Runtime:
1 hr. 50 min.
Rating:
R sexual content, nudity, violence and language
Cast:
Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James
Faulkner
Director:
Roger Donaldson
Genres:
Docudrama, Crime Comedy, Caper, Crime
Yes I’m finally
getting around to this. Sorry. Been working on a sitcom and generally keeping a
roof over my head. But this flick has stuck in my mind ever since I saw it over
a month ago. So here is my review.
I know
Hollywood was hard pressed to find material for Jason Statham that would top The
Transporter 2 and In
The Name of The King,
but I think they may have, yes perhaps, succeeded.
Come on who
are we kidding? Watching Jason Statham take a dump would top either of those
films!
The truth is The
Bank Job is not only
Jason Statham’s best film to date, it is one of the most entertaining films I
have seen this year.
Inspired by
real events, which happened in the 1970s, Jason plays Terry, a low level
sometimes thief who is in debt and runs a car dealership. Terry is in love with
his new family and has pretty much left his shady dealings behind. But when Martine (Saffron Burrows), a
beautiful model from his old neighborhood, offers him a lead on a foolproof
bank hit on London's Baker Street, Terry recognizes the opportunity of a
lifetime.
Martine has
targeted a roomful of safe deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry.
Simple enough. What Terry and his crew don’t realize is that they have stepped
into one big pile of British Royal dung.
The boxes also
contain a treasure trove of dirty secrets - secrets that will thrust Terry and
co. into a deadly web of corruption and illicit scandal that spans London's
criminal underworld, the highest echelons of the British government, and the
Royal Family itself.
Honestly, I’ve
never been a big fan of heist movies, but this one may turn me onto them. While
slow in the beginning, I enjoyed the methodical approach director Roger
Donaldson used with the material. We spend time getting to know each of Terry’s
cohorts, so when the time comes that they may go down, we feel some sort of
empathy for them. It makes us laugh and root for them.
But when the
action comes, it’s fast and furious. I am actually a Jason Statham fan from
when I saw him in The Transporter. Interestingly, he is very restrained here…until the end when he
lays down some Transporter-worthy ass kickings on the villains.
And speaking of
the villains, how are they? Really threatening. Smarmy, making you giddy when
they finally do get what’s coming to them.
I only knew
Saffron Burrows from Boston Legal…I lust at her right along with Denny Crane and Alan Shore. Here
she amps up the sexiness (if that’s possible) even more, making me a lusty
popcorn muncher.
Other aspects
that stand out are the cinematography by
J.Peter Robinson and the score by Gavin Bocquet. Both feel straight out
of my favorite decade of movie making – the 1970s.
It’s interesting
to note (especially in this era of Elliot Spitzer) how the government tries to
protect the ruling class’ sexual forays in1970s Britain. Where today, we’re so
ready to hang our leaders out to dry the moment they misstep.
How true The
Bank Job is to the
original is really of no matter, it’s an extremely entertaining two hours
filled with twists and turns, some predictable, some outrageous, but all fun.
Three and a
Half Ball Point Pens