Based on a true story of a heist gone wrong. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 07/15/2008 Starring: Jason Statham Run time: 110 minutes Rating: R Director: Roger Donaldson
A cheerful, energetic, and completely entertaining movie, The Bank Job follows some small-time hoods who think they've lucked into a big-time opportunity when they learn a bank's security system will be temporarily suspended--little suspecting that they're being manipulated by government agents for their own ends. The result is that the movie doubles its pleasures: While the robbery itself has the usual suspense of a heist film, when the robbery is over the hoods find themselves being hunted by the police, the government, and brutal criminal kingpins who were storing dangerous information in a safety deposit box. The Bank Job won't win any awards, but it's enormously fun. Director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, Species) propels the action along with vigor, editing zippily with perfect clarity among multiple storylines and various colorful characters. Jason Statham (Snatch, The Transporter), as the leader of the bank robbers, successfully steps away from his usual bone-crunching roles to a more human presence. The rest of the cast--including Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea), Keeley Hawes (Tipping the Velvet), David Suchet (Poirot), and many faces familiar from British film and television--give their characters the right degree of personality and flavor without getting fussy or detracting from the headlong rush of the story. A little sex, a lot of action, a sly sense of humor, and a twisty plot; if more movies had these basic pleasures, the world would be a happier place. --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Bank Job (click for larger image)

Customer Rating:
Summary: ok flik
Comment: Statham is always great, but this movie was slow and boring. The only good part is that its a true story. And the English accents drove me crazy.
If you want a great movie, its not this one. Watch Street Kings!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly exciting
Comment: I didn't know anything about this film prior to seeing it other than that it was based on a true story about a group of English petty criminals who decide to tunnel beneath a bank in order to rob safe deposit boxes. The heist is the idea of a woman played by Saffron Burrows, who has a specific and ulterior motive for wanting to rob a certain safe deposit box.

Jason Statham shows that he's grown as an actor in this one. He's moved beyond simply scowling and karate chopping people in the windpipe. His crew members are distinct and colorful, and they are extremely likeable despite their criminal acts.

This film isn't fancy. It's a sad story told simply and in straightforward fashion. It's not as polished as The Italian Job or as smarmy as Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen. It's a no-frills tale that will leave you wondering at the lengths people will go to for wealth and to save their skin when they get in trouble.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Sexed up, but still boring
Comment: The Bank Job has more nudity and blatant semi-porn than any movie I've seen in a while. Unless you're a thirteen year old male, or want to watch porn without the stigma of actually having to rent it, you might find this movie a bit boring. I'm all for period pieces that are free from cliched car chases, violent shoot-em ups, or two-dimensional characters, but sadly this movie lacks the former but without the compelling plot of a true drama. There is a haphazard quality to the film. At times I was expecting it to go the direction of Oceans 11 and be a 'lovable set of criminals' movie where each character contributes their set of skills to accomplish a goal; a sort of criminal 'magnificent seven.' The Bank Job starts down that path, but then abandons it in mid stream.

Aside from Jason Stratham's character, all of the criminal gang are faceless and pretty unremarkable in the end. There is little likability among them. Also, the stakes feel fairly low until near the end of the film, when they are jacked through the roof, contributing to the unbalanced quality of the narrative flow. Most importantly, one of the best plot elements is left relatively unexplored: the story of a female MI5 agent who has infiltrated a domestic terrorist organization. Deeper examination of her story would have provided a very interesting parallel to the main action.

This is a busting at the seams steam fest with crud loads of gratuitous sex, nudity, and titillation, but with very little real substance. If you want a cleaner alternative, check out Flawless. If you want a more traditional, more action packed heist movie, watch The Italian Job. If you want something in the middle, there is always The Thomas Crown Affair.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Exceeds the formulaic take on the bank heist genre
Comment: I went into "The Bank Job" thinking it would be a rather formulaic cinematic take on the bank heist genre. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. This is quite good stuff! I especially liked the 'Extras' on the DVD, which reinforced how much of the tale was snatched from a real-life event. Hats off to co-writers Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais for wrapping a taut thriller around that.

I was looking for a way to characterize my feeling about Jason Statham. Then, I read this pitch-perfect gem from reviewer Monkdude on these pages: "I'm not the biggest Jason Statham fan, mainly because he always looks and sounds the same in every role, but here he shows a little more range and is quite likeable."

Exactly! He'll always be Handsome Rob (The Italian Job (Special Collector's Edition)) in my book. Lucky for me, he continues to play slight variations on that role. Hey, why mess with success? The guy's carved out quite a good career, despite having started as a model. [Guy Ritchie put him Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (Widescreen Edition) straight from a French Connection UK ad shoot.]

What struck me in the Extras is how Statham's managers picked and shepherded this film as a project for him. [I think this was Steve Chasman discussing this point - he's a producer of the film.] I'm impressed. As I mentioned earlier, Statham's got a nice little career going. Good management has definitely played a part in that. Good show, Steve Chasman.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The best caper film I've seen in years
Comment: Everybody enjoys a good heist flick, and this one is much better than most. Based on the true story of the 1971 robbery of a bank in London's Baker Street, it involves a group of small-time crooks who use ingenuity and imagination to make their big score by tunneling under the bank's vault. And this one turned out to be bigger even than the Great Train Robbery. Terry Leather, whose used car business is slightly bent, is recruited by a woman with whom he used to be involved -- who was strong-armed into it by MI-5, which actually wants to acquire the contents of one of the bank's safety deposit boxes, which includes some incriminating photos involving a Royal Person, which were taken by a Trinidadian hoodlum, whom the government is consequently powerless to arrest. Yes, stated like that, it's a somewhat complicated plot, but the characters explain everything very nicely along the way. Not all the characters survive the robbery's aftermath, but those who do pretty much get away with it -- and are mostly sympathetic, at that. One thing that makes this yarn especially enjoyable, at least to me, is that there are no big-name stars. In fact, Peter Bowles (whom I remember from _To the Manor Born,_ 25 years ago) is the only one I had even heard of. This means the actors are defined entirely by their roles here, and the result is almost like a documentary. The result is much preferable to the _Ocean's Eleven_ remake.

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