Review by Jon Donnis
I love me a good heist film, but recently ones that have been released have been rather lacking, so upon notice of a new heist film being released, I found myself being cautiously optimistic.
Annabel (played by Lisa Vidal) leads a covert group dedicated to retrieving priceless artworks, she gathers a team of unconventional art thieves to recover stolen Monet, Picasso, Degas, and Van Gogh pieces that were taken by Nazis during World War II and are now owned by neo-Nazi billionaire oligarch Otto Huizen (played by Brian Cousins). As the heist draws near, the team's loyalties are put to the test when they discover the true motivation behind Annabel's quest to find these lost treasures.
Now usually I would go into more detail about the story, but really folks the above is all you need to know.
I am a big fan of Jaina Lee Ortiz who plays one of crew of thieves in this called Lucille, she is the hacker of the story. And sadly, she is probably the only interesting character in the whole film. You see, you need two main elements for a good heist film, the first one being "smarts", in other words the heist needs to be clever, there needs to be twists and turns, back up plans to the back-up plans, things that happen off camera which you only find out about later, sadly this film has none of that. There is simply no clever element to the "Righteous Thieves". The second thing a good heist film needs is interesting and likeable characters. And with the exception of the Lucille character, everyone else is just really generic. It is a tick box cast. And without these two elements the film ends up being rather un-engaging. Don't get me wrong, I like the set up, I like the story as a whole, it is just so poorly executed, with such a dull cast and dull writing, that you will end up either turning the film off, or getting distracted on your phone.
The Good
It is always great to see Jaina Lee Ortiz on your screens, she is an excellent actress, currently most well-known for appearing in Station 19. She deserves better than this.
The general set up to the heist is decent, I like the plot, there is a good film to be made from that.
The Bad
Dull, uninspiring and unlikeable characters. No twists and turns, nothing clever about the thieves. Just an average film.
Overall
I found myself really disappointed with this film, at 88 minutes it is almost got the perfect run time, yet it felt so much longer.
A good plot idea, spoiled by a low budget and terrible writing.
I sadly score Righteous Thieves a 3/10.
Out on Apple TV - https://apple.co/40kwzLK
