Movie Review: The Bank Job

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 16, 2008

Let me start out my review by saying this: usually I am a big sucker for flicks that have (a) heists, (b) spies, (c) hot-looking women (d) violence, and (e) a retro feel. I’m also quite fascinated with movies that feature politics and the Royals, and a European setting.

Well, along comes a movie called The Bank Job. By gosh, this movie has every one of these elements that I talked about. Every single one. That kind of ruins whatever suspense comes from reading this review, eh? I have to admit, movies like The Bank Job are pretty much in the same genre as the James Bond movies, The Thomas Crown Affair, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and the Ocean’s movies. And, of course, The Italian Job. These are my kind of movies. So it was obvious to me going into the theater that I was probably going to like The Bank Job unless the filmmakers completely screwed it up. There was no way they could screw it up, though — the real story is too good.

This is set in 1971 London and is actually based on a famous/infamous robbery that took place at the Lloyd’s bank at the corner of Baker’s Street and Marylebone Road in London. A gang actually dug their way into the safety deposit box area and made off with millions of dollars worth of loot and valuables. Producers of the movie claimed the boxes contained compromising pictures of Princess Margaret and that these were held there by Michael X, a black activist hoping to use the pictures to blackmail authorities and beat murder charges.

It is against that backdrop that The Bank Job unfolds, as a motley crew of characters — rank amateurs — are brought together to pull off the heist. Jason Statham plays Terry, a car dealer with a wife and family being hounded by creditors. He sees this bank holdup as a way to get out of his debt rut. Terry and his pals — most of whom look like guys who could have been in the Beatles or the Rolling Stones — are recruited for the heist by the mysterious ex-model Martine, played by Saffron Burrows. (More on this chick later.) They are sold on a full-proof plan: the security company guarding the bank is AWOL. The place was just sitting there waiting to be robbed.

Turns out that these fellows are in far, far over their heads in more ways than one. Turns out there is outside interest in this whole robbery, as Martine is in cahoots with the spooks. (MI5, or MI6? Who can tell the difference.) Apparently photos of Princess Margaret aren’t the only things in the vaults– there are photos of high government officials doing some really filthy things. These guys have no idea what the heck they are getting themselves into, as we are reminded when we watch the drama play out. The robbery ropes in this Michael X character who’s escaped the country and also some big porn king with connections in high places– basically everyone who is anyone is involved in this sordid tale. Fun stuff.

Part of the fun comes from the fact that the robbery itself is quite a low-tech affair and really not that smooth an operation. For one thing, these guys make a lot of mistakes. They use radio equipment that can easily be monitored by authorities, for one thing. The drilling can get pretty loud and attract the cops. An Ocean’s Eleven heist this definitely is not: these “villains” could have used help from George Clooney and Brad Pitt. The payoff, however, is much more fun with these blue-collar Brit robbers. When they finally do break into the vault, these blokes can’t believe their good fortune. Or, for that matter, what they find.

I really got into the characters and was caught up in the fast-paced story. I wanted to see what became of all these hoodlums when all was said and done. But at the end of the movie, they ran something in the credits about the robbers that said “names have been changed to protect the guilty.” In other words — they made these characters right up! They were totally making up what went on with the robbery!

That’s something that usually drives me crazy in a movie, when they mix the fiction with the fact and you can’t tell which is which. A lot of this stuff that happened in this movie is pure speculation. True, we know that there was a bank robbery and that there was a lot of skullduggery involved. We know the whole thing was conducted using walkie-talkies and that a ham radio operator picked it all up, and that there was a news media blackout that took effect four days after it ended. But the Princess Margaret/Michael X stuff is unconfirmed, at least as far as the association with the robbery is concerned. The spy stuff seems kind of shaky as well.

I almost think that we were getting into Nixon territory with this movie– remember that one? Director Oliver Stone spent a lot of time speculating in that movie about what was on those tapes that were missing, and that drove me up the bend. I thought it was a major distraction from what was otherwise shaping up to be a brilliant movie.

For some reason this sort of speculative storytelling bothered me a lot more in Nixon than it did in The Bank Job. Maybe it’s because in The Bank Job the details as to what really happened are still really murky. There is a lot we don’t know about what went down with that robbery. So I guess I was more forgiving about whether or not the movie was engaging in reckless speculation or not. Or maybe I was simply too entertained by the movie to be bothered by stuff like this. Maybe I simply didn’t know all the details as to what happened. If you are bothered by details, best to suspend a fair chunk of disbelief before you show up at the theater for the one.

I really liked the acting in the movie, the characters are all memorable and Jason Statham is very compelling and sympathetic as Terry. But I have to say something now about Saffron Burrows and her turn as Martine. Saffron Burrows is totally freaking hot! She is sexy as hell!!

This lady was as perfect a femme fatale as I have ever seen in a movie, period. Saffron had that long lanky hair and those boots, and the stylish fashions. And could she ever smoke a cigarette. The only thing missing from her attire was hotpants. Hotpants were the in thing for women to wear in 1971, but I guess Martine Love had too much class.

Why we haven’t heard more about Saffron Burrows before, I don’t know. Probably because these entertainment shows on TV are more obsessed with Scarlett Johansson and other A-listers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kate Beckinsale or some other trendy actress had been offered the Martine role first; in any event, the final casting decision was pure genius. After they see Saffron Burrows in The Bank Job, guys will want to rush home and look up her onscreen nudity credits on the Internet. That’s how great she was. The woman is a BABE.

The Bank Job was directed by Roger Donaldson who is best known for thrilling movies like No Way Out and Thirteen Days. This is right up there with those efforts as far as I am concerned. In fact No Way Out was pretty similar in that it had a memorable hot babe (Sean Young), a lot of intrigue, and a convincing male lead in Kevin Costner. If you liked No Way Out, this movie will be up your alley.

As I say, The Bank Job has it all. It had the heist. It had spies. It had sexy naked girls in it (yes, this is an R movie). It had violence and people getting killed. It had government officials getting in trouble. It had skullduggery and high dealing, and looked and felt like a movie that could have taken place in 1971. The bank robbers, and especially the gorgeous brunette, absolutely rocked the house.

Sure, this was perhaps only loosely based on the real story, and there are other heist movies out there that are probably more groundbreaking or even more original than this one. But few are as entertaining. Most importantly The Bank Job has the one thing essential to any good heist movie — and that’s style.

The Upside: If you like heists, spies, sex, violence, the Royals, London, and money then this movie will fit the bill. And Saffron Burrows is the coolest babe ever.

The Downside:: One word. Nixon. (See my rant re: speculation, etc.)

On the Side:: In addition to more serious flicks like No Way Out, The World’s Fastest Indian and Thirteen Days, director Roger Donaldson also directed that total piece of sci-fi cheese Species. He really directed Species. Seriously.

Read more articles by John Cairns