DAYLIGHT ROBBERY/HIDING IN PLAIN VIEW

Everyone knows you need a noisy diversion if you want to pull off a successful bank job. But organising one sufficiently loud and colourful enough can be tricky. And why bother with creating such a side show when you can take advantage of something someone else has cooked up, like the World Cup?

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So think a quintet of English football fans who figure to use the mayhem of Germany’s 2006 tournament to cover their tracks as they nick a few million pounds from a London Exchange bank.

It’s obvious, ain’t it?

Who is going to be bovvered watching the coffers when they are getting ready to watch the England squad giving the German homeside a thrashing?

So the gang checks in early for a flight to Germany, then sneaks away from the airport instead of going to the departure lounge and gets on with the job.

The perfect alibi surely: "Whatcha mean I’m suspected of robbery. I was at the bleeding airport waiting for my flight, wasn’t I?"

But a plan is only as good as the boys attempting to put it off and, in this case, the team have not chosen their colleagues with the flair that wins matches let alone defeats the forces of law and order.

The film stars five well-schooled hard men (including one names Lucky, never a good sign) who give a convincing portrayal of bad guys prone to error, led by Geoff Bell, from The Business and Green Street and Vas Blackwood from Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, with Paul Nicholls and Shaun Williamson both stepping up from Eastenders.

And, of course, even in our world of long flight delays, they have not allowed themselves much time to grab the cash and get back to the flight.

Things quickly go wrong, as the gang become the only would be passengers in the world hoping their flight might be kept waiting indefinitely.

Except that would mean missing the game altogether, which would be a disastrous own goal for these footie fanatics.

Daylight Robbery is quickly building a buzz among football fans, heist movie addicts and, for all one knows, various would be bank robbers.

The film is scheduled for an August release in the UK.

The website is www.daylightrobberymovie.com.

Posted July 7, 2008.