This is another heist movie starring Edward Norton, Matt Damon, and several others.
This movie starts out with Matt Damon heading up a team with Donald Sutherland to steal a safe-full of gold bars from Europe. The plan is pretty original...
[+] Read Full Review

This is another heist movie starring Edward Norton, Matt Damon, and several others.
This movie starts out with Matt Damon heading up a team with Donald Sutherland to steal a safe-full of gold bars from Europe. The plan is pretty original and works like a charm. After celebrating their score however, Norton pulls a double-cross and makes away with the gold. A year later the team finds Norton in Hollywood and the quest to reclaim the gold that they rightly stole begins.
All in all, this is basically no better and no worse than any other heist film you've seen (The Score, Heist, Ocean's 11, etc). If you like heist flicks, than you will probably like this movie. Aside from the acting talent, there a few turns in the plot and the thefts get pretty creative, with a chase in three tricked out Mini Coopers and a helicopter.
If you feel that the robbery genre is getting stale than there is not much here that will convince you otherwise.

"The Italian Job" is a remake. I haven't seen the original, but I imagine it was fairly good if it inspired a remix. As for said remix, well, it's pretty good. Maybe in another 30 or 40 years, there will be another remake. Would I pay to...
[+] Read Full Review

"The Italian Job" is a remake. I haven't seen the original, but I imagine it was fairly good if it inspired a remix. As for said remix, well, it's pretty good. Maybe in another 30 or 40 years, there will be another remake. Would I pay to see it? Probably not. Do I regret seeing the one I'm reviewing? No... but I'm not over the moon about it, either.

The way the film's basic plot works is this: some thieves steal some bars of gold in Italy, then there's a double-cross and most of them are left for dead. One year later, the survivors reunite to steal back that which was stolen from them... and to have their revenge on the side. So they plan a heist and then they execute.

Most of the movie covers that middle part, the planning of the actual heist. When you think about it, a movie about a bunch of people planning to do something exciting isn't particularly thrilling, but it works so far as it goes because there's some tremendous talent on-screen. Mark Wahlberg isn't my pick for actor of the year or anything, but he does a decent job here. Edward Norton plays an interesting character and does it with a lot of his usual charm, so that's interesting to watch. Charlize Theron is interesting to watch if you appreciate the appearance of attractive females, and does a good job here. Seth Green is usually a pretty funny guy, and that was true here. Jason Statham also brings a lot to the table, and it's hard now to imagine anyone but Donald Sutherland in his role. Looking at that list, there're a lot of big names and I don't know how they all got pressed together in one movie. The film's budget obviously wasn't blown just on star power, either. Even the guys you wouldn't recognize from anything put in good performances. In fact, whoever did the casting for the remake deserves nothing but praise for a job well done. It's hard to imagine the script coming out any better with other actors.

Filming is also solid. There are some really nice action scenes and I only thought about the camera's excellent positioning once. The rest of the time, the movie just flowed and I forgot I was looking at events shot through a camera lens. Everything was positioned perfectly so that events flowed and I was able to see beautiful scenery and crazy car chases and so forth.

My problems with the movie all come back to that down time between the action sequences that bookend the film. This is a two-hour affair, and more than half of it is just witty dialogue and interesting plot twists that can't possibly hold up well to repeated viewings. When I see something like "Die Hard" or "The Transporter" or any number of other high-action movies, I look forward to different scenes and I can watch them repeatedly. With "The Italian Job," there was a lot of tension the first time through but now I know everything that happens so half my reason to watch is gone.

What that all means is that "The Italian Job" is perfect for a quick thrill if you decide to give it a rental--as my wife did--but it's not the sort of feature you'd want to have sitting on your home video library shelf. At least, not if you're like me.

I liked this movie. It had a good story, and the action was good. It also had a bit of comedy weaved in, which is cool to have in a film like this. Mark Wahlberg was good in this film too. 4 stars.

This version of "The Italian Job" was a solid remake of a great movie. Some may call it a poor man's version of "Ocean's Eleven," but it was much more than that. The story arc was quite different and the heist was a little...
[+] Read Full Review

This version of "The Italian Job" was a solid remake of a great movie. Some may call it a poor man's version of "Ocean's Eleven," but it was much more than that. The story arc was quite different and the heist was a little different. Overall, excellent flick.