Overall Rating
  Awesome: 12.61%
Worth A Look: 39.64%
Just Average: 26.13%
Pretty Crappy: 18.02%
Sucks: 3.6%
7 reviews, 69 user ratings
|
|
| Italian Job, The (2003) |
by Erik Childress
"Perfectly Entertaining. And Sometimes, That’s Enough."
|
I hear the term “perfectly entertaining” thrown about quite a bit amongst colleagues and friends. Defined in the Childress dictionary as (1) a film that doesn’t set the world of cinema on fire. (2) Is a suitable distraction for the mall-walkers not looking for a night out at the theatre. (3) A just plain-old fun flick made with just enough skill to make it worth your two hours. Get where I’m going with all this? I’ll still try to make the read worth your time.If the title rings your bell, then they’ve already completed job one. Grab your attention with a familiar sounding title. In this case, another remake that isn’t really “reimagined”, just recast with the most memorable parts kept in. Mark Wahlberg wouldn’t exactly be the first choice to replace Michael Caine’s original role, but that didn’t stop Jonathan Demme from trying to dopplegang Cary Grant with Wahlberg in his Charade remake, The Truth About Charlie, or Tim Burton in Planet of the Apes. C’mon c’mon now. As long as the current redux king is not called on to carry the film on his shoulders, he’s a perfectly entertaining presence. Thankfully again, he’s been surrounded with a colorful cast.
Wahlberg is Charlie Croker, the brains behind the titular operation. His requisite father figure, John Bridger (Donald Sutherland) hasn’t been all that good a dad to his only daughter, spending most of his life in prison and now taking on one final big score. It’s always a wonder how the gadgets and technology are available to pull off such a heist, (especially the coolly-executed opening one) but they always prove to be flawlessly on-the-money. Just once I’d like to see the computer expert’s terminal freeze up.
Included on the team are Handsome Rob (Jason Statham, all but replaying his getaway expert from The Transporter), computer expert Lyle (Seth Green) who humorously keeps reminding everyone that he’s the brains behind Napster, explosives expert Left Ear (Mos Def) who blew out the other ear and Steve (Edward Norton) who is about to sabotage the crew for their $37 million gold snatch and give John a different kind of retirement.
With everyone presumed dead and Steve spotted in San Francisco, it’s time for the big payback. Which, speaking of $37 million gold snatch, Croker needs to recruit Bridger’s safecrackin’ daughter, Stella (Charlize Theron) for the assault on Steve-O’s house. Reluctant at first, but then interested in some good old-fashioned revenge, Stella joins the crew and the plans go into effect.
Uploading the traffic jam approach from 1969, sales are also likely to go up thanks to the promotional touch of including the Mini-Coopers to the mix. Not that you’ll have any success finding it in video stores or for sale at the time of the remake’s release (the DVD was announced and then delayed by Paramount), but it’s the Mini-Me of car chases that has made the original stand out over all these years. Director F. Gary Gray has some fun with the dwarf vehicles racing at top speeds, down staircases and through the subway, but no one should ever rank this year’s models with the best ever made.
Gray does keep the action moving briskly though and keeps a light approach to the material, but never takes any risks to elevate it beyond its provided definition. The screenplay by husband/wife team Wayne & Donna Powers takes a minimalist approach to its characters, setting up Wahlberg’s level-headed brains vs. Norton’s more reactionary thief, but only confronts their chess game with a few lines of dialogue. Why even bother with the Ukranian mob if a payoff is enough to cool their threats with axes and industrial machinery? Thankfully, the cast brings enough personality to their performances to warrant our involvement.
Theron stands out bringing a human touch to the film amidst the characterizations. Seth Green is his usual amusing self and likely ad-libbed the funniest scene in the film, providing commentary on one of Handsome Rob’s conquests. Edward Norton, somewhat cajoled into another heist flick after The Score, provides us with enough sneers for his villain even while playing him like just another spoiled rich kid.The Italian Job exists in a world without cops or authorities; the kind where those you steal from handles their own mess with outside contracts. I can’t vouch for how inconspicuous a speeding trio of red, white & blue Mini-Coops can be in the biggest traffic jam in California history or how you can manipulate such a thing in the middle of an airport without security never asking questions, but I had a lot of fun never thinking about it. The film goes exactly where you expect it to go without offering much in the way of surprises and I still smiled from credit-to-credit. It’s certainly not perfect, but it’s perfectly entertaining.
link directly to this review at http://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=7720&reviewer=198
originally posted: 05/30/03 01:06:13
![[printer]](/images/icon/printer.gif) printer-friendly format
|
 |
USA
30-May-2003 (PG-13)
UK
N/A
Australia
21-Aug-2003
|
|
Articles 
subscribe to this feed
![[AllPosters.com]](/images/icon/ap.gif){kind=icon}
