ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

inspectors71 Roger Donaldson's sharp, suspenseful, and very human crime drama, based on, apparently, a true story of what some minor criminals find in the safety deposit boxes in a small bank, delivers what is critical for a heist movie to succeed:1. Everyone is a real, flesh and scars human 2. Violence is usually threatened and almost never graphic 3. Decency and degeneracy can walk hand in hand 4. If the good guys win, it's going to be at a terrible costI just saw another Donaldson picture a few months ago, The November Man. Remember how I appreciated the line delivered by Pierce Brosnan to his protégé, something like, "You can either be a human or a taker of human life; you can't be both." The November Man was a more standardized action flick, but the moral choice Brosnan's trainee has to make sends the quality of the movie up 1/2 dozen notches right away.In The Bank Job, Donaldson is able to convey the vulnerability felt by many of the primary and secondary characters. There's real fear on the faces of the guys at MI-5 (or is it MI-6; I never know). Jason Statham (who turns in a darn-good performance here) is torn between benefiting his family or destroying it. I don't know all the other actors, but everyone of them, as I said before, is so real, so smart, craven and foolish. The heart and soul of The Bank Job is in its ability to convince the audience that what they are seeing is plausible, maybe even real. When an up-and-coming spook spots a young woman he sent on an undercover mission in the Caribbean, covered in a shallow grave, he doesn't act tough. He forces back his emotions, and then orders the local authorities to burn the bad guy's house to the ground. If this guy can hang on to his career, he's going to be a holy terror in the British Intelligence community. Except for the usual problem of deciphering Statham's thickened and mumbling accent, and the less-than-a-clear-mix musical soundtrack for 1971, I found nothing to complain about here. If you find The Bank Job at your library, in a bin at Wal-Mart, or on Netflix, I would suggest you drop everything for the evening to watch a fine piece of restrained film-making. One of the message boarders commented that, if this had been made in the US, what made it so good would have died almost instantly. How true.

Python Hyena The Bank Job (2008): Dir: Roger Donaldson / Cast: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, Richard Lintern: An entertaining yet terribly routine caper regarding a task gone wrong. Jason Statham stars as a criminal presented with a task of robbing the safe deposit boxes at a bank. He gathers a crew together but doesn't realize that their quest for wealth is actually a quest to obtain incriminating photos of authority figures. Structure is formula but screenplay is clever. Improvement for director Roger Donaldson who previously made such junk as Species and Dante's Peak. Statham does well trying to straighten out sabotage as well as complete the task at hand. Should viewers be applauding their actions? Perhaps not. Saffron Burrows plays an ex-girlfriend who lures him into this crime but he isn't sure whether she can be trusted. Other roles are either interesting or underused but they mainly serve as symbols for shabby screen writing. Among the supporting cast are Stephen Campbell Moore, Richard Lintern, and Daniel Mays and none of them appear to be scoring much in terms of a good career move here. Very similar to the original version of The Italian Job only the ending isn't nearly as clever. There is a lot of potential here yet the film still manages to fly south when failing to deliver a sense of purpose to an incomplete job. Score: 7 / 10

bowmanblue Don't be fooled by 'The Bank Job' having Jason Statham as 'top billing.' If you've seen any of his films in recent years, you may think that this is just another 'kick-ass' kind of mindless film. Luckily, it's much better than that.It's about a gang of London bank robbers who get - unknowingly - recruited by MI5 to break into a bank and steal some photos which mustn't ever be made public. It's 'based on a true story,' by which I mean that there are definitely some facts on display here and the bits that aren't facts have been 'filled in' to make it a better story.However, I wouldn't dwell on how true every aspect is. If you did that you may not enjoy it. True or not, it's a twisty-turny kind of affair where you don't know what's coming next. It's almost like a Guy Richie film without Guy Richie having anything to do with it. Like 'Lock Stock' and 'Snatch' The Bank Job features multiple sets of dodgy characters whose lives are seemingly separate, until they're eventually brought together.The opening segment is a little slow, but stick with it. Whether you just like Guy Richie films, British films, gangster or heist films, there should be something to entertain most people here. Even if you don't like any of those genres, it also makes a damn good thriller, too.I don't know how true the story was, but, as the credits are rolling, even if you don't believe it happened just the way you've witnessed, it's the kind of story that you can't help but feel is quite capable of happening.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

LeonLouisRicci Today, People Talk a lot about Jobs. In the Early 1970's a group of Middle-Class London Villains (a British term for anyone outside the law), that are a Likable Bunch of Hooligans that seize on an Opportunity to do a Job that is Above Their Pay Grade but could put Them at Ease Financially.Led by Action Star Jason Statham, this Real Life Story is not a Vehicle for Him to Kick-Butt on a Dozen Thugs (always without weapons), but is, for Better or Worse, a Movie that Focuses on the Story and the Real Reason that they were Contracted to Pull this Off.You see, in the safety deposit boxes there are Lured Incriminating Photos of Princess Margaret, no less, and the Spooks are on the Case. This is going to be a Disappointment for those Checking in to see a Typical Action Bullet Bash.There have been Complaints thrown around about the Inclusion of so much Nudity, but being Set in the Early 70's is that so Hard to Understand. its used more for Period Atmosphere than Exploitation and it Works just Fine. Also, that is the Whole Point of the Story. A Public Figure being a bit Nasty.Overall, this is an Above Average Neo-Noir that will Appeal more to the Cerebral than the Visceral.