The Bank Job (2008)   

Review: written 2008

Cockney geezer rob bank – True Story!

A decent British thriller, given some credibility with its `inspired by true story' tag.

A strong cast play out the events of 1971 in London, when Saffron Burrows persuades a group of amateur thieves to tackle a big bank job. However, it turns out that the bank contains not just gold and jewellery, but photographs of an incriminating nature, and life becomes very complicated as the government, MI5, crime-lords and drug runners all take an unhealthy interest in catching the thieves.

It plays more like a romp than a true story, but there are some brief harsh moments of violence along the way to remind you of the seedier sides of an Ocean's Eleven type endeavour.

Performances are fairly good, even Jason Statham manages to invest some sort of emotion to his character, and Saffron Burrows seems to be improving with age. It all does veer towards clichéd Cockney ‘gangsta’ movie at times, but gets away with it thanks to its veneer of credibility, and the end result is an interesting, exciting and even entertaining heist movie which is distinctly British.