Review of "Bitcoin Heist," DVD version

Review of

Bitcoin Heist, DVD version


Four out of five stars

 This movie was made in Vietnam, a place that one would not consider to be where quality films are made. The story is along the lines of “Ocean 11,” where a group of unlikely partners get together in order to execute a very complex robbery. In this case, rather than stealing valuables that are physical, the target is assets expressed in cyber form, namely bitcoins. Not only do the perpetrators have to break into a secure vault, they must access a computer and transfer the bitcoins using a security device embedded in the target’s ring, which he wears at all times. As in keeping with such movies, there are many special effects with the camera shot bouncing from location to location and person to person.

 The movement from action shot to action shot is not as crisp as viewers of Hollywood movies have come to expect. Yet, they are not bad. What makes the movie distinct from the others in the genre is that the ending is not formulaic. In other movies, the group of thieves successfully carries out the heist and then laughs their way to and sometimes into the credits. That is not the case here, the last part of the movie contains some very unexpected twists.

 One of the strongest features of the movie is the fact that the target assets are digital in form. Given that most monetary transfers in the world today are electronic, this is a new area of the big crime genre that must be explored in cinema.