THE BANK JOB

Roger Donaldson Written by: Dick Clement, Ian La Francis Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Craig Fairbrass, Colin Salmon, David Suchet Distributed by Lionsgate Entertainment Film is released in the U.K. on February 28th and U.S. on March 7th. Review by Michael Edwards

rating: 2

After watching this film two underused words spring to mind - frenetic bilge. The Bank Job is a Brit flick of the most arbitrary kind, blandly forcing together cinematic conventions calculated to have the most universal appeal in an utterly unconvincing and incredibly tiresome way. Weirdly, the plot is based on the true story of an audacious bank robbery that took place in 1971. Full of scandal and deceit, this robbery was undertaken by a bunch of amateur crooks led by Jason Statham's used car dealer and family man Terry (the obligatory British underdog story set-up) who have been duped into taking on the job as part of a bigger plot which stretches as far afield as MI5, the Royal Family and the black power movement. The story of the robbery was headline news for a couple of days, but then vanished without a trace thanks to a 'D' notice - a secret services tool gagging the press. Nobody was ever arrested for the crime. Murder, sex, corruption, repetition, jump cuts, short action sequences, loveable cockneys and pretty ladies all strung together and hurled into our faces at breakneck speed. I haven't seen director Roger Donaldson make a decent film and he doesn't seem to have done much to change that here. The film is utterly devoid of any craftsmanship and instead is constantly making an effort to sell itself. I counted at least 10 topless women in the first 10 minutes, that's a pretty desperate ratio. And what's more, that's the 'sexiness' pretty much done. We move hastily on to the establishing of the ever-popular underdog story with Terry the used car dealer being harassed for money by some generic henchmen, and to give us a little more character identification we find out his two staff members are about to get married. We're then whizzed off to meet Terry's own lovely wife and kids. Of course next up is the scheming bit, where the audience follows the plan in genesis and is let in on Terry's suspicions and initiated into the layers of intrigue which extend beyond his control: corrupt coppers, blackmailing activists, MI5 and some nasty crooks. Primed and ready for the action? Well no, not really, but have some anyway. The robbery comes next, it's full of luck - good and bad - and all the standard gamut of emotions and errors to go with it. All of which feels woefully tired and left me cringing in my seat. The aftermath was a little more entertaining with its messy torture scenes and rapid dash from all the competing powers to clean up the mess made by the robbery, but it's effects are quickly ruined by a hideously contrived Statham action scene (pretty much the only one in the film) in which he not only fights off men with guns, but does so by kicking a brick out of a wall to bludgeon them. I am utterly amazed at how the writers and directors of The Bank Job have managed to take a true story and make it seem completely unbelievable. It's the reverse of what cinema is meant to be! And Lionsgate themselves must be aware of how absurd the film looks given that all the PR has 'based on a true story' plastered all over it, in fact the intro titles of the film itself are hasty to make the audience aware of it. Granted the story is a tricky to make seem believable but that's where the art comes in: clearly the filmmakers couldn't be bothered and instead opted for sensationalism and a fast-paced plot to keep people entertained. Sadly, even this fell well short of the mark. The pace did allow a few poor scenes to be glossed over quickly and it occasionally substituted for character identification in hauling us through various plot twists, but it provided none of the adrenaline-fuelled fun ofLock Stock or Snatch that it was so obviously aiming for. There is some fun to be found in the movie, I mean it has thought of everything after all. It's just that all of these pieces of commercially viable joy don't really fit together very well, and the result is a sort of Frankenstein's monster of an action film loosely stitched together with a fast-paced plot and mediocre soundtrack. Possibly viewable as a piece of mindless fun, but probably not for those of us who prefer a film that's a result of craftsmanship rather than market research. Access the official site here: http://www.bankjobmovie.co.uk/