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