Fuze

When you bring together Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Sam Worthington, and Theo James, immediately as a viewer you're attracted to a project as these three stars, on their own, often lend themselves to entertaining films and television, even if they hardly operate in the same rarefied air as the performer elite. The point is, each of these three actors make for interesting and engaging entertainment, so naturally, this understanding, matched up with Hell or High Water and Relay's David Mackenzie being in the director's chair, you begin to expect something from the action crime-drama, Fuze.

And for what it's worth, what's been cooked up with this film is broadly speaking entertaining. It's certainly not attempting to be a remarkable or exceptional film, but it's put together well enough to keep you hooked for its 90 minute runtime, where it never really asks much of you as a viewer, but perhaps that's not such a bad thing at the end of the day either. It's a safe, digestible movie, perfect for weekday evenings, a project that even has a certain B-movie aura to it, almost like it doesn't quite know how to effectively use the resources at its disposal. It is, without seeming too direct, the prime example of a three-star movie, a 6/10 to judge all other 6/10s against.

The premise of Fuze is rather straightforward. We follow different factions as they each complete unique tasks during a bomb disposal operation in the centre of London. Taylor-Johnson appears as an army Major trained as an EOD technician, the individual tasked with safely removing the bomb, while James and Worthington appear as criminals using the commotion to rob a bank, and then there are supporting stars like Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who appears as a police superintendent overseeing the operation from control. On the surface, it seems like a rudimentary crime-drama, a slightly fresh feeling heist narrative, but as the minutes tick by you start to notice there is more beneath the surface...

The army Major begins to make questionable decisions, as though he's purposefully delaying the operation, while the robbers show signs of division when one person begins to act differently to the others, leading to untrust within the group. Then the poop hits the fan, as they say, and all these loose connections begin to weave into a wider tapestry, a more complicated turn of events that admittedly is quite clever in places. Again, it's a perfect example of a 6/10 storyline, as you can sense that something is coming from a mile away. The cast are too obvious in their performances, the dialogue too blunt to be convincing, and yet the way it's stitched together is effective enough that you come away quite entertained by what was served up.

However, even if this is the case, the talents of the main cast aren't nearly utilised to their full potential. In fact, the majority of the characters in Fuze are simply forgettable and a little drab, and it's mostly saved by James' Karalis, a South African criminal who is about as eccentric as one can get. At times, he displays so much charisma when compared to the rest of the cast that it can actually stand out as bit of caricature and too exaggerated, but ultimately it's down to the sheer lack of effort from the other stars, who simply give mediocre performances befitting of this film's wider standing.

So yes, Fuze is perfectly enjoyable entertainment, but it's also a movie that after the credits roll it instantaneously starts to lose its hold on you. It's never outright bad, it never becomes tiresome, but if you spend a few minutes searching through a streaming platform, you almost certainly will find something that will leave a larger impression on you than what Fuze manages to achieve. As I mentioned, the epitome of a 6/10.