The Bank Job

While based on the Lloyd’s Bank heist in 1971 (sometimes referred to as The Walkie-Talkie Bank Job), The Bank Job will raise your eyebrows with the supposedly new revelations the movie presents to explain why a bank robbery that gained so much public notice quickly disappeared from the newspapers and media. If it is true, it’s a great story.

Jason Statham stars as Terry – a small time hoodlum in London with debts to pay and no money to do so. A former, and maybe current, girlfriend, Martine (Saffron Burrows), has come to him with a proposition. Lloyd’s Bank is changing its security system, which will leave a small window of vulnerability for the most enterprising of masterminds to break in and raid the vault and safe deposit boxes, which are full of cash, diamonds, gold and more. How does she know? Another paramour works for the MI5, what is in one of those safe deposit boxes could cause a scandal of world-wide proportions, and he has been charged with destroying the evidence.

What is being hidden away?

Can Terry and crew get it?

Are they patsies?

It’s a welcome treat to see Statham in a movie you aren’t ashamed to buy tickets to see. He’s an intense actor with a captivating screen presence, but often stars in pathetic junk like Crank, when he is much better than that. The Bank Job gives Statham a chance to show another side of his acting persona, and he bites into the role like a fat man attacking a doughnut. He’s the undisputed leader of the gang, driven by the promise of riches, then driven by his fear of what will happen to all of them. Statham shows each of those emotions wonderfully in Terry, and, in a testament to his ability, makes us root for him, even if Terry is a scoundrel.

Also, writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais provide some funny moments to keep you entertained by this loosely organized band of nitwits, while making us realize how deep in danger the criminals have gotten. Sure, the funny moments are amusing, but the drama and horror of what these guys face, along with the high stakes and scandal involved, makes for one of the most compelling stories of the year. Then, Clement and La Frenais do a great job bringing together all of these disparate characters and stories so we can see how each impacts the other when the rich and powerful start to cover their behinds.

Director Roger Donaldson does a decent job keeping up the intensity and mental challenge of a good heist movie with plenty of close calls along with keeping the result of success or capture a mystery throughout the movie. He also knows how to present the story to us without getting bogged down with a bunch of personal stuff we couldn’t care less about. While we do learn a bit about Terry’s family life and relationship with Martine, the bank job is the central focus of The Bank Job, which is the way it should be.

The movie gets silly at the end as Statham starts to make moves like Terry has become a combination of The Transporter and Chuck Norris overnight, and we are distracted by a sub-plot with questionable relevance involving a covert operation in the Caribbean, even if the agent involved is a true hero. By the time all of that happens, it won’t matter much, because you are hooked.

The Bank Job is rated R for sexual content, nudity, violence and language.