Title – Fuze (2025)

Director – David Mackenzie (Outlaw King)

Cast – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Sam Worthington

Plot – When an unexploded WW2 era bomb is discovered on a construction site, bomb disposal expert Will (Taylor-Johnson) must lead an inexperienced team to disarm the device while Karalis (James) leads a crew of bank robbers on a daring heist during the bomb lockdown.  

“Down to the wire”

Review by Eddie on 12/08/2026

I’ll start off by acknowledging that directing Fuze is certainly a choice for director David Mackenzie.

A filmmaker once known for his gritty indie films such as Young Adam and Perfect Sense before he morphed into heavy hitting awards worthy dramas such as Starred Up and his biggest hit Hell or High Water, Mackenzie has a solid track record of adult orientated dramas, that over the last few years has evolved into the little seen Relay and now the equally low-key Fuze.

Whatever possessed Mackenzie to take on the job of helming the rather generic thriller Fuze is anyone’s guess, as while the film is perfectly consumable in a throwaway sense, there’s little to get excited about here as Mackenzie and his talented cast fail to inspire us to get onboard with a messy feeling film that comes off like a mash-up of multiple ideas that all deserved a more well-rounded and exciting film.

There’s a time and a place for films of Fuze’s ilk, ticking time bomb thrillers that allow us to breeze through a few hours on a quiet night all the while raising our blood pressure for good measure but despite a solid start Fuze remains stagnant throughout most of its brief 90-minute runtime, with its bright start and many possibilities left dormant without a place to live and breathe.

The direction of the film is sleek from Mackenzie, who can’t be accused of not adding a nice polish to everything, while the collection of lead actors that are championed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson with support from Theo James and Sam Worthington are all solid if unremarkable, with the ensemble straddled with the same lifelessness of the entire project that tries desperately to spice things up in the final act with little to no avail.

When everything here culminates, it’s hard not to imagine that screenwriter Ben Hopkins didn’t have different versions of this tale to be delivered on the big screen, there’s the foundations to a genuinely decent thriller with a race against time battle in one corner and a daredevil heist in the other but as it stands here, we get a film that appears to be heading in one direction before pivoting into a whole other beast entirely, filled with underwritten characters, murky motivations and an end credit coda that surely must be an in joke.

Passable in the most basic sense of the word, Fuze is watchable, but all the talent here should and could do more, particularly Mackenzie who would do well to be investing his directional prowess into far better offerings than what’s on display here.

Final Say –

If you want a minor distraction with a fresh coat of polish Fuze is a decent choice but overall, this is a frustrating viewing experience with a cast and crew that could all do a lot better with their time and skillset.

2 pizza deliveries out of 5