JR (Brenton Thwaites) is serving a short prison sentence and does his best to keep his head down. JR soon draws his attention to prison heavyweight Brendan Lynch (Ewan McGregor) when the two men are drawn together through their love of chess. Brendan takes it upon himself to look after JR and whilst JR believes that Brendan is doing this out of the goodness of his heart it soon transpires that Brendan has big plans for JR on the outside and needs to get him on side in order to assist in orchestrating a prison breakout for Brendan and his gang. Brendan's plans for JR don't stop there and he's also intent on including Brendan in his plans to rob some gold.
The first half of this film is where the picture is at its strongest; it essentially introduces a young man who's wet behind the ears to a seasoned criminal who essentially runs the show and knows the inner workings of the prison system. This sets up an interesting dynamic at the start, but ultimately becomes one that seems to become lost as the film progresses. Whilst I'm prepared to accept that the opening 30 minutes or so are both brutal and engaging and clearly exist to establish the relationship between JR and Lynch there seemed to be far too much time spent on setting up the narrative at the expense of both storytelling and moving the narrative forward.
It's actually sad really when the only thing that's really established once the men break out of prison is that one of the inmates is a rapist which results in that inmate getting the obligatory kick-in. It's yet another prison cliché and is a poor plot twist that just adds to the many groan factors that seems to be increasingly on offer here.
The problem with this film is that it spends a lot of time setting up its story but then fails to provide an adequate pay-off once the story has been established. There is about 5-10 minutes of time showing the heist and then the rest of the time is spent exploring the aftermath - such as twists like the boss' nephew getting killed and a lame twist at the end involving the switching of briefcases.
To be honest I come in to heist films expecting the story to be full of holes but when watching a heist film I do expect them to be at least fun or exciting. Son of a gun delivers none of these things and is far too dull and serious to be truly enjoyable. Anyone expecting an Oceans 11 type film is going to be deeply disappointed.
The only thing really saving this forgettable and dull heist film are the performances; McGregor is very good here and this is probably the best I've seen from him in a long time. Thwaites is OK but is clearly playing second fiddle to a lot of the cast. Vikander is also good here even though she only really exists as a clichéd love interest - but she does look as gorgeous as always.
Despite a strong first half, Son Of A Gun never recovers and just becomes more boring and more tiresome as it trundles along. In truth it's dull and rather forgettable.
The first half of this film is where the picture is at its strongest; it essentially introduces a young man who's wet behind the ears to a seasoned criminal who essentially runs the show and knows the inner workings of the prison system. This sets up an interesting dynamic at the start, but ultimately becomes one that seems to become lost as the film progresses. Whilst I'm prepared to accept that the opening 30 minutes or so are both brutal and engaging and clearly exist to establish the relationship between JR and Lynch there seemed to be far too much time spent on setting up the narrative at the expense of both storytelling and moving the narrative forward.
It's actually sad really when the only thing that's really established once the men break out of prison is that one of the inmates is a rapist which results in that inmate getting the obligatory kick-in. It's yet another prison cliché and is a poor plot twist that just adds to the many groan factors that seems to be increasingly on offer here.
The problem with this film is that it spends a lot of time setting up its story but then fails to provide an adequate pay-off once the story has been established. There is about 5-10 minutes of time showing the heist and then the rest of the time is spent exploring the aftermath - such as twists like the boss' nephew getting killed and a lame twist at the end involving the switching of briefcases.
To be honest I come in to heist films expecting the story to be full of holes but when watching a heist film I do expect them to be at least fun or exciting. Son of a gun delivers none of these things and is far too dull and serious to be truly enjoyable. Anyone expecting an Oceans 11 type film is going to be deeply disappointed.
The only thing really saving this forgettable and dull heist film are the performances; McGregor is very good here and this is probably the best I've seen from him in a long time. Thwaites is OK but is clearly playing second fiddle to a lot of the cast. Vikander is also good here even though she only really exists as a clichéd love interest - but she does look as gorgeous as always.
Despite a strong first half, Son Of A Gun never recovers and just becomes more boring and more tiresome as it trundles along. In truth it's dull and rather forgettable.