Day 13: “The Italian Job” (2003) – Fun in Mini-Coopers, Venetian Canals and the L.A. Metro

Film 13: “The Italian Job” (2003)

Written by Donna and Wayne Powers, inspired by a 1969 script by Troy Kennedy-Martin
Directed by F. Gary Gray


And now I know why Jason Statham got the lead in “The Bank Job.” In fact, now I know why “The Bank Job” finally found funding after seeking it for years. The success of this film, kids.

Seth Green plays the computer geek (and he kills it of course), but his best scene by far is imitating Handsome Rob (Statham)’s chat-up of a typical blond California girl. Hysterical, and one of many takes that they let Green just go, do his thing. And honestly, that’s all you need to know to want to rent this movie. But wait, there’s more.

Mark Wahlberg is fine here. Nothing too interesting about his character, I thought. Unlike his much-underappreciated and secretive, layered Joshua in "The Truth About Charlie," his Charlie Croker here is the ‘serious one’ who holds everyone together, but how fun is that? Edward Norton ramps it up a bit for Croker’s nemesis Steve – revealing a loser-with-the-ladies side that’s pretty fun in an otherwise callous, heartless villain. (Remind me not to mess with Norton’s toys.)

Mos Def entertains as Left Ear – so named because his penchant for explosives means he can only hear out of one ear. He’s another performer who excels when in a group, given something fun to bounce off. And the cast here does so nicely, obviously comfortable with each other. (They all give a great deal of credit for this to their director Gary Gray in the interviews, whose career has mostly been in videos. Quite the breakout success!)

And of course, there’s The Girl. Here it’s Serious Actress Charlize Theron, who plays Stella. Given to frowns when thinking about dead thief dad John (Donald Sutherland), she spends the rest of her time cracking safes for cops. Her version of Getting Back at Daddy. Kind of a cool job really. But Stella’s hidden – and much more interesting – talent is driving on sidewalks in her Mini-Cooper, which ends up providing us with one of the best chase scenes in recent cinema – through the Metro tunnels of L.A. (actually recreated in detail in a warehouse – no sound stage was big enough). (Bonus for soCal audiences: they actually take the streets that lead to their destination, unlike most films, where local audiences realize that even though the movie says we’re driving along the coast, we’re really inland 30 miles in Pasadena.) Theron’s face lights up with something I can only term ‘glee’ in these scenes, as she sends water and pedestrians flying. And if the Extras are to be believed, it could well be the actress smiling, not the character. How often does an Oscar-winner get to have fun after all? Onscreen, I mean.

Lots of fun – left me wanting to check out the original inspiration: 1969’s “The Italian Job” which goes from Turin, Italy, to London, instead of the Venice-L.A. trek here. This is how to do a remake. As the screenwriters explain in the extras, they didn’t want to redo the same film, just pay homage to it. So they riffed on the original versus rewriting it. Well done.

p.s. Unlike “The Bank Job,” “The Italian Job” managed a PG-13 rating, which strips it of some edge. But you can watch it with the junior high and up crowd, sans the boobies-everywhere paranoia of “BJ.”