I liked what director David Mackenzie tried to do with Relay (2024) but once again the script (this time by Ben Hopkins) let the show down. The cast was good enough to deliver whatever was intended: Aaron Taylor-Johnson led, Theo James does OK as a nervy South African, Sam Worthington brought the operational chops (maybe).
There's a bit too much going on on a beaut high-summer day on the streets of London: a large World War II UXO is uncovered at a worksite and the resolution requires the "don't be shit" British Army to coordinate with the Metropolitan Police. So far so The Bill but of course this is just prologue to a heist-with-twists which seems to be lifted straight from the 1980s: from a generator to power the tools/plot (why not jack someone's house battery or electric vehicle?) to the counters in the money transfer apps. The holey plot is competently realised but the totality is nowhere close to Thief (1981).
The ending left no ambiguity about where the creators' sympathy lies.
Glenn Kenny: three-and-a-half unfathomable stars at Roger Ebert's venue. Jeannette Catsoulis. "Amiably daffy", "programmatic, its characters bland cogs in a Rube Goldberg machine."
