The Italian Job

From AwardAnnals

Reviews

Amazon.com

Though it bears little resemblance to the original 1969 thriller starring Michael Caine, the 2003 remake of The Italian Job stands on its own as a caper comedy that’s well above average. The title’s a misnomer—this time it’s actually a Los Angeles job—but the action’s just as exciting as it propels a breezy tale of honor and dishonor among competing thieves. Inheriting Caine’s role as ace heist-planner Charlie Croker, Mark Wahlberg plays straight-man to a well-cast team of accomplices, including Mos Def, Jason Statham, and scene-stealer Seth Green in a variation of the role originally played by Noel Coward. As the daughter of Croker’s ill-fated mentor (Donald Sutherland), Charlize Theron is recruited to double-cross a double-crosser (Edward Norton in oily villain mode), and once again, speedily versatile Mini Coopers play a pivotal role in director F. Gary Gray’s exhilarating car-chase climax. It’s perhaps the greatest product placement in movie history, and just as fun the second time around. —Jeff Shannon

Barnes and Noble

Mark Wahlberg proves once again that he’s a capable lead with his workmanlike performance in this super-slick caper film, a vastly improved remake of the 1969 thriller starring Michael Caine. The erstwhile Marky Mark is suitably intense as the no-nonsense protégé of a ready-to-retire master thief (Donald Sutherland), who accompanies him on a Venice heist that nets their gang a cool $35 million in gold. When one of their sleazy partners (Edward Norton) hijacks the bullion and kills the aging mentor in cold blood, Wahlberg enlists his other crew members (Jason Statham, Seth Green, Mos Def) in a complicated scheme to regain the swag and wreak vengeance on the killer. Glam girl Charlize Theron is rather improbably cast as Sutherland’s daughter, a talented safecracker who works as a bank-security consultant; yet she manages to convince the viewer that she’s willing and eager to join the lawbreakers and take down the man who murdered her father. As has become de rigueur in today’s caper movies, The Italian Job devotes considerable footage to the deployment of high-tech gadgetry by the thieves. Seth Green, whose techno-geek is the film’s most colorful character, uses his computer hacking skills to paralyze traffic in Los Angeles—a move that precipitates the film’s most suspenseful sequence, an extended car chase admirably staged by director F. Gary Gray (The Negotiator) and tightly edited to maintain a crackling pace. The well-chosen cast is uniformly good, and there’s considerable humor to counterbalance the tense and darker moments. Like many thrillers, this movie is at times wildly improbable—but it’s also a great deal of fun. Ed Hulse