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The Bank Job
Great story, tepidly told
2008
Review: March 18, 2008
Director: Roger Donaldson
Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, Peter de Jersey
Sure, but not necessary.
THE SETUP:
Government-sponsored bank heist starts complicated, gets 48X more complicated.
DISCUSSION:
My friend and I are always willing to gaze upon the beautific face of Jason Statham, so we were both only too ready to run off to The Bank Job as soon as the reviews said it wasn’t too bad. Plus, I kind of dig heist movies as it is, and this one also takes place during the pinnacle of human civilization, the 70s. So there we are!
Jason, sweet Jason plays Terry Leather, a charming scumbag who runs some sort of chop shop in London. He owes money to various thugs. He is somehow acquainted with Martine, played by Saffron Burrows of Deep Blue Sea, only here so anorexic you really wouldn’t recognize her. She was caught with drugs in her suitcase, and the government made her a deal; she would be the frontwoman to arrange a bank heist. The criminals would get the money [although they obviously planned to arrest them all afterward] and she would steal these incriminating photos of a certain royal personage having a three-way. The photos are in the possession of a corrupt black revolutionary called Michael X [patterened after Malcolm X], and are his insurance against any form of prosecution. The government wants the photos to remove this layer of protection and be able to bring him to justice for his various drug-smuggling and crime syndicate activities.
So Terry and friends take the job. This involves taking the lease on a purse store two doors down, and digging underneath, into the bank’s vault. The characters multiply, as they need a guy who knows how to cut in through concrete and another who seems refined and can pose as the owner of the shop. Multiple complications ensue.
Okay, it's not much of a spoiler to tell you that they get away with the loot, and that's when the real trouble begins. They find not only money, but lots of other incriminating items belonging to high-ups in both the government and various criminal organizations, so within a short time they have the police, corrupt police, MI-5, Michael X, and various gangsters all coming at them from different directions. There are lots of twists and turns and clever reversals that I wouldn't dare spoil for you.
So I thought "Okay great, I'll go to Wikipedia tomorrow and find out the real story." Well, imagine my surprise to find that there is almost no real story. All that was officially known up until now is that the vault was breached, and the tapes made from the robbers' intercepted walkie-talkie were played on the radio—then the government D-Notice went into effect and the story vanished completely from the media. This is where more of the case's notoriety comes from, that it was such a huge case then was just summarily dropped. The producers of this film are claiming that they got one of the criminals [now in his 70s] to come on record at last, and this is what the movie is based on, meaning that this movie is the first place a lot of this info is being aired. Of course, none of us have any way of verifying that any of this is true. The filmmakers do admit that the character of Martine is entirely fabricated, and one can see that without her the film would be almost entirely males—and we all know that straight men feel like a confined animal in an electrified cage if they don't have a set of reassuring tits to look at. Although I must say she was quite well integrated into the plot—in fact, she really sets it all in motion. Which again causes one to wonder how much is true. It's a funny thing to have a "truth-based" movie that reveals so much true information unavailable elsewhere… but then has an admittedly false element right dead center, throwing the entire tale into question.
So, as a movie? It's a great story. So good that you wish its' telling were a little less flat. It's perfectly fine and serviceable, it's just that one wonders what someone with a little panache—dare I mention De Palma? I would even take Guy Ritchie—might have done to heighten some of the literal excitement with a little artistic sizzle. Anyway, perfectly fine, nothing wrong with it, great story, and Jason Staham, continuing his stingy, mean-spirited tradition of never taking off his shirt. It's also got the mightily bony Saffron, looking great in her panther-like way, I'm just a little concerned for her health. Get a steak sandwich, baby. Extra mayo. I'm not sure she ever removes her shirt, either, but there are plentiful tits toward the beginning.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
Sure, if it sounds like something you'd be interested in.
