Review: Fast, clever and satisfying, 'Fuze' is a throwback thriller with a ticking time bomb

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David Mackenzie’s “Fuze” springs to life in a millisecond.In central London, a construction digger unearths an unexploded World War II bomb, and it starts to tick.The blast radius could be a half-mile wide.

Outside the cordon, Chief Supt.Zuzana (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) oversees the evacuation of thousands of residents to Hyde Park.

Inside the cordon, a military explosives expert, Maj.Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), marshals his squad to disarm the weapon.

Also inside the cordon, a heist crew headed by thieves Karalis and X (Theo James and Sam Worthington, respectively) uses the dangerous distraction to rob a bank.Three skilled teams, three goals.Meanwhile, a displaced neighborhood resident named Rahim (Elham Ehsas) is cooling his heels in Hyde Park very aware of an evening flight that his family is supposed to be on.

His clan will factor into the plot too, although his wheelchair-bound father flusters, “Nobody ever tells me what’s going on.” Join the club, old man.“Fuze” was one of my favorite treats at last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival, although unlike many of the other films it premiered alongside, it has no pretensions of being an awards contender.(Mackenzie’s 2016 modern western “Hell or High Water” did make a moderate Oscar splash.) This is just quality popcorn filmmaking that spins the audience in circles as we watch experts do their jobs.

I left the theater feeling giddily put through the wringer by its contrarian depictions of heroes and fiends.Movies Strong turns by Tessa Thompson, Amanda Seyfried and Jessie Buckley arrived in movies that rose to the top of a stacked slate at the Toronto International Film Festival.A mechanical exercise more than a character piece, the script by Ben Hopkins (of the 2023 Willem Dafoe existentialist art burglar drama “Inside”) functions like an elaborate contraption.

First, you’re impressed by the...