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The Italian Job (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (7 - 9 of 47 Reviews)

ALEXS CAPSULE MOVIE REVIEWS FULL SKULL BABY!

Highlights: Stylish direction; slick editing; Charlize Theron & Ed Norton; relentless action; good humor; superb finale.

Lowpoints: Recycled material; Marky Mark & the rest of the crew play stereotypical characters.

Conclusion: Con-movie lovers will appreciate F. Gary Gray's ('The Negotiator' w/ Sam Jackson & Kevin Spacey) comeback in top form after the unfortunate Vin Diesel vehicle 'A Man Apart'. Obviously a remake (can't they come up with an original con plot? is it THAT tough?) of a 1960's classic that starred Michael Caine, 'The Italian Job' slightly improves upon the original with stylized editing (a-la 'The Thomas Crown Affair'), tons of sly wit and sexual innuendo between the protagonists (a-la, um,'The Thomas Crown Affair'...), and a rockin' good finale (a-la...you figure it out). Mark Whalberg looks bored (what happened to him after 'Boogie Nights'?), and the secondary characters are obligatorily exaggerated (the computer wiz/nerd; the smooth locksmith, etc) Ed Norton has fun as the villain though, and Charlize Theron is sexier than ever, but what the film lacks is originality - how hard can it be to improve upon decent material?

Con Job FULL SKULL BABY! empty skull, sniff.
The Italian Job is a very loose remake of a 1969 caper film that originally starred actor Michael Caine. While I was watching this more action oriented updated version, I had the distinct feeling that director F. Gary Gray was trying to follow the style of Soderbergh's remake of Ocean's 11, while giving the film a harder edge then the 1969 film had. I wish he decided on one way to take it, instead, he split too many hairs to tell his story.

John Bridger (Donald Sutherland) is an aging thief. Bridger leads a rag tag bunch to help him pull off one last job in Italy. After the job is finished, he intends to hand over the job as leader, to his protege`Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg). John hopes to be able to spend more time with his daughter Stella (Charlize Theron), as well as, his share of the stash. After the job is successfully executed. John is killed by a trusted member of the team, named Steve. (Edward Norton) The others are left for dead. The rest of the film is a game of wits between Steve and the team, under Charlie's leadership, as they plan to teach him a lesson

I have to admit the action scenes were well planned and executed in the film. However, as far as the plot is concerned, it was very predictable. The film's humor, editing style, and music, just took their "cues" from the aforementioned Ocean's 11. Gray and the writers also decided their had to be some drama as well. Sadly, these moments come across as forced, and unreal. I wish someone had stuck to making the movie either a true caper or a drama. The 2 genres have a hard time mixing with one another.

The one saving ingredient for me here, is actor Seth Green as the resident computer geek, Lyle. His dry delivery livens up any film he does. Theron gets points for being as great looking as ever; For his part Wahlberg is good, but he's been better in other roles.

The extras on the disc are pretty average. I was really hoping for a an audio commentary for this film. I may have issues with the movie, but, it still would have been cool to hear about the "how" and "why". The bulk of the bonus material is made up of 5 featurettes that discuss everything from the script, the production, and the film's elaborate stunts. The best of these has to be the one called "The Driving School"--cool cars put to fine use. The six deleted scenes don't amount to much and were wisely left on the cutting room floor. TV spots and other ads for releases from Paramount.

The Itailian Job is a film that does try hard to be all things. In the end, the film and DVD extras can only muster up a marginal *** star rating from me.

Perfect Movie! FULL SKULL BABY!
Seing as two of my great loves are Seth Green and Mini Coopers, this movie was perfect! Seth has a hilarious role of the computer genius (the Napster) and my only dissapointment was that he didn't get to be in a Mini Cooper. <br /> Other than that, It was just a wonderful movie.

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