The Bank Job (imdb)
When you hear bank job and Jason Statham in the same sentence, you can’t help but imagine a run and gun bank robbery likely replete with explosive charges and bags full of money flying around. And, of course, you imagine Jason Statham kicking a few people along the way. Leave it to the British to deliver something else completely. The Bank Job is actually a good, old fashioned heist movie which tells the long rumored story of the real life robbery of a bank in London in 1971.
Rather than the traditional high-body count, run and gun style usually expected, the audience is treated to a movie documenting a safety deposit box robbery that is methodical, cunning and, at some points, ingenious. Jason Statham plays Terry, a small-time thief who is currently running a used car shop who is in debt and looking for a way out. His old flame, Martine Love (Saffron Burrows), offers him a proposition that could solve all his financial problems and then some. She’s heard from an acquaintance that a local bank’s security system will be down for a select few nights and it would be just enough time for them to break in and smash a few safety deposit boxes. Terry and Martine round up a small team and with a little Ocean’s Eleven style planning, they set forth to rob a bank.
Unfortunately, Martine’s acquaintance is actually a member of MI-5 who intends on using her and her band of thieves to covertly gain access to the safety deposit box of Michael X, a radical activist and drug smuggler, who has been blackmailing the British government with pictures he has of a certain royal princess doing some decidedly unseemly things. It also turns out that the Lloyd’s bank safety deposit boxes are filled all sorts of shady money and secrets and the owners are none too pleased. The robbers become the hunted as various criminals and members of the British MI-5 seek to recover their wares and silence the thieves.
The resolution is a bit frenetic and at times it becomes difficult to figure out who is on who’s side. Also, there are times when you’re painfully awaiting just a little bit of action to relieve the continuous suspense throughout. Near the end, the director does choose to allow Jason Statham to do his thing when Terry confronts Lew Vogel (David Suchet), a local porn king who is extorting him, and gives him a few kicks in the gut, but that’s about all as far as crowd pleasing action goes. But, all-in-all, The Bank Job delivers a quality viewing experience as well as a very interesting story.
4 scandalous pictures out of 5
The Bank Job opens in theaters this Friday, March 7th, 2008.
Leave a Reply