Bank Job (2008)

Bank Job: Directed by Roger Donaldson. With Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays. Martine offers Terry a lead on a foolproof bank hit on London’s Baker Street. She targets a roomful of safe deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry along with a treasure trove of dirty secrets.

“Jason Statham is well on his way to becoming typecast. It seems like heu0026#39;s in a ton of these kind of action films lately, although this movie is a bit more subdued and complicated than some of them. At least in this heist flick, there are several twists and turns and you have to stay alert to follow who is exactly on the up-and-up and who isnu0026#39;t, and Statham isnu0026#39;t punching out 10 people at once.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is another one of these modern-day films in which the crooks, the thieves, the bandits – whatever – are the u0026quot;good guysu0026quot; and the police and the government officials are the bad guys. This seems to be a big favorite of the anti-authority filmmakers world in the last 40 years whether itu0026#39;s in Hollywood or London. Regardless, itu0026#39;s a very entertaining film and Statham and company are fun to watch. Thatu0026#39;s also nothing new as the tough u0026quot;Transporteru0026quot; star has become a regular at playing these kind of nice guy/macho/thug roles.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eStatham plays u0026quot;Terry Leather,u0026quot; a man recruited by a former hottie/model girlfriend u0026quot;Martine Love,u0026quot; (Saffron Burrows) to rob a bank. Statham is a family man but desperate for money and, obviously, not very honest. Thousands of pounds/dollars is in it for the thieves but valuable compromising sex photos are the real goal of the people who want the bank depository drawers robbed. Those want to be grabbed before the owner uses them and ruins some high uppity-ups in British government. Several people wants photos for other reasons. This whole thing isnu0026#39;t simple; there are number of sub-plots along the way regarding who wants what in the bank and for what reasons. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere is also a story involving a Malcolm X-wannabe kind of creep who is into extortion and murder. Actually, everyone is pretty much a creep in this film, just to varying degrees. They are all interesting, too, and several of the minor characters have a good sense of humor, too. In particular, I liked Daniel Mays as u0026quot;Dave Shilling.u0026quot; Add some very tense robbery scenes, some sex early on, some double-crosses later and you have a very serious Keystone Cops type story where youu0026#39;re never quite sure what crazy thing is going to happen next.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA fun two hours of diversion, supposedly based on a true-life account, but knowing filmmakers I suspect much of this is made up for dramatic purposes. Thatu0026#39;s okay, we just watch to be entertained, and this is entertaining.”