(2021) Locked Down - A Disappointing Low-Key Heist Movie Focusing More on the Dramatic Impact on Covid-19 Pandemic

While checking new movies on HBO Go, I was surprised to see there was this film which did not seem familiar and apparently was quite brand new. I was quite intrigued by the premise and since two well known stars were the lead cast, I immediately decided to watch it yesterday. Well let's go into it now.

Brief Story Line

After living together for 10 years, Linda (Anne Hathaway - The Hustle, Colossal etc) and her boyfriend Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor - The Old Guard, The Lion King live version etc) were having strained relationship, which was worsened due to Covid-19 lockdown in London. While Linda was still working as CEO for a famous fashion brand, Paxton could only work as delivery car driver because of his criminal past. So when Paxton's boss Malcolm (Ben Kingsley - The Jungle Book live version, House of Sand and Fog etc) gave him a risky delivery job which required someone without criminal activity background, Paxton still accepted it.

Linda who found out that Paxton took the delivery job which included priceless jewellery owned by her company, was in a moral dilemma whether the both of them should pull a heist on the jewellery and have financial freedom. 

So what would happen to Linda and Paxton? Find them all in this heist comedy movie.

End of Brief Story Line

You know this movie was not exactly what I was hoping for. When I read the premise, it seemed like a heist movie with a really updated world condition of Covid-19 pandemic which resulted to drastic change in the way of life. It was fun at first seeing how people communicated using Skype or Zoom and Linda & Paxton's neighbors staying at home feeling a bit depressed (which quite sum up what generally people are feeling now). But as the story continued, the depressing feeling were more and more apparent and I could not wait for the film to reach the fun part, i.e. the heist.

However, the director (Doug Liman - The Bourne Identity, Mr & Mrs. Smith etc) had other ideas. Instead of speeding things up, he concentrated again on more drama. It became clear to me that this was not a really heist movie. And I do not even think this fit the category of rom-com. OK, there was quite a bit of dark comedy here, but it was a different kind of romance. When it finally got to the supposedly interesting part, I no longer have the excited feeling I normally had when watching heist movie. It pretty much just went pass without leaving any really good impression.

Aside from the disappointingly low key heist, the lead stars actually did pretty OK. Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor seemed like genuine real couple with strained relationship. There were also quite a lot of supporting cast, though the only familiar faces for me were Ben Kingsley, Ben Stiller as Linda's boss, Stephen Merchant (The Girl in the Spider's Web, The Office TV series etc) as security head in Harrods and my personal favorite Dulé Hill (Psych TV series etc) as Paxton's half brother. 

Overall this was a quite mediocre movie to me personally. I think the problem was the high expectation of the heist which did not really came through. Perhaps if the short synopsis was put in different way, I would not have that kind of expectation and maybe I would be more entertained. So if you are a heist movie fan like me, most probably you would not be satisfied with this. However if you like dark comedy drama of people's lives affected by lockdown, than this might be an interesting option.

Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Interesting fact: The movie was done entirely during the Covid-19 period and I applauded the work of the cast and crew for successfully making a film in this challenging times.