This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Action, B, Mob, Crime and Scam Movies, Movie Reviews, NEW IN THEATER, True Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Roger Donaldson
Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Michael Jibson, Richard Lintern
Director Roger Donaldson is on a roll. His last three films, The World’s Fastest Indian, The Recruit, and Thirteen Days, have all been fine efforts, but all are outdone by this captivating, true story of a 1970s bank robbery, where pulling off the caper was only the beginning of the robber’s challenges. The cool script moves at a brisk clip that swiftly ramps up the tension, and keeps it up the RPMs, all the way. Not all of the subplots seemed necessary and, although the dialog is sound, a few more slick quotable lines would have made this fine film even stronger.
Jason Statham (Snatch, Transporter series) must have been wondering what happened to the requisite scene where he leaps through the air in slow-motion with two pistols blazing. All of his projects since Snatch seem to find a way to fit that in. This isn’t that kind of film. Statham is Terry, owner of an unsuccessful car lot, with a shady background and the kind of debt that isn’t settled by declaring bankruptcy. An answer appears in the form of an old flame, Martine, who shows up with info and an offer of a lucrative robbery. What she fails to mention, is that she’s been recruited by black-op government types to get a hold of royal sex photos that are being used by a criminal as a stay out of jail free card. Terry puts together a team and this ambitious plan gets more complicated and dangerous as it goes on. And this is true? So they say. If there is a book about this (I looked. I couldn’t find one), I want to read it.
Today, sex photos of a prominent royal would likely lead to little more than a flurry of internet activity and a tearful apology. What a difference a quarter century makes! In the 1970s, the British government would apparently stop at nothing to keep those photos from becoming a front page scoop. The Bank Job is a jaw-dropping true story with top notch direction, and strong performances, that held me riveted to the end. If you loved films like Heat and Inside Man, then this is your first must-see motion picture of 2008.
