The Bank Job (2008)

It may have too many subplots and take a while to ramp up, but the 2008 Brit crime heist film "The Bank Job" is balls to the wall riveting. And it, apparently, is all based on true events. How true, I don't know. But, this is a wild ride.

Small time crook and car salesman Terry Leather (Jason Statham) is hooked by a never-happened flame (Saffron Burrows) into robbing a London bank in early 1970s London. He thinks it's about money and jewels, but it's really about photos that could tear England's royal family a hole down under. Mixed in are power-politicking of the day, drugs and whores, a gofy sex scene, lots of other sex scenes, race/class warfare and ego contests with London police and national investigators.

It's a lot, maybe too much, but it's highly suspenseful and laugh-out-loud funny. Leather's team truly is mostly amateur, and the middle-of-the-night robbery is stunning in its ineptitude and genius. But, the characters are never false or over-the-top like those in the crappy "The Ladykillers" remake from a few years back. The fun and shock is watching these goons stuck in over their heads get out, or get killed.

Statham is awesome as Terry. An action film star who hasn't peaked, Statham falls or excels depending on the script he's taken. "In the Name of the King" placed a terrible role in a terrible film on his shoulders. He still walked out OK. He has a '70s Michael Caine feel with the attitude of Russell Crowe or Kurt Russell. Count me in as a Statham fan. He rocks, and this film rocks. B+