By Christopher Kennedy
“The Bank Job (2008),” recently released on DVD, is a better-than-average action yarn starring the always-engaging Jason Statham as part of a group that plans a heist in early 1970′s London.
The film is loosely based on the true story of the 1971 Baker Street bank robbery, considered to be one of the biggest bank robberies in British history. Terry Leather (Statham) is in a bind. He owes money to a local loan shark, and when old flame Martine Love (Saffron Burrows) comes along with a proposition for him to rob a small bank’s safety deposit box vault, he takes it.
A freewheeling caper film, Terry Leather and his band of thieves are likable and believable. And without revealing too much of the plot here, if you’re watching it only because you enjoy heist films, be warned: little attention is paid to the actual mechanics of this bank robbery. Instead, the film is much more about the people – cops, hoods, MI5, etc. – who become invested in seeing the bank robbers caught when it becomes known that the thieves targeted safety deposit boxes, and by extension the private information contained in them that could make or break the lives of many.
A superb cast, solid directing and good pacing makes this crime thriller worth viewing.
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