TL;DR – A profoundly fascinating heist film that never lets you settle as it shifts under your feet.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime subscription used to watch this film.

Fuze Review Introduction

Sometimes you sit down and have a feeling that you need to watch something you have not seen in a while, and for me that was a good heist film. I love the tension, the precision, the action; every part of a good heist is a delight, and I think we got a good one today.   

So, to set the scene, it’s construction time in London, England, and when digging out the foundation of a building, the diggers hit something you don’t want to find: an unexploded 500lb bomb left from WWII. It is one of those things that can shut an entire city down, as people must evacuate the potential blast zone. The Army, under Major Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), has been brought in to deal with the bomb while the police evacuate the city around it. But with entire blocks of London evacuated, and no one watching, that leaves an awful lot of unintended valuables lying around, and a lot of false alarms going off while hiding what you are doing.

Personality

The first thing that I noticed while watching Fuze is that in a film set in a professional space, everyone still has personality. So many films set in this space have bland or one-note casts that it was refreshing to feel the ups and downs. The new guy trying to prove himself, the old hand who has been here before, the cop trying to keep things under control, and the completely overwhelmed council disaster worker. It also helps that everyone generally is competent at their jobs. That is just those dealing with the bomb; then we have the heist happening in tandem with its own complexities as well.  

Tension

A ticking bomb is always a good way of ratcheting up the tension, but it can feel artificial, a forced timer. Here you feel the tension because people are treating it with the danger it could be. Those moments, as they tried to attach the clock stopper as the bomb ticked away, were harrowing. The music, the danger, the action, all combine to make you sit on the edge of your chair, watching in fear for each tick of the bomb: is this the one that will set it off? They replicate this throughout the film, with police checkpoints, tension over what they want out of the bank, and just who is involved in the heist.

Narrative

From a narrative perspective, what Fuze does very well is keep you consistently on your toes as to what is about to happen. The film is like an onion [or a parfait] in that it keeps revealing layers, so you can never quite get a handle on what is about to happen. As well as this, each twist in the film has the dual effect of hitting its mark while also not feeling forced, which is a tough combination. If I were to reach for any criticism, it was that Sam Worthington felt underused throughout the film. Also, there was one dodgy insert shot, which, while not ruining the film because the rest was solid, was so profoundly dodgy that it was like a visual slap to the face.     

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Fuze? Absolutely. I had a lot of fun with this ticking time bomb of a film. The heist was solid, the characters interesting, and each twist and turn delightful.  

Have you watched Fuze? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Fuze, we would recommend Ambulance to you because it also shows how much personality can add to films like this.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Feel free to share this review on social media and check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Fuze
Directed by – David Mackenzie
Written by – Ben Hopkins
Music by – Tony Doogan
Cinematography by – Giles Nuttgens
Edited by – Matt Mayer
Production/Distribution Companies – Anton, Sigma Films, Sky Films, StudioCanal, RodsideFlix, Saban Films, & Amazon Prime
Starring – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sam Worthington, Saffron Hocking, Elham Ehsas, Shaun Mason, Nabil Elouahabi, Alexander Arnold, Honor Swinton Byrne, Luke Mably, Iain Fletcher, Samuel Oatley, Dragos Bucur, & Kerry Pallot
Rating – Australia: MA15+;