The Bank Job [2008]

RRP £19.99 Lowest New Price £6.22

Suitable for 15 years and over Lions Gate Home Entertainment Release date: Monday 30th of June 2008 Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, David Suchet, Keeley Hawes, Director(s): Format: PAL, Region code: 2 Running time: 107 minutes

RRP: £19.99
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk review

A cheerful, energetic, and completely entertaining movie, The Bank Job follows some small-time hoods who think they've lucked into a big-time opportunity when they learn a bank's security system will be temporarily suspended--little suspecting that they're being manipulated by government agents for their own ends. The result is that the movie doubles its pleasures: While the robbery itself has the usual suspense of a heist film, when the robbery is over the hoods find themselves being hunted by the police, the government, and brutal criminal kingpins who were storing dangerous information in a safety deposit box. The Bank Job won't win any awards, but it's enormously fun. Director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, Species) propels the action along with vigour, zippy editing (with perfect clarity among multiple story-lines) and various colourful characters. Jason Statham (Snatch, The Transporter), as the leader of the bank robbers, successfully steps away from his usual bone-crunching roles to a more human presence. The rest of the cast--including Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea), Keeley Hawes (Tipping the Velvet), David Suchet (Poirot), and many faces familiar from British film and television--give their characters the right degree of personality and flavour without getting fussy or detracting from the headlong rush of the story. A little sex, a lot of action, a sly sense of humour, and a twisty plot. If more movies had these basic pleasures, the world would be a happier place. --Bret Fetzer