Heist films will always be popular because deep down every guy wishes he could rob a bank or rob casinos. It is just the way of the world. However, heist films have always been getting so high tech, us normal guys cannot conceive being able to do that anymore. We do not have access to the kinds of toys George Clooney and Brad Pitt got in the Ocean's movies and we don't think it is practical to drive an Audi down the halls of a rich person like The Italian Job. Luckily, when people set movies in the 70s we don't have these high tech problems, such is the case with this movie.
Based on somewhat true events, The Bank job is the story of a group of 6 people who decide to take everything they can out of the safe deposit boxes in a bank. The catalyst to the whole event is a former model named Martine Love (Saffron Burrows). After being arrested for a pretty serious drug charge she calls a Government agent she knows to help out of the jam. He agrees to it if she can find a group of people to rob a bank. The Government needs the contents of a specific box but cannot be linked to the robbery. Love drops in on childhood friend Terry Leather (Jason Statham), who is a very small time criminal and he and his boys agree to the job and so it begins. There are also side plots involving high up Government people who go to a brothel and are secretly photographed and a porn king who has a ledger with his police pay offs. All of those things are in the boxes robbed by Terry and his crew. After the robbery the movie kind of tail spins a bit into a kind of predictable double cross, he-who-has-the-money-has-the-power, type of movie with the big climax in public involving all of the stories coming together.
However, before it kind of spins out of control The Bank Job is a fun, easy going movie that feels very much like the time period shown in the movie. The gang of robbers all have fun distinct personalities and the bickering from them is a lot of fun and watching them all work to make the heist happens is not only fun, but it also is a throw back and made me feel like I could actually rob a bank with just a jack hammer and a shovel. AWESOME! The script is tight and none of the scenes feel unnecessary. At times you wonder when they are going to wrap it up, but that is all in the post robbery stuff. The fun is the pre-robbery and the robbery itself. The guys are all guys we identify with and that really adds to the fun. There are some politically charged things in the side plots that can be a bit distracting, but when the focus shifts back to our shifty robbers, the fun quotient revs back up.
Jason Statham is a real man's actor. He is laconic, stoic and full of badassery, but here he actually proves he can act a little bit. He is not going to win any awards or anything, but he does have a nice moment of vulnerability with his wife and it certainly ads to the heightened sense of danger in the post robbery third of the film. He also gets to kick a little of ass towards the end and it reminds me how awesome he is when he is fighting. There isn't a lot of camera trickery here as the director understands to just let the movie fend for itself and his minimalist approach really adds to the seventies quality to the film. He Never loses us when the movie starts playing games with who is good and who is bad and who works for what Government agency which is nice because so often things like that get confusing and can ruin the mood of a movie.
It is sad that movies like this get lost in the shuffle underneath those big mammoth movies because these small quality independent movies deserve an audience. I am sure there will people who are turned off by the nudity and the amount of time spent in a strip club, but again it really makes it feel like the fast, loose and free seventies. The Bank Job has laughs, sex, punch outs, stabbings, shooting, and a freaking bank robbery and if that isn't good old fashion entertainment, I don't know what is.
Final Grade: B+
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