win: Black Sheep Will win: Lifeboat
Do you agree? Disagree? Feel free to leave your predictions/wishes for the winners below or tweet @TOF_UK or @rosstmiller.
A spate of films have appeared on our screens as of late that feel like they only really could have been made now, as a sort of culmination of what has come before, a breaking point, explored in ways that hold a mirror up to how the situation is presently, whether set modern day (Assassination Nation, The Hate U Give) or in the past (BlacKkKlansman).
The latest is Monsters and Men, a thoughtful, ambitious and keenly-judged feature debut from writer-director Reinaldo Marcus Green that deals with the ricocheting effect of a black man being gunned down by police officers who purportedly perceived he was a threat to them, despite a videotaping witness suggesting he didn’t have a gun in his hand as the cops attested.
It’s a film of three distinct parts threaded together by how one event ripples through individual lives, evoking the Oscar-winning Moonlight in form at least with its three-tier structure as each of the character-driven pieces present us with their own angle on the specific situation that drives the plot and the societal themes at large. As it starts out it makes you believe you’re only going to see things from one perspective before revealing a really well-played contrasting and complimenting set-up that’s both narratively and thematically satisfying.
There’s the key witness filming the event, Manny (Anthony Ramos) who has just started a new job to provide for his wife and young daughter who has to weigh up the negative effect uploading the video to the web will have on his family’s life against his need to let the world see what actually happened. There’s the strong-willed black police officer, Dennis (John David Washington, who also starred in the aforementioned BlacKkKlansman), within the system who wasn’t directly involved with the shooting but who is colleagues with the officers responsible and with a family of his own to think about every time he heads out to patrol the city streets. And finally a young baseball star-in-the-making, Zyrick (Kevin Harrison Jr.), who is inspired to take protesting action after watching the footage.
In the middle police-focused segment, it refreshingly touches on the idea of the danger cops put themselves in every day as much as it lends vital weight to the argument that there is really no excuse for a group of officers to gun down an unarmed black man. “One cop’s mistake and now we’re all to blame,” explains Dennis when a dinner date turns sour once conversation turns to the shooting. “I thought you were different, that maybe you were part of the solution” retorts the family friends who brought the topic up. Both lines ring in your ears.
It’s the film’s strongest and most thought-provoking segment, evoking the likes of Rampart (directed by one of this film’s executive producers, Oren Moverman) and even TV’s The Shield, if not in visceral immediacy then certainly in the ways it explores interdepartmental attitudes, procedures and loyalty in the face of intense, albeit sadly all-too-common occurrences on the street.
As a whole it’s a bit more of a studied, comparatively subdued experience than the far more rambunctious, fired-up The Hate U Give. Nevertheless, in its own quietly powerful way, it explores the micro and macro effects of violence and killing at the hands of police officer that are an unfortunate regular occurrence in America, asking difficult and necessary questions that really stay with you.
Is this an inevitability of modern day life in America? Is there a solution? Why should it be allowed to continue? Where does police protecting themselves end and police brutality begin? The words “Black Lives Matter” never actually cross the lips of anyone in the film but it nevertheless pulses through every scene. In the wake of Charlottesville in particular, it’s a film that takes on more weight, making you think as it compels with its story filled with excellent performances, involving soundscape (the amplified sounds of the New York City streets is brilliantly achieved) and memorable score by Kris Bowers that’s at once sorrowful and hopeful, encapsulating the film’s ethos that these terrible things happen but there’s light at the end of the tunnel that things might some day change.
Monsters and Men is in UK cinemas from Friday January 18th.