Despite a weak, B-rate feeling opening, The Bank Job manages to pull itself up and shape into a wildly engaging, gritty, realistic heist film that holds nothing back and does not have the comfy, playful feel of the Ocean’s films. And here’s the kick: its’ based on a true story.

Yes that’s right, it is based on the true story of the 1971 Baker Street Bank robbery in England, considered to be one of the biggest bank robberies in British history. Terry Leather (played by Jason Statham) is in a spot of trouble. He owes money to some criminal bigwig, so when an old friend Martine Love (Saffron Burrows) comes along with a proposition for him and his two mates to rob a small bank’s safety deposit box vault, he takes it. As they begin their job everything fits perfectly into place and moves along at a smooth pace…an almost too smooth pace as very quickly the little proposition spirals madly out of control with secrets and double crossing being revealed, all before coming to a surprising ending.

I was disappointed that characters were not as fleshed out and developed as I would have liked. However, Terry is done very well and I feel Jason Statham, the most underrated action movie star, has an almost Bruce Willis-type presence.

The acting and dialogue was good, Saffron Burrows gives a bristling nuanced performance, and Terry’s two mates Daniel Mays and Stephen Campbell Moore both bring a balanced energy to gang of criminals.

The Bank Job is a rough, somewhat violent heist film that does not have a fun feel to it, however as it picks up from the mediocre beginning it holds you with a raw intensity that rewards you even more once the credits roll as you read the real life aftermath of the characters.

by Eruanion

Barenaked Ladies – Bank Job
Flight Of The Conchords – Business Time