Fuze

Fuze (2025)

73% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 88 reviews)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: David Mackenzie

Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Sam Worthington, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Saffron Hocking

From: A number of different British companies

This fuse did not light a large bomb-at least the movie wasn’t a bomb. Last fall I gave a shot to the then-newest film of David Mackenzie (of Hell or High Water fame): Relay. That was a lot of fun, a wise decision to check out theatrically as there should be more modest genre efforts on the big screen. When I learned he had a new film out this week, there was no reason for me not to grant it the same courtesy.

In the Paddington area of London-I’m a Yankee, so Wiki was needed to give the exact location-an unexploded World War II bomb was found at a dig site; in came the bomb squad, led by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Concurrently, in the same area now cordoned off is a heist of a bank led by Theo James and Sam Worthington. Meanwhile, Gugu Mbatha-Raw is the Chief Superintendent officer in charge of this scenario.

The first act was quite exciting as Fuze cut between the police station, the bomb site, and the robbers committing the heist underground. The rest of the movie… the scenarios are more standard in the field of “crime drama” and the movie did not feel as unique as is beginning. In addition, what I feared would happen in this British crime drama did occur: a certain overused swear word (especially in that country’s cinema) was heard only a few times in Act 1 but was much more frequent the rest of the picture, much to my dismay. Then, there was the conclusion—this did not nail the landing, for more than one reason that won’t be elaborated upon.

I’m always down for modestly-budgeted adult movies being released into cinemas-more should be viewed by me. It’d be better if the characters didn’t curse like they were John Davidson, but… Fuze was fine & competent, whether it was the acting, the characters, the score, the setting, the scenarios, the action beats, etc. I don’t regret the theatrical viewing; in fact, that may have made me rate the movie a bit higher than if this had been saved later for home viewing—it’s just that Relay is more my style, more my style of entertainment.

However, those that wish to see a bare-assed Taylor-Johnson taking a shower…