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REEL CRITIC:
‘Bank Job’ is a movie with a solid punch
By Bob Harris
The tough, cool crime film returns with the release of “The Bank Job.” Hyped as being “based on a true story,” what is or isn’t true doesn’t matter as is the fact that this is a crackling-good genre exercise with a group of very likable thieves (and even more loathsome villains) looking for a big score with little to no idea what they have stumbled into.
“The Bank Job” is many things, but most of all it is a superb heist film that transforms into a nasty thriller right before our very eyes.
Set in London in 1971, the film wastes no time in kicking its intricate plot in motion. Some very revealing, politically embarrassing royal photos are being used to blackmail the government. Under the gun to keep the photos a secret and avoid a scandal, the nation’s espionage agencies are enlisted to come up with a solution.
They decide to rob the bank and safe deposit boxes where the photos are being stashed. In order to keep their hands clean of the operation, the spies recruit Martine (Saffron Burrows) to put a team together for the robbery.
She turns to Terry (Jason Statham) to implement the plan but without telling him the real reason for the robbery.
Decidedly small-time, Terry is looking for a way out from under his heavy debts owed to a local loan shark. The pair pulls a motley crew of amateurs together with a relatively simple plan — rent a shop close to the bank and dig a tunnel into the vault. However, the robbery is just the tip of the movie’s iceberg as it is after the thieves have opened the bank’s figurative Pandora’s Box that things really start to erupt.
There is a lot going on and the film moves at a bristling clip, but it never feels rushed. Despite the packed plot and numerous characters, there isn’t a moment you feel lost. Which isn’t to say there are no twists or surprises, there are, it’s just that it is always clear who the characters are and what their place is in the movie. Most of that is due to the great casting, excellent script and rock-solid, but refreshingly grounded direction by Roger Donaldson.
Although Statham is ostensibly the film’s star, this is really an ensemble work with a lack of familiar faces except that of Statham and, perhaps, Burrows. It is packed full of wild characters with motivations we understand and can empathize. With a diverse gang of spies, corrupt cops, kinky lords, porn kings, hulking hoods and radically chic revolutionaries there is a little bit of everything here.
I have to say that the quality of the film really caught me by surprise.
The first-rate mixture of everyday blokes and back street villains works remarkably well. It’s cheeky and suspenseful in all the right places while also bringing just the right amount of violence to remind us of its very real and painful consequences.
BOB HARRIS has been hooked on movies since he was 13 when his brother got a job in a multiplex and Bob saw all the movies he wanted for free. BOB HARRIS has been hooked on movies since he was 13 when his brother got a job in a multiplex and Bob saw all the movies he wanted for free.
“The Bank Job” is many things, but most of all it is a superb heist film that transforms into a nasty thriller right before our very eyes.
Set in London in 1971, the film wastes no time in kicking its intricate plot in motion. Some very revealing, politically embarrassing royal photos are being used to blackmail the government. Under the gun to keep the photos a secret and avoid a scandal, the nation’s espionage agencies are enlisted to come up with a solution.
They decide to rob the bank and safe deposit boxes where the photos are being stashed. In order to keep their hands clean of the operation, the spies recruit Martine (Saffron Burrows) to put a team together for the robbery.
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Decidedly small-time, Terry is looking for a way out from under his heavy debts owed to a local loan shark. The pair pulls a motley crew of amateurs together with a relatively simple plan — rent a shop close to the bank and dig a tunnel into the vault. However, the robbery is just the tip of the movie’s iceberg as it is after the thieves have opened the bank’s figurative Pandora’s Box that things really start to erupt.
There is a lot going on and the film moves at a bristling clip, but it never feels rushed. Despite the packed plot and numerous characters, there isn’t a moment you feel lost. Which isn’t to say there are no twists or surprises, there are, it’s just that it is always clear who the characters are and what their place is in the movie. Most of that is due to the great casting, excellent script and rock-solid, but refreshingly grounded direction by Roger Donaldson.
Although Statham is ostensibly the film’s star, this is really an ensemble work with a lack of familiar faces except that of Statham and, perhaps, Burrows. It is packed full of wild characters with motivations we understand and can empathize. With a diverse gang of spies, corrupt cops, kinky lords, porn kings, hulking hoods and radically chic revolutionaries there is a little bit of everything here.
I have to say that the quality of the film really caught me by surprise.
The first-rate mixture of everyday blokes and back street villains works remarkably well. It’s cheeky and suspenseful in all the right places while also bringing just the right amount of violence to remind us of its very real and painful consequences.
BOB HARRIS has been hooked on movies since he was 13 when his brother got a job in a multiplex and Bob saw all the movies he wanted for free. BOB HARRIS has been hooked on movies since he was 13 when his brother got a job in a multiplex and Bob saw all the movies he wanted for free.
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