The Perfect-ish Score

The oh-so-studly Jason Statham stars in the based-on-a-true-story heist movie The Bank Job.

I wanted to mention this fact right off the bat because it surprised me how much The Bank Job just was not the typical adrenaline-crazy entry in Statham’s oeuvre I anticipated it to be.

The actor plays Terry, a car dealer with a dodgy past, a wife, and two daughters, who always avoided major-league scams.

Saffron Burrows plays Martine, a beautiful model from his old neighborhood who offers him the lead on a foolproof bank hit on London’s Baker Street.

After mulling it over, Terry recognizes this is the opportunity of a lifetime – Martine just gave him the key to a roomful of safe deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry…how could he refuse, right?

What he and his crew don't realize, however, is that the boxes contain a major mother lode: dirty little secrets that will thrust them into a deadly web of corruption and illicit scandal that spans London’s criminal underworld, countless high-ranking British government officials, and the Royal Family itself.

The Bank Job is the true story of a heist gone wrong...in all the right ways.

It reminds me of The Italian Job (in which Statham also appeared), but the historical context (it is set in the 1970s) gives it another dimension.

The script, I thought, was quite cheeky. I found this a wee bit odd, but in the end the movie worked, although it could have been a few minutes shorter. This one is For Entertainment Only.

My Rating ***

Photo: Lionsgate Films.