AC/AL 2008 110m ENG 20m N/SV CAST: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Alki David & Michael Jibson CREDITS: Director: Roger Donaldson; Screenwriters: Dick Clement/Ian La Frenais; Producers: Steven Chasman/Charles Roven; Director of Photography: Mick Coulter; Production Designer: Gavin Bocquet; Editor: John Gilbert; Costume Designer: Odile Dicks Mireaux; Music: J. Peter Robinson THE SYNOPSIS London,England: 1971. Former crook Terry Leather (Statham) runs a local auto repair shop and has a wife and 2 daughter to support and tries to stay on the straight-and-narrow. Naturally, that all changes when he’s harassed by nasty debt-collectors who wreck some of his cars. Then, femme fatale—and former flame—Martine Love (Burrows) conveniently appears and offers him a job: break into a bank on Baker Street and steal the contents of safety deposit box 118—which belongs to militant black leader Michael X (de Jersey). Unbeknownst to Terry, Martine is an indentured servant of MI5 and her “boss” (and current lover) Tim Everett (Lintern)—needs the contents of box 118 because there are photos revealing a member of the British Royal Family indulging in an orgy. Turns out that Michael X has them as insurance so that MI5 will not arrest or persecute him. Terry gathers a bunch of his mates: best friends Kevin (Moore) & Daniel (Mays), educated and suave Guy Singer (Faulkner), foreigner Bambas (David) and Terry’s mechanic Eddie (Jibson) and plan the heist—not just of the contents in 118, but anything else they can get their hands on in the very upscale bank. The heist itself goes pretty well, and the gang make off with plenty of loot, the photos and a ledger belonging to shady night club owner/pornographer Lew Vogel (Suchet)—who has half the police force on his payroll…and the evidence dwells in that ledger. Several of the gang are murdered as Vogel tries to retrieve his ledger—forcing Terry to make a deal with MI5 for the trading of the photos and the ledger for the remaining members’ freedom. Lives are shattered and scandal erupts—but in the end, Terry and a few of them live to tell the tale from places far, far away. THE CRITIQUE THE BANK JOB is a low-key yet solid heist movie based on certain true events—and “certain” is definitely the key word here. While pertaining to real 1971 events (The “Walkie-Talkie Bank Job”), many facets have been changed, dropped, integrated and/or altered for dramatic license…just like most movies based on “real” or “true” events. THE BANK JOB is headlined by one of my favorite recent action stars, Jason Statham (terrific here in a low-key role), and boasts a colorful cast of British character actors ranging from the lovely Saffron Burrows (poetry in motion) to the darkly-talented David Suchet (who’s got one of the more “evil” set of eyebrows in the business) to the City of London itself as a viable character in its own right. While not as flashy as the bigger-budgeted and Hollywoodized The Italian Job (2003), it’s safe to say that this one falls into an area in the crime/thriller/heist sub-genre pantheon situated somewhere between Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956) and John Frankenheimer’s Ronin (1998). Oh, and Jules Dassin’s Topkapi (1964), Michael Mann’s Heat (1995) & Richard Brook’s $ (1971) also figure into that equation as well. I mention the directors of these fine sub-genre movies as a litmus test because this one was directed by another pro: Aussie filmmaker-turned-Hollywood expatriate, Roger Donaldson (The Recruit/Dante’s Peak/The Bounty). Under Donaldson’s adept hands, we are lavished with a handsome, thrilling package that plays more like a classic Hollywood film noir than a flashy, post-modern, Guy Ritchie-esque flick—replete with razor-edited sequences and curses galore. Not that I’m complaining, either—I do enjoy Ritchie’s repertoire as well (the Swept Away remake notwithstanding); but in THE BANK JOB, the aim is to tell a story about a low-tech bank heist using hard work, sweat and ingenuity. This goes for both the actual heist and the subsequent filmmaking! Point goes to the veteran British screenwriting team of Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais (screenwriters of countless British & Hollywood projects) for creating a well-written and well-crafted noir-style screenplay that does not pander to ADD-riddled audiences. Praise the Lord and pass the popcorn!! I really appreciated the period-style mise-en-scène—punctuated by the velvety, widescreen-lensing of veteran Scottish cinematographer Michael Coulter (Love Actually/Notting Hill/Sense & Sensibility)—which I was amazed to discover in the production notes—was actually shot on HD! Double-kudos to Coulter (and the Arriflex D-20 HD camera) for creating an atmosphere imitative of actual film stock and a period-style shooting schema of rich color saturation, eloquent framing/composition, etc. All that was missing was the use (or sometime overuse) of zoom-lensing—which punctuated and probably defined 1970s filmmaking the world over! So as not “steal’ all of the credit, let me furnish some of it on veteran British Production Designer Gavin Bouquet (Star Wars: Episodes I-III/xXx series), whose nostalgic set designs made me feel like I was in 1971 London. The 1970s European clothes, cars, music, dwellings, locations and other facets are handled in terrific detail and it all pays off for a discerning viewer such as myself—who was born in 1972 New Jersey, USA! Other tech credits are top-shelf (for a project with an estimated $20,000,000 budget)--with honorable mention going to both the sharp, tension-mounting cutting by veteran film editor Jon Gilbert (Bridge To Terabitha/The World’s Fastest Indian) and snazzy wardrobe creations by British Costume Designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux (10,000 B.C./The Constant Gardener). All in all, THE BANK JOB held my interest all the way through. While most movies of the heist sub-genre focus entirely on the heist (usually occurring by Act III), the event occurs by the movie’s mid-point and spends the rest of its running time on the fallout/aftermath of the bank job. If there were any negatives to be said about THE BANK JOB, I’d say that the entire movie is a tad underwhelming when compared to recent British movies like the kinetic Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (1998), the (very) gory Gangster No. 1 (2000) and the darkly-seductiveand violent Sexy Beast (2000). But the “old-fashioned” approach to a storied sub-genre taken by the filmmakers of THE BANK JOB “deposits” some good will for fans of the sub-genre. THE BOTTOM LINE THE BANK JOB is a solid heist movie that keeps its “British” up without alienating the audience. Expert direction, good casting, great period mise-en-scene and some real thrills add up to a job well done. It’s watching movies like this that makes me happy that I keep my own money at home under the mattress! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_actorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_budgetinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_%28genre%29#Filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_directorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_United_States#Golden_Age_of_Hollywoodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noirhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_%28film%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remakehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmmakinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenwritinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenwriterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenplayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise-en-sc%C3%A8nehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widescreenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematographerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_videohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arriflex_D-20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_stockhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_saturation#Saturationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_lenshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_in_filmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_designerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editor#Film_editorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costume_Designer10000BC.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8shapeimage_2_link_9shapeimage_2_link_10shapeimage_2_link_11shapeimage_2_link_12shapeimage_2_link_13shapeimage_2_link_14shapeimage_2_link_15shapeimage_2_link_16shapeimage_2_link_17shapeimage_2_link_18shapeimage_2_link_19shapeimage_2_link_20shapeimage_2_link_21shapeimage_2_link_22shapeimage_2_link_23shapeimage_2_link_24shapeimage_2_link_25shapeimage_2_link_26shapeimage_2_link_27shapeimage_2_link_28shapeimage_2_link_29shapeimage_2_link_30