Fuze (2025)

The robbers in Fuze are called X, Y and Z, and the script cares about them roughly as much as those names suggest. That’s the trade David Mackenzie makes: lots of momentum, not much character. The setup is terrific. A suspected World War Two bomb turns up on a Paddington building site, the streets get cleared, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Major Will Tranter calmly goes to work on a timer that shouldn’t be ticking. Meanwhile, Theo James’s Giorgos Karalis and his crew start drilling into a bank on Edgware Road from next door. Watching the two operations run side by side, with a police drone and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s harried Chief Superintendent Greenfield caught between them, is a blast. Taylor-Johnson is all quiet focus, and James is slippery fun. The twists in the last stretch stack up faster than they can land. It holds a 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 6.3 because the first hour is a ticking-clock treat and the rest is pulp. $324.35 says you hear a drill next door this week and start wondering what’s under your street.

What works: The bomb disposal and the bank job running side by side make for a tense, clever first hour, and Taylor-Johnson and Theo James are fun to watch.

What doesn’t: The heist crew are barely characters at all, and the pulpy twists in the back half pile up faster than they can land.

Who it’s for: Heist fans who love a ticking clock and don’t mind a few eye-rolling twists.