The Bank Job (2008) - A

"The Bank Job" is a first rate crime thriller. It stars Jason Statham ("The Transporter") as Terry Leather, a petty criminal who is approached by an old flame, Martine, with the idea for robbing the safe deposit boxes in a local bank. Now Terry and his crew have never robbed a bank before, but the plan that Martine proposes seems simple enough, so they decide to go for it. It sounds too good to be true, right? Naturally, it turns out that the job isn't as simple as it appears. Martine has been asked by MI-5 to set up the bank job because one of the safe deposit boxes has compromising photographs of a member of the Royal Family. Along the way, various things go wrong, and more and more villains and government agencies are out to get the crew.

"The Bank Job" features a first rate script. The risk in attempting a story filled with so many subplots and characters is that it would be easy for the film to either become incomprehensible or have sections that seem pointless and a waste of time. Instead, the film does a great job of spending just the right enough time with each character and subplot so that you understand that part of the story, and each thread feels like it is woven smoothly into the overall story.

The film is based on a real life bank robbery that has generated some conspiracy theories in Britain. The government quashed news coverage of the robbery after a few days, citing national security. The reasons behind the news blackout are still unknown to the public. The script does a nice job of creating a conspiracy that is out there enough to be fun and exciting, but never goes so far that you roll your eyes in disbelief.

The acting is also very good. You can't point to any one performance as being especially brilliant, but there are simply no weak links in the cast. Everyone turns in an enjoyable performance. The end result is an extremely enjoyable film. I give it an outside shot of making my top 10 at the end of the year.

Final Grade: A