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The Italian Job (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (22 - 24 of 47 Reviews)

slight but moderately enjoyable caper film
Urbanites who spend half their waking hours stuck in non-stop traffic jams may get a kick out of "The Italian Job," in which one of the characters finds a way to bring almost the entire metropolitan LA area to a gridlocked standstill.

The film, a remake of a 1969 vehicle starring Michael Caine, is an entertaining caper tale that provides all the elements we expect to find in a film of this sort: the elaborate heists, the high tech gadgetry, the inevitable double crosses and the benevolent thieves who would give Mother Teresa a run for her money in the pure-of-heart sweepstakes. The story begins in Venice, Italy, where a cadre of thieving buddies, under the tutelage of one Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg), pulls off an amazing heist of some gold bars valued at $35 million. But before any of the guys have had a chance to even cash in and enjoy their stake, they are betrayed by one of their own - Steve, played by Edward Norton - who kills their mentor, the beloved John Bridger (Donald Sutherland), and leaves the rest of the gang for dead in a near-frozen river in the snowy Alps. A year later, thawed out and not a little peeved at the turn of events, Charlie and the rest of the crew discover Steve's whereabouts in Los Angeles and plot out an enormously complicated scheme to exact their revenge - more for their slain buddy, of course, than for the gold itself.

The plotting is never really as compelling as it could be, but "The Italian Job" boasts enough finesse and skill in its execution to make the film fun for most of its running time. The biggest flaw in the screenplay is that it doesn't take full advantage of the tension and conflict inherent in the narrative setup. We want to see more confrontation scenes between the "good" thieves and the one "bad" one, but Steve rarely spends any screen time confronting his pursuers. That's why the best scene by far is one that occurs in a restaurant when the antagonists DO actually square off against each other fact to face. The overall lack of interaction between these two forces might have been less noticeable and detrimental had the filmmakers come up with any internecine conflicts among Charlie and the other members of his brigade. Instead, these guys all get along so swimmingly with one another that all we are really able to do is watch the mechanics of the storyline as they play themselves out. The men have no disagreements, no differences of opinion and no conflicts of interest within their happy little group, a defect in the screenplay which robs the film of some of the tension it might otherwise have had.

Still, "The Italian Job" is a smooth, fairly standard, fairly enjoyable little time waster with a few good chases both on land and sea, some deft acting and a smattering of amusing one-liners to keep us from walking out of the theater. That one forgets the movie the minute one leaves the theatre is pretty much par for the course for this genre anyway.

A Snappy, Sparlking Caper(s) Film
THE ITALIAN JOB has style and a grand sense of speed and action in one of the better caper films of recent years. Where other heist-based films push the button for unremitting tension, THE ITALIAN JOB combines sleekly written dialogue and character interaction which makes all of the tension scenes (and there are plenty) all the more credible. The photography of the inevitable car chases and 'inside shots' of the capers is terrific, with the scenes set in Venice, Italy among the best. The cast is electrically charged without that all too familiar over-the-top push. Donald Sutherland and Charlize Theron (father/daughter team) are superb, and Mark Wahlberg, Jason Statham, Seth Green, Mos Def, and Franky G establish a comraderie that is destined to overcome their betraying partner Edward Norton. With a cast like this you almost don't need a script, but the writing has a fine balance of bite and wit. For sheer explosive entertainment by a crew of winners this movie is among the best in this genre.

There is no honor among thieves...just car chases...
"The Italian Job" is the latest in a series of remakes of 1960s heist movies, following "The Thomas Crown Affair" and "Oceans 11," and as far as Hollywood obsessions go, this is proving to be a pretty good one. Seeing the original before or after the remake it immaterial, because what is being remade is more the basic idea (Europe, gold, Mini Coopers) than the actual plot, characters, etc. The 2003 version from director F. Gary Gray begins the heist of $35 million in gold bars from a safe in a Venetian palazzo that is better than the heists in most heist movies. But that is just the prelude to what this movie is really about, which is an even bigger heist wrapped up in a still steaming bit of revenge.

Donald Sutherland is the father figure, Charlize Theron his daughter, Mark Whalberg the professional thief, Edward Norton the Judas, Seth Green the off-the-wall computer geek, Jason Statham as the lady-killing drives really fast, and Mos Def the hard of hearing explosives expert. The stand out performance is Seth Green's, who is becoming one of the most dynamic supporting performers around. His recurring rant in this film is that he is the "real" Napster: he created the software but it was stolen by a friend while he was napping. His part of the big gig is to control all the traffic lights in L.A., and you can imagine how much fun that would be. The characters are not exactly flat, but the main thing is how they fit into the grand design of the big heist.

This is not a film that takes itself seriously, not in terms of the planning and execution of the heist, but in terms of the violent action. "Napster" arranges all sorts of car crashes, but these are the sorts where people do not get hurt. There are a couple of killings, but they are on-point for the plot. Pointing out that in the real world people would be getting hurt during all this action is beside the point. "The Italian Job" is not a great film, but it is a very good heist movie. The action proceeds at a brisk place and you have the Mini Cooper chase scene to look forward to. This might not be an ambitious film, but given the failure of more pretentious films there is much to be said for a solid hesit movie. I wonde what Hollywood is going to remake next.

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