(movie) The Bankjob directed by Roger Donaldson

The first impression when you watch this movie is that it is an average bank robbery caper, especially after you have seen movies like ‘The Italian Job” and so on…and the movie takes a little more time than most to pick up pace and the twists come much late…and Jason Statham (of Transporter fame) seems wasted…

But wait…the story, incredible as the story line may seem, is true…the events in the movie mirror the Baker street robbery in 1971. And then you realize that truth is sometimes as strange as fiction and sometimes even more exciting and you also realize that Statham cannot be shown to fight just because he can!!!

The story is about how MI5 (or MI6, as one police officer commented - “I cannot tell the difference – they all go to the same tailor”), masterminded a robbery in Lloyds Bank to recover some incriminating photographs of a royal personage (supposedly Princess Margaret). But the robbers are of course not told the real reason why they are being ‘allowed’ to rob the bank.

The movie includes a variety of characters – a pseudo black leader (Michael X, not to be confused with Malcolm X), a smut king, compromised politicians and a bevy of corrupt cops. They all want what the robbers get in the vault. The robbers, of course, get to know the extent of the Pandora’s box they have opened up only after the act when their members start getting killed. And that is when the real action begins.

What follows is a series of a twists and turns and some positively nail-biting moments especially during the fag end of the robbery when their radio communication is intercepted by a radio ham operator.

The acting could have been better, the characters could have been given more teeth and the script could have made a more exciting atmosphere. Other than that, for the reason of its truth, this movie is worth more than a watch.

Labels: Crime, movies, thriller

posted by Protik Basu @ 4:56 PM