The Bank Job
by Roger Donaldson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell MooreDirector: Roger Donaldson
Brand: Lions Gate
Producer: Aaron Shuster
Producer: Alan Glazer
Producer: Alex Gartner
Producer: Charles Roven
Producer: Christopher Mapp
Writer: Dick Clement
Writer: Ian La Frenais
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1 EX; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
Published: 2008-07-01
DVD Release Date: 2008-07-15
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of The Bank Job
Movie Review: When you open Pandora's box, you just never know what you'll find in it
Summary: 5 Stars
Set in the swinging London of 1971, "The Bank Job" is a riotously fun heist film that's loosely based on actual events. Known then as the "walkie-talkie bank job," it was the biggest bank robbery of its time and probably the most controversial. Apparently, the loot from this heist did not consist merely of cash and jewels, but some rather more important documents that could embarrass the royal family.
The heist is prompted, really, by the British government's inability to incarcerate a criminal slumlord and pimp, Michael Abdul Malik, known as Michael X (Peter De Jersey). A self-styled gadfly and pseudo-Black-Panther wannabe from Trinidad, he holds a get-out-of-jail card in the form of photographs he'd taken earlier of a Very Improper Personage (later to surface as Princess Margaret) in very compromising...uh...positions with lovers during an island escapade. These photos are kept in his safe deposit box at Lloyds Bank. Also in one of the boxes is a ledger kept by the smut king Lew Vogel (played by the versatile David Suchet), detailing payoffs to crooked cops, and another box kept by a `Madame,' the contents of which depict certain MPs in...uh...non-parliamentary scenarios. Evidently, everyone's been a naughty boy and girl.
Meanwhile, a former model with East End roots, Martine Love (Saffron Burrows), is aided by a her lover, an MI5 spook, in beating the rap for transporting drugs into the UK. In exchange, she has to call on her petty criminal friends to break into the Lloyd's Bank vault and retrieve the compromising photos of said VIP. Innocent of the true motive behind the heist, her friend Terry Leather (Jason Statham) agrees to the proposition, himself needing fast cash to pay off debts to some scary thugs. The crew consists of Terry, Martine, Terry's friends Kevin Swain (Stephen Campbell Moore), Dave Shilling (Daniel Mays), and Eddie Burton (Michael Jibson), and outside help in a Maj. Guy Singer (con artist extraordinaire), and Bambas (a tunneling expert). The plan is to take over the lease of a handbag store, Le Sac, and tunnel from its underground to the chicken take-out store adjacent to the bank, and finally into the bank's vault itself. (Their total loot was reportedly £4M.) Terry suspects that Martine is hiding something, and as things get even more complicated, the crew finds themselves chased by the MI5, the cops, and Vogel's henchmen, as well as engaging in a bargain brokered by Lord Mountbatten himself! (Absurdly hilarious, but who knows? Real life is stranger than fiction.)
Terrific acting all throughout, especially by Statham, and lots of twists and turns to keep things fresh. Swinging London was depicted extraordinarily well; production values were superb. A bit of comic dialogue and scenes in between ups the fun factor. One of the DVD extras which shows photos of the actual crime scene, especially the tunnel dug through Le Sac, were quite interesting. Comparing them to the film, the meticulous duplication of details was remarkable. The heist itself was audacious and entertaining, but it's the back-stories that bring real excitement into this. The actual heist is a true story but the damning photos are mere conjecture. A D-Notice (a sort of gag-the-press action) was issued at the time of the real events and it never surfaced as fact that the photos were indeed of Princess Margaret. She did have a party-girl image in the 1960s, and her exploits were fodder for the British rags. Michael X himself was hanged in Trinidad in 1975, but his file still remains closed until 2054. Though the robbery made the headlines, it quickly died down only after a few days. What was really behind all this? Well, that's left for the viewer to speculate. After all, that's part of the entertainment.
Summary of The Bank Job
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