Stylish direction from Roger Donaldson and British understatement balance the tension with sly and often-outrageous humor.
The Bank Job (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:140
Fresh:110
Rotten:30
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: Well cast and crisply directed, The Bank Job is a thoroughly entertaining British heist thriller.
Australian Rating: MA15+ [See Full Rating] Strong coarse language and sexual references
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Australian Theatrical Release:
Jul 31, 2008 Wide
US Box Office: $30,028,592
Synopsis:
Inspired by the infamous 1971 robbery that took place at the Lloyds Bank in Marylebone London, LIONSGATE's ® The Bank Job stars Jason Statham (Transporter, Snatch, Crank, Italian Job) and Saffron...
Inspired by the infamous 1971 robbery that took place at the Lloyds Bank in Marylebone London, LIONSGATE's ® The Bank Job stars Jason Statham (Transporter, Snatch, Crank, Italian Job) and Saffron Burrows (Klimt, Enigma). The highly-charged heist thriller tautly interweaves high-level corruption, murder and sexual scandal in 1970s England.
A car dealer with a dodgy past and new family, Terry (Statham) has always avoided major-league scams. But when Martine (Burrows), a beautiful model from his old neighborhood, offers him a lead on a foolproof bank hit on London's Baker Street, Terry recognizes the opportunity of a lifetime. Martine targets a roomful of safe deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry. But Terry and his crew don't realize the boxes also contain a treasure trove of dirty secrets - secrets that will thrust them into a deadly web of corruption and illicit scandal that spans London's criminal underworld, the highest echelons of the British government, and the Royal Family itself...the true story of a heist gone wrong...in all the right ways.
Directed by Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, Thirteen Days, The Recruit) and written by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais (Across The Universe, Flushed Away), produced by Steven Chasman (Transporter 2) and Charles Roven (Get Smart, The Dark Knight); executive producers are George McIndoe, Ryan Kavanaugh, Alan Glazer and Christopher Mapp. THE BANK JOB also stars Richard Lintern (Syriana), Stephen Campbell Moore (The History Boys), Daniel Mays (Atonement), Peter Bowles (Freebird), Keeley Hawes (A Cock and Bull Story), Colin Salmon (Die Another Day, Punisher: War Zone), Peter de Jersey (TV's "Holby City"), James Faulkner (Colour Me Kubrick), Sharon Maughan (Another Stakeout), Alki David (The Freediver), Michael Jibson (Flyboys), Georgia Taylor (TV's "Coronation Street") and three-time Bafta® nominee David Suchet (TV's "Poirot"). --© Lionsgate
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Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, David Suchet
Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, David Suchet, Keeley Hawes
Director: Roger Donaldson
Director: Roger Donaldson
Screenwriter: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais
Producer: Steven Chasman, Charles Roven
Composer: J. Peter Robinson
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Reviews for The Bank Job
The Bank Job might just be the most preposterous heist film ever made. And yet, with a few liberties here and there, most of it really did happen.
Tunneling underground notwithstanding, a heist movie shouldn't feel this much like drudgery.
Roger Donaldson... juggles a complicated story with oodles of peripheral characters without dropping a subplot.
...this almost unknown bank heist, with its many layers of cloak and dagger and intrigue, could have been confusing but skirts this with practiced ease by all the players.
The material is Viagra to director Roger Donaldson...lively and effective, rolling around the known gray qualities of heroes and villains.
Director Roger Donaldson commendably avoids the violence-soaked artiness of Guy Ritchie's crime yarns, but fails to find a strong arc of action through the cluttered, sometimes confusing story.
Donaldson builds enough tension and draws enough humor from the situation to cover such lapses.
The Bank Job would probably go down a little easier if there weren't so much potential for seizing on a ripe cultural moment. Some stories are too good for mediocrity.
The Bank Job is fun to watch while both the heist and its often bloody consequences unravel in front of you.
There's no style, flash or flow to these proceedings -- the story proceeds as if by rote, a recital of events that's always a few paces behind any able-minded viewer.
Ultimately, we're not really interested in seeing whether there are any happy endings for any of these people.
Lurking behind a criminally bad title is a surprisingly tight, clever, twisty heist tale.
What makes director Roger Donaldson's movie greater than zany heist fare is that this particular robbery really happened and that this episode illuminated an almost moral clash between the haves and the have-nots of Great Britain.
Watching The Bank Job, you buy the heist, and you also buy the entertaining layer cake of British society -- the black radicals, smut lords, and MI5 agents who treat cops like janitors, all fighting for their piece of the action.
Any heist film containing the line 'I will not be lectured by the porn king of Soho!' is on the right track.
Based on a true story, The Bank Job has something most modern day caper films are missing--a sense of verisimilitude.
Where The Bank Job really thrives is in its depiction of the cold, hard realities of a life spent dipping your hands in other people’s pockets.
Latest News for The Bank Job
September 26, 2008:
RT Interview: Jason Statham Chats Death Race, Crank 2 and The Sweeney
RT catches up with Jason Statham to learn more about the Death Race and grill him on upcoming turns in Crank 2, Transporter 3 and the possibility of an appearance in Nick Love's... More...
July 14, 2008:
RT on DVD: Bank Job, Step Up 2, and a Bat-Marathon
As Dark Knight hype overtakes the free world this week, prepare yourself with a marathon of Batman lore on DVD with our viewing guide below -- or, escape from Bat-mania with... More...
July 04, 2008:
These heady high jinks ultimately deflate as a gritty collection of assembled journalistic details, with little solid dramatic scrutiny of dirty politics or shadowy personalities. ![]()
More...
June 30, 2008:
The Bank Job is coming to Australia
Tell RT in twenty-five words or less the title of your favourite heist film, and why, and you and a friend could be hanging with the stars at the Australian Red Carpet premiere... More...
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