Plastic is a British
thriller based on a true
story where a group of
college boys headed by Sam
(Ed Speleers) run a credit
card scam that nets them
some tidy cash. One day,
Yatesy (Alfie Allen) and
Rafa (Sebastian De Souza)
do a quick smash and grab
on an unsuspecting punter
and steal a suitcase which
just happens to be owned
by the crime boss Marcel
(Thomas Kretschmann), who
tracks them down, works
out what they do and
threatens them with death
unless the group pays him
2 million dollars in two
weeks. Even running their
scams, they are going to
struggle until Sam meets
Frankie (Emma Rigby), who
works for a data
processing centre involved
with credit cards. So, the
team with Frankie go to
Miami to steal from the
credit cards of
unsuspecting high rollers,
but Yatesy gets jealous of
Sam and Frankie and stuffs
up their plan, so they go
with a plan Rafa concocts
on-the-fly where he
impersonates a prince from
Brunei (who is remarkably
a dead ringer!) and steal
diamonds from an
unsuspecting jeweller
worth up to 20 million
dollars. Things go well
with their hasty plan
until petty jealousies and
a psychotic Marcel enter
the fray.
Decidedly preposterous
movie (so of course it's
based on a true story)
that isn't anything you
haven't seen before and
plays up the glam factor
to its maximum. And it's
near impossible to have
any sympathy for the group
because they are such a
bunch of confident
arseholes (maybe some
sympathy for Frankie who
was played and had
altruistic motives for
being in on the scam), so
fuck these guys. Slick,
smooth, but completely
vapid and no-one to
barrack for. Meh!
And what's with British
crime movies being about
credit card scams all of a
sudden? Feels totally
low-rent. We're going to
miss the bank
robbery/heist movie when
the world goes totally
digital.
