Braquage à l'italienne

Greetings again from the darkness. Today's giant movie screens and earth rumbling sound systems make action films an exhilarating experience. Throw in a nice story and some eye candy and it is truly a blast. OK the story is just a reshaping of the original with Michael Caine, but the added humor - mostly supplied by Seth Green ("Austin Powers" and "Knockaround Guys") and the super cool guys - Jason Statham, Marky Mark and veteran Donald Sutherland add a punch to this one. Who am I kidding? The big difference here is the eye candy! The mini-Coopers and Charlize Theron add a touch of Bond. Whether the stunner is driving the fun cars or cracking a safe in her hotel room, she is captivating. The films weak link is the usually dependable Edward Norton who seems to be sleep walking through his role. Maybe he has reached the point where he feels he deserves more screen time. His role is important, but his lackluster performance doesn't ruin the film at all. Would have enjoyed seeing what a meatier performance could have added to the film, though. Anyway, enjoy the ride and the view!

The Italian Job is a real blast to watch. It's a genuinely entertaining film, something you watch just for the sheer enjoyment of it. It's not heavy with drama or emotional hand-wringing, it has no cosmic statements about life, and it's not violent or profane. It's just a fun movie. Between watching the little Mini Coopers fly around the crowded streets of L.A. and the great bits by stereotypical computer geek-turned-crook (played gleefully by Seth Greene), I had a lot of fun watching this film.

Special kudos to the background music. They truly set a masterful tone for such a movie, so subtle yet keeps you on the edge when needed. Apparently a lot of artists contributed to the music, I found it to be the classiest part of the film.

8 out of 10. Not awe-inspiring but a great film to watch at the end of a lousy day at the office.

Barky

I went to see THE ITALIAN JOB with mixed reviews in my head. I was pleasantly surprised with an entertaining close to 2 hours. I thought the cast was just great and so were the special effects, with the safe and truck just dropping out of sight. If you like fast paced action movies, this is the one to see.

Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg) assembles a crack team to pull off one last job; a daring heist of a safe which contains $35 million dollars worth of gold bars. However, shortly after the heist has been completed, one of the team turns against the others and escapes with the gold and leaves the remaining members of the team for dead. Following this betrayal, Charlie and his crack team which includes computer genius Lyle (Seth Green), explosives expert Left Ear (Mos Def), and getaway driver Handsome Rob (Jason Statham) set to work in recovering the gold back from the 'rat' in the group with the assistance of safe cracker Stella Bridger (Charlize Theron).

I saw the 1969 version of The Italian Job some time ago and remember finding it reasonably enjoyable (although I recall it having a rather bizarre ending). However, I have to admit to possibly enjoying this remake/reboot slightly more....

I think the biggest strength of this film lies with the characters and their dialogues; as we're introduced to each character we're given a little bit of background information on each character in order to explain away their relevant 'expertise' but it's done in a way that was both funny and clever. I quite liked the way that each character was set-up in this way. I also felt a great sense of camaraderie between the cast; the whole production was done in a very slick and tongue in cheek manner; I thought the scenes between Green and Statham were the funniest and strongest scenes, but the rest of the cast were all great as well.

Another big strength with this film is that it's just so much fun; some heists films have a tendency to become over-plotted and throw in twist after twist. However, with the Italian Job we're just given a straight-forward plot, but yet it's still entertaining enough to keep you interested.

The chase sequences are fun, the direction, editing and basically all technical areas are also excellent resulting in a film that's not only fun, but it's also quite a good looking film too.

Perhaps having low expectations helped here - I thought the original was a good film rather than a great one so I wasn't expecting much here, but the plot moved along almost as fast as the Minis, the script and the camaraderie between the cast were also top notch and above all else it was fun. Definitely worth watching (especially if you were a fan of the original).

John Bridger's gang of thieves are double crossed and left for dead after a daring gold raid in Venice. The surviving members regroup and convene in L.A. to enact revenge and recapture their gold ... the job is on!

This could have been a complete disaster, I'm British and the wave of revulsion that boomed in my homeland upon hearing of this remake was explosive; "how dare they remake a British institution" was the cry. Things were not helped in the run up to the film's release by main star (and draw card) Edward Norton, proclaiming that the film was a contractual obligation and that fans of his work would be better advised to give The Italian Job a miss...

Had to be a stinker then surely? Actually no it isn't. Director F. Gary Gray hasn't remade the "Italian Job" of 1969, in fact he hasn't even re-imaged it, the minis are in there, the gold is in there, but all the stand out moments so beloved by many in the 69 film of the same name are not to be seen at all. So what we get is a very cool heist-come revenge movie, that's maybe a tad too glossy at times, but it has got a pretty sharp script, tight action sequences and a group of actors working very well as a team. Mark Wahlberg, Mos Def, Jason Statham, Seth Green and the delectably delicious Charlize Theron all come out smelling of roses, whilst Edward Norton really had no cause for concern because his portrayal as Steve is a smarmy delight.

I have jokingly titled this film "Ocean's 5", but that is in no way detrimental to "The Italian Job", it lacks the jazzy coolness of "Soderbergh's Ocean's 11", but it's a fun and enjoyable picture all in its own right, thus the rating of just under 7 IMDb is actually spot on. 7/10