El robo del siglo

I expected this movie to be somewhat entertaining, and maybe a bit cheesy. After all, it's not difficult to muck up a heist movie. However, this film gets it all right. The acting is top notch, the story is not only engaging and clever but TRUE (!), and the experience of seeing it is thoroughly enjoyable.

The only complaints I have of the film are that the characters do get a little cheeky from time to time (but hey, they're British, so it's kind of expected), and there's a couple flashbacks/lapses in time that are initially confusing - although everything is clearly laid out about halfway through. Want to see a good movie? Check this one out!

Sold to the American public as another D-level action pic staring Jason Statham, "The Bank Job" is actually a crafty British heist flick based on an incredible true story. The screenwriters deserve credit for creating a serviceable script with so many intertwining stories based on little actual evidence, conjecture, here-say, and conspiracy theories revolving around royal and political sex scandals, militant Caribbean drug lords, undercover MI5 agents, bumbling crooks, crooked cops, and double-crosses and cover-ups. It could've easily been a confusing mess, but providing the viewer pays attention, "The Bank Job" gets the job done as crackerjack entertainment.

Though aptly directed by veteran Roger Donaldson, the film does suffer from an overly salacious opening ten minutes designed to grab the audience's attention, some shoddy editing, and an intrusively bad action-style music score. There's also an attention to 1970's period detail in the dialogue and clothes that comes across as caricature and adds an accidentally humorous undertone to the otherwise cold-as-ice affair. However, the details of the "truth is stranger than fiction" tale and the fun had by the ensemble cast make for a breezy way to spend a few hours.

Donaldson also has an eye for the ladies. Led by a smashingly gorgeous Saffron Burrows (looking like a European version of Michelle Pfeiffer circa 1992), the powerful women depicted in "The Bank Job" are far more than just eye candy. Statham is also fairly good as the head of the bank robbing crew, and when he finally throws a brick at a guy near the end of the film, it will put a smile on any action fan's face.

Things get tidied up a bit too nicely in the end, where it seems only the really villainous characters have to face justice, but before the credits role, there are a series of real-life epilogued details plastered on the screen that make the viewer realize maybe this all really did happen. Now that's a jolly good show.

I also saw this film at an advance screening. I don't normally watch any of the trailers before going, so tend to go in with an open mind. I was very pleasantly surprised, and while it perhaps won't win any Oscars, I thought it was well acted in the main with some faces you'll recognise. It might not have massive appeal outside the UK, however it is a good (based on fact) story. I'm not a massive fan of 70's music, but it wouldn't have done any harm to have a bit more in the background just to give it more of a seventies feel about it. The general mood of the film was good and for me seemed to set the scene well, without going overboard with sex or violence. On the whole, it's well worth a visit, even if you have never lived in that era.

Jason Statham is well on his way to becoming typecast. It seems like he's in a ton of these kind of action films lately, although this movie is a bit more subdued and complicated than some of them. At least in this heist flick, there are several twists and turns and you have to stay alert to follow who is exactly on the up-and-up and who isn't, and Statham isn't punching out 10 people at once.

This is another one of these modern-day films in which the crooks, the thieves, the bandits - whatever - are the "good guys" and the police and the government officials are the bad guys. This seems to be a big favorite of the anti-authority filmmakers world in the last 40 years whether it's in Hollywood or London. Regardless, it's a very entertaining film and Statham and company are fun to watch. That's also nothing new as the tough "Transporter" star has become a regular at playing these kind of nice guy/macho/thug roles.

Statham plays "Terry Leather," a man recruited by a former hottie/model girlfriend "Martine Love," (Saffron Burrows) to rob a bank. Statham is a family man but desperate for money and, obviously, not very honest. Thousands of pounds/dollars is in it for the thieves but valuable compromising sex photos are the real goal of the people who want the bank depository drawers robbed. Those want to be grabbed before the owner uses them and ruins some high uppity-ups in British government. Several people wants photos for other reasons. This whole thing isn't simple; there are number of sub-plots along the way regarding who wants what in the bank and for what reasons.

There is also a story involving a Malcolm X-wannabe kind of creep who is into extortion and murder. Actually, everyone is pretty much a creep in this film, just to varying degrees. They are all interesting, too, and several of the minor characters have a good sense of humor, too. In particular, I liked Daniel Mays as "Dave Shilling." Add some very tense robbery scenes, some sex early on, some double-crosses later and you have a very serious Keystone Cops type story where you're never quite sure what crazy thing is going to happen next.

A fun two hours of diversion, supposedly based on a true-life account, but knowing filmmakers I suspect much of this is made up for dramatic purposes. That's okay, we just watch to be entertained, and this is entertaining.

As caper flicks go, all I really hope for is something that succeeds in being both novel and entertaining. My hopes were satisfied by The Bank Job. The plot itself is based very loosely on events that occurred in the 1970s in London. The royal family has some dark secrets. An outspoken activist/petty criminal/drug importer has evidence of these secrets, which he uses as leverage against the government who desperately wants to prosecute him. This evidence is stored in a safety deposit box within a London bank. British Intelligence conjures up a rather reckless plan of employing a bunch of two-bit/amateur criminals to break into the vault, and take the evidence along with whatever else they can carry out. Apart from one intermediary, none of the robbers know the government's secret agenda. Of course, things get complicated whenever the possibility that a bunch of dirty secrets are in the wrong hands, and eventually the movie juggles several interconnecting plot lines, all related to the contents of the vault and their implication on various interests from the royal family, to corrupt police, to the sexual indiscretions of parliament members.

The movie keeps a good pace and never takes itself too seriously. It builds up the plot lines and tries somewhat successfully to tie everything together. There is some good tension, a bit of violence (not much), and eventually, vindication for most of the parties.

The problems with the movie are numerous, but nothing that ultimately destroys the fun. Yes the movie is rife with inexplicably, unnecessary side characters (see female undercover agent in the Caribbean). Yes the movie's dialogue veers into indecipherable 1970s British slang, which gives a comedic undertone to conversations that are intended to be serious. Yes there exist rampant plot issues that make you wonder how stupid cops really are. And yes the acting is OK, at best, lets face it Jason Stracham is meant for British caper movies the way Keanu Reeves is meant to play a clueless surfer cop in Point Break - so while he's not winning any Academies, he fits these rolls just fine.

You could wait for the DVD, or if you are looking for a fun way to kill 2 hours, you should go to the theater for this one.