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Son of a Gun

The prison-heist-gangster cliché playbook

A young man (an unbelievably bland Brenton Thwaites) is provided protection during his brief stint in prison by a notorious criminal (a just plain unbelievable Ewan McGregor) in return for helping the older man escape when he gets out, after which they steal some gold or something.

I’m not sure what the makers of this little Aussie flick were trying to do. If it was to stuff every possible prison-life/break, heist, car-chase and gangster cliché into one overlong movie, it works fine. It’s relatively coherent for all that. It’s just that it’s all been done before, often and better. Facile ending.

Japanese title: Guns & Gold. (108 min)