It may not be the truth, but it’s sure entertaining at least
Image Courtesy of IMPawards.com
Director: Roger Donaldson
Notable Cast: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Alki David, Michael Jibson, Georgia Taylor
If you would’ve said 10 years ago that Bacon from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels would be an action hero and one would think you’d be a bit goofy. Tom Cruise had just established his action hero bona fides with the first Mission: Impossible, Matt Damon was five years away from Bourne, Bruce Willis was still around and Vin Diesel was getting his big break while filming Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. Action heroes, outside the few from Hong Kong who become cult heroes to geeks worldwide, usually tend to be Americans or Brits portraying the Alpha Male of spying. So a British action hero falls a bit outside of that narrow window and yet all these years later Statham is an action star.
Statham was seemingly just another British actor who had gotten exposure with Guy Ritchie, athletically skilled alright but an action star from England who wasn’t playing James Bond? That seemed a bit ridiculous. With marked success in The Transporter franchise, as well as cult hits like Crank, Statham has become an unlikely action hero merging his natural charisma, wit and athletic ability with an impeccably British sense of style and class.
He brings that to the table in The Bank Job, a throwback to a heist films the ‘70s. He stars as Terry Leathers, a small time crook trying to go straight with a car repair shop. Fate intertwines when an ex girlfriend (Saffron Burrows) clues him onto the robbery of a bank on Baker street, to which he and his gang of miscreants conspire to break into the bank and rob the safety deposit boxes. Unbeknownst to Terry, he’s been set up by MI5 to grab some unsavory pictures of British Royalty being used in a blackmail scheme by a black militant. Throw in some shady figures with evidence to expose crooked cops and you have one of the better heist films of the decade.
That moniker isn’t something that’s hard to earn, however, considering that the only heist films worth a darn to be released have been the Ocean’s trilogy, but The Bank Job succeeds merely be keeping it simple. The film is straightforward in how it handles its story; there’s no lengthy introduction or exposition. We’re given our characters, our circumstance, the heist and Donaldson moves the film from there. By keeping it simple and avoiding the cutesy sort of shenanigans that plagued the Ocean’s films, The Bank Job keeps it entertaining by keeping the focus on the heist and its aftermath. It’s a straightforward story and is effective because of it.
Statham is also in terrific form as well. While not to be confused with a performance to win any awards, it is one of his best performances to date. It’s interesting to see Statham the actor as opposed to Statham the British Martial Artist; his charisma and ability come through and we care about his character because of it. We want Terry to beat the odds because his character is well-written and Statham’s performance brings it out marvelously.
The film’s other main strength is its relentless pace. This is a film that moves fast and doesn’t delay for any reason. Donaldson wisely takes care of all the subplots effectively, wrapping them up when needed, and spices things up by adding in some character development as the film progresses. Everyone has a role on the team, obviously, but Donaldson shows why everyone is doing what they’re doing on more than a superficial level. It’s refreshing and makes the film more colorful to have little character traits emerge on their own, unforced, as opposed to cramming them early on to establish a reference point.
Allegedly based on a true story which was shut down by the British government due to the sensitive nature of documents stolen, the film’s script is taken from anonymous sources familiar to the event and conjecture. While its veracity for the truth may be in large dispute, there’s no disputing that The Bank Job is a markedly good film.
FINAL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1-5 BUCKETS):
