The Bank Job - Movie Review

The Bank Job is based on events that actually occurred in Britain in the early 1970's. It was actually quite good. I found it well acted and paced just fast enough that it held my interest.

I had not planned to do anything tonight but I decided to go out to a movie when I discovered very little in the refrigerator to eat. Colby had been over the other night after he had seen 10,000 BC and his take on it as well as what I had heard from other people made me decide to wait until it comes out on DVD to watch that one. So I turned to the Internets and looked over the offerings at the theaters.

I had not known much about The Bank Job, having paid little attention to the trailers when I saw it at other shows. But it looked to be the most palatable of the current shows playing in Ames.

I was pleasantly surprised that I really, really liked the film. As I said it is supposed to be based on fact. And it is plausible that they actually did the things that it said they did. I mean there was a bank robbery in London (on September 11, 1971) and there was a D-Order issued which stopped all newspaper coverage of what had happened (I'll bet George Bush wishes he had something like that here - come to think of it maybe he does).

There was nudity (not gratuitous) and violence in the film but I expected that. It was not overly graphic. The plot moved right along and I particularly enjoyed Jason Statham as the main character. Sort of a thief with honor.

Saffron Burrows played Martine who set the whole operation up after being busted for smuggling drugs. It seems MI-5 wanted someone to break into a bank and steal compromising photos of a member of the Royal Family which were in a safety deposit box. (In the film the photos are identified as those of Princess Margaret and from what I know about her it may well have been.)

In the process they also get involved with a petty criminal and others and they get away with it. They were allowed to keep the loot and brokered a deal which made them free from prosecution. It was totally believable and an enjoyable evening. Owners of the Safe Deposit boxes (including a Madam who had compromising photos of people very high up in government) refused to give the police a list of the contents of their boxes.

In the closing credits it states that "the names have been changed to protect the guilty."

I wholeheartedly recommend that you see this movie. I give it an A rating.