The Bank Job

An excellent crime movie that exceeded my expectations. The '70s are so convincing here and I was surprised at how easily I slipped into that era. Jason Statham is still a tough guy here and I’m not afraid to say it's one of his best movies. The performances are all above average, and Roger Donaldson leads them with a very experienced hand. In my opinion the screenplay has a lot of momentum given that it’s based on an actual event. If you like movies about burglaries and enjoy the old days, go for it. (21/04/2008)

The Bank Job is a film that attempts to trendily jack the viewer off with the grateful seventies, but forgets all about it after ten minutes. Instead, it's unafraid to air one narrative bridge of asses after another, and even establish eighty-four narrative levels (notably the one with the hideous non-actress as Statham's wingman) that it doesn't care about anyway, so it continues to engage with them very sporadically throughout. But it must suck to film if you have to keep explaining to Statham that in this scene he's just going to talk to the guy again and not be able to smash his face in with his fist. By the end, no one seemed to have the nerve to do it anymore, so at least they let him kick some pensioner and throw a brick at an ugly guy's face. A lot of what took me out of the concept of a "pure" genre homage was the naturalism popping up here and there, which somehow didn't fit, but what do you want when one of the storylines is about black revolutionaries. Anyway, now that I've got that out of the way, I might as well justify the four stars. Well... honestly... I didn’t go wanting for anything while watching the movie... (30/08/2012)

The Bank Job only proves that Jason Statham being cast in stupid action flicks like The Transporter is unfortunate because he has more acting potential. I certainly wouldn't believe in him as Hamlet, but he has the ability to bring conviction to his action hero roles and act quite dynamically. The Bank Job can be considered an above-average modern crime story, and I actually thought about giving it five stars for quite a long time, because it has pace, style, tension, and an unpredictable plot right up until the end, and I didn't find any obvious mistakes in it either. I dare not estimate to what extent the plot corresponds to real events from British history, but it would be rational to assume that it is only loosely inspired by a period scandal because historians do not reveal details of such operations. It's nothing more than good entertainment, but you can never have enough of that. Overall impression: 80%. (13/05/2011)

It's as if at the beginning somebody in the cinema played you some carefree, easy-going movie like Hold-up with Belmondo, and then in the second half the projectionist changed the reel and put on Damiani's Confessions of a Police Captain starring Franco Nero. In other words, at the beginning the film looked like a heist movie with a successful robbery and likeable protagonists, but then it became more and more a serious drama with people's lives and the highest political positions at stake. Too bad, had it stayed in the light-hearted atmosphere of the first half, I would have gone for a higher rating, although I admit that in the case of a film "based on a true story" these criticisms are somewhat unfounded. (14/05/2008)

A proper hill of boredom wrapped in a crazy British 1970s package. The dodgy accent can be endured, but not the clumsiness of the screenwriters and director. It's neither stylish retro, nor a quality and suspenseful crime story, the family drama doesn't work either, let alone the comedy. The motives of the main characters are unfounded, and the main plot point around which everything revolves doesn't seem like something worth going all out or breaking heads for. Jason Statham doesn't kick ass for the first time, and surprisingly, it can be watched, Saffron Burrows is great, the rest are just numbers. Solid potential, but ultimately absolute routine. (28/09/2008)