Palaest recommended

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Trebaby Been reading the late Oliver Reed's authorized (by family, natch) bio, What Fresh Lunacy Is This? Ollie was England's pure film actor from the '60s and '70s, a star in his time. He got his start in Hammer horrors and was only a year away from international fame thanks to the Oscar® winning Oliver! (one of my all-time faves) when he made this comedic heist film with future schlockmeister Michael Winner. Almost impossible to see today, The Jokers is an interesting slice of swinging '60s Cool Britannia that's definitely worth a look (if you can find it). Michael Crawford and Reed play a pair of upper-class blokes in search of kicks. They decide to pull the biggest heist ever -- stealing the Crown Jewels of course -- and thanks to a loophole in English law, hope to get away with it by showing that they did not intend to "permanently deprive" the crown of its treasure. Of course this is precisely the type of movie that they could never get away with making these days. Crawford and Reed are really little more than "terrorists" blowing things up around London and generally make a nuisance of themselves. Amid the snappy music and freewheeling dialog, there's a twist ending. Everything moves at a hare's pace and although there aren't really any bellylaughs, the proceedings are light enough to entertain. Still awaiting a proper video release, bootleg videos exist taken from television airings. A pivotal step in Ollie Reed's rise to silver screen fame deserves better.

ianlouisiana Mr M.Winner is a living contradiction of the old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity.As a result of what appears to be rampant and patronising snobbery,his image - boosted by his preposterous and bad - mannered antics as a so - called "restaurant critic" - is that of an arrogant,none -too - intelligent boor.His tabloid newspaper column was childish and spiteful,his current TV ads for a motor car insurance company are unspeakable.And yet it all could have been so different...... This former infant terrible of the British cinema is a Cambridge man.A measly 3rd - generally awarded to any entrant who gets his Candidate Number right-and an editorship of Varsity were his share of the glittering prizes.During his days running what was at the time the sole newspaper at the University,he discovered that there was no need for him to purchase - like the vast majority of his fellow undergraduates - a bicycle as the law,as defined in the Larceny Act which was in force at the time,clearly stated that in order to be convicted of stealing,a defendant had to have intended to keep the property which was the subject of the charge. Armed with the moral certainty of the larcenous at heart he proceeded to "borrow" bicycles as it pleased him . This was an important lesson for the young Winner,and one he remembered by the time he got round to making "The Jokers",as the whole plot of the movie revolves around that arcane point of English Law. The really sad thing about Mr Winner's decline into self - parody is that "The Jokers" is a very good film. Mr O.Reed and Mr M.Crawford are both outstanding as the brothers intent on "borrowing" the Crown Jewels.The whole production fizzes with fun and energy and plays its part in perpetuating the mainly mythical "Swinging Sixties" image of life in Upper Middle Class West London. The late Mr Reed was devilishly handsome and suave and determinedly ploughed the lonely furrow of the devoted follower of Bacchus until his untimely but hardly unexpected death during the making of "Gladiator". Mr Crawford,rather more cute and cuddly,is fondly remembered by many as the well - meaning simpleton Frank Spencer,source of a million bad impressions.Ultimately,of course,Mr Crawford found his true niche as a purveyor of Lord Lloyd - Webber's musical wallpaper.But all this was unimaginably far in the future.Watch their wide - eyed and innocent pleasure in the sheer joy of performing. They are ably assisted by a comforting list of sterling British Character Actors who have graced more movies than you could shake a stick at. A persuasive writer could put a case for the proposition that Mr Winner's career as a director peaked with "The Jokers".Certainly it is a work he might well wish to be remembered for rather than a lot of the stinkers he made to keep his wine - cellar stocked. Whatever one might say about him,there is no doubt that he had,and still has,chutzpah;any director that can actually direct Orson Welles - as he did in "I'll never forget whatshisname" - rather than just sit back and let him take over must at least have that. He may never have the need,financially,to make another film ,but I rather hope that,creatively,he can rustle up one last hurrah that will go some way towards restoring his reputation and diminishing the memories of the pot - boilers and duds that litter his CV..

CHRISTOPHER HEATH Two clever, but rebellious and anarchic upper-class brothers (Oliver Reed and Michael Crawford) plot the ultimate robbery - the theft of the crown jewels from the Tower of London and concoct what they believe is the perfect alibi; the trouble is, can they trust one another?Both are a couple of drifters from a highly privileged background and have been given the best in life, but they are bored and suffer from a superiority complex which means they think they are above the law and that winning is all that matters. The theft is a chance to cock a snook at the British establishment, of which they are a part, and to brag about it to their party-going 'hooray' friends, thus enabling them to become part of folklore for their generation. They believe they can get away with it so long as the jewels are returned to the Tower - and there lies the crunch. The opening scene shows the Crawford character being slung out of the army for breaking every rule in the book and circumnavigating the army's chain of command so that he can capture his objective on Salisbury Plain. The fact that he used his initiative is neither here nor there - he's a rebel with no ethics and that doesn't fit well with the British Army. In time of war, you need buccaneers like the brothers in order to win the day. They are straight out of sixteenth century tradition of Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh and this coincides exactly with the spirit of the hedonistic 'swinging sixties' where anything goes.The picture is tremendous fun and is well scripted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, two of the best screenwriters around. Michael Crawford didn't want to participate in the making of the film originally as he thought no-one would believe he could be Oliver Reed's brother. However, prior to filming, he met Reed's real-life brother who displayed an uncanny resemblance to Crawford and this made him change his mind. THIS MOVIE MUST BE BROUGHT OUT ON DVD NOW!!!

Oro-Indiano I remember when I was about 5 years old I saw a film about two soldiers who steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Latterly, I didn't remember much about it (obviously) or even what it was called, only that I loved it. So I was pleasantly surprised recently, when I stayed to watch the late movie on telly one night and it all came flooding back...Quite why I would have loved "The Jokers" so much when I was five is beyond me, as most of the humour would have probably gone straight over my head. I must have loved the ingenuity of the brothers' scheme and the twists at the closing stages. But then, this movie is so incredibly easy to like - it rattles along at a cracking pace with a deftness of touch not usually associated with Michael Winner, it looks like a tourist film of London, it's a pleasing thriller, and it's pretty funny to boot. There are some priceless lines, including a couple which only an Englishman could find funny. And of course you have two great central performances, from the sterling Michael Crawford, and Oliver Reed.There are many advances in technology which would render crucial details of the plan unworkable today, making the movie very much a product of its times; but baby, what times! The Swinging London of the late 60s, as so affectionately sent up in the "Austin Powers" flicks, is presented here as decadently appealing, if shallow, an endless round of booze and birds. If there's any sour note it is that the "system" which the brothers want to ridicule seems to have been very kind to them along the way. But it's hardly a film to be making profound political statements, so one can't complain. Instead just sit back and enjoy this superbly entertaining little gem, as much fun now as it was when I was five years old!(9/10)