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The Bank Job


The Bank Job

This film starts off as a smart thriller about a bank heist and how it goes wrong. It then bogs down into a much more convoluted and unevenly paced story about the good, the bad, and the ugly, and the corruption in the government. That part could and should work well, but it just ebbs and flows and hurts the pacing of the story with how it is told.

The acting in this film is solid. It is a B-Level British film, but the characters are well defined, thank history for that, and the portrayel of the characters is solid. Jason Statham does a solid job in the lead role. It is nice to see Statham doing something that isn't purely action, as he does have some talent as an actor. He shows it off here doing a good job in his role.

The story is hit or miss in this film. It starts off moving along sharply, it moves quickly and is quite smart in how it tells its story. The action leading up and through the bank heist works nicely and they keep the tension up throughout the whole time. After the heist, though, it bogs down. It could have flowed better since the story was interesting, but it is allowed to become convoluted, and in the convolution, it starts to become uneven in its pacing, so that the tension, which is supposed to be there, ends up being missed. But the fact that this is based off of a historical event does make this a little more difficult to put into a more even pacing, as someone would realize that the story is wrong otherwise. I think it would have been possible, but I understand why it would be a little more difficult then some films.

Overall this is an entertaining film, it hurts itself in the long run because of the second half, but it was enjoyable for one view. The acting is solid, and the story is fairly entertaining, so I wouldn't avoid it if you like the British crime sort of film, but I also wouldn't call it a film that is a must see.

Overall Grade: C+

Story: C
Acting: B-
Audio/Visual: B-