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Bank Job: 2-disc Special Edition (The)
R1 - America - Lions Gate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (28th August 2008). |
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The Film
 Jason Statham has proven himself as an incredibly watchable actor, no matter what project he’s in he has the ability to bring the movie to a new level. Even if he were to play the same character in every movie, that character is still interesting or ass-kicking. 2008’s “The Bank Job,” directed by Roger Donaldson, decides to focus on Statham’s personality more and favors intrigue over ass kicking in pursuing this well played out heist drama. Statham plays Terry Leather, former small-time criminal who now runs a used car shop in 1970’s London, but is tempted back into the game with the offer of a bank job from old friend Martine (Saffron Burrows) to pull him out of debt and let him live the easy life. However Martine has been secretly employed by MI-5 to rob the bank’s vault to get into a safe deposit box that contains incriminating photos of a member of the British Royal Family. Terry’s crew digs under the bank in a classic tunnel robbery, but they all get swept up drama involving the secret photos and a secret ledger belonging to a local crime lord. Leather has to deal with the British Secret Service and the crime lord before he’s killed. The heist itself is over within the first half of the movie, refusing to take the bait of following movies like the “Ocean’s” Trilogy (2001-2007) that focuses all on the buildup to the heist. Instead the heist itself is fairly gritty and straightforward, they literally dig a hole into the bank, and the rest of the movie deals with the gang trying to figure out a plan to keep their money, evade the mob, and satisfy the government’s demand for the photos. It’s an entertaining story that moves well, but really uses Statham in helping to propel the action. Statham plays a charming version of himself, doesn’t get in any physical fights but instead makes a plan to keep him safe and sound. Other than Statham the rest of the cast is well cast, and they play their parts incredibly well, they don’t stand out too far except for Burrows and Peter De Jersey who puts on a great performance as black revolutionary Michael X, the man who has the incriminating photos hidden in a safe box. This actual historical person, in the film, uses the photos to blackmail the government and the government wants them back, hence the job. De Jersey delivers a great performance, very convincing except for the fact that his accent sounds incredibly Jamaican even though he’s supposed to be from Trinidad. Burrows also does a good job playing the old friend who starts up the job and plays well off of Statham. Director Donaldson is one of those directors whose movies I’ve heard of and a few I’ve seen, but never really stood out as a director. He makes good use of some stylish elements without making the movie too flashy, but overall he makes the right coverage and right decisions to keep the movie on track and doesn’t go much further. He does a good job making the movie work, but he doesn’t really make it his own or make it hugely visually impressive. Overall, “The Bank Job” is a good movie for Statham fans (isn’t that everyone?) especially if you want to see him turn on the charm and wit. I’m a little torn whether or not I’m disappointed that he wasn’t very physical in the movie, which is good since he is actually a good actor and has range beyond pure action, but on the other hand any movie with Statham and over the top action is pure gold (see “Crank” (2006)). The film is otherwise worth watching, a nice 1970’s set and styled caper movie that’s actually refreshing considering all the flashy heist movies that have bombarded cinema lately.
Video
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, “The Bank Job” looks nice, all of the colors and sets feel like the 1970’s, the lighting is well done, but the directing itself is the only thing that’s lackluster. Everything else visually is fairly crisp and clear, nothing gets washed out and the transfer is nice.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX sound of the movie works really well, the transfer is crisp, all of the levels are good and there are no pops or mistakes that come up. The sound track of the film sounds good as well, between older music like T.Rex’s “Get it On” which opens the film and the actual score J. Peter Robinson is fine too, nothing spectacular, but really suits the tone of the film. There's also an optional English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround track is included, along with English for the hearing impaired, English and Spanish subtitles.
Extras
The 2-disc set from Lionsgate comes with audio commentary, a couple of featurettes, deleted scenes, theatrical trailers and a digital copy of the film. The extras are covered below: DISC ONE: The audio commentary includes Director Roger Donaldson, Actress Saffron Burrows, and Composer J. Peter Robinson talking about the movie and they do a fairly good job of talking through the entire movie, there are some pauses, but they mostly come at the end of scenes as the transition happens and there are only a few where the talk will die down in the middle of a scene. The commentary itself is good and fairly funny, they spend a good amount of time discussing Statham at the beginning, joking about his other projects like “Crank 2” ‘But didn’t he die in “Crank” 1?’ There’s some good talk about the movie itself, the casting aspects and the on set filming, a nice commentary track that could have been a bit smoother and had a bit more to it. The first featurette is “Inside ‘The Bank Job’” which runs for 16 minutes and 43 seconds, this short behind the scenes featurette covers the production and the creation of the story based on the actual historical events, talking with producers, writers, the director and on-set designers about everything involved in the film. The way some of the producers talked, it sounded as if this movie was made in order to show Jason Statham’s range, it’s also interesting ot hear from the set designers and the other people involved in the creation of the film. “The Baker Street Bank Raid” featurette runs for 14 minutes and 52 seconds, where journalists, historians, a former London police officer and some people involved with the film discuss the culture of 1960’s to 1970’s London and the actual historical Baker Street heist where they actually turned into the bank. This is a really cool little featurette talking about the bank raid, impressive that they brought in people outside the film rather than just having the writer or directors discuss their take on the raid, hearing from people who were actually in London and covered the story, there’s also an interview with the amateur radio operator who recorded and overheard the Baker Street Bank heist. The deleted scenes are bundled into a reel and they all together run for 6 minutes and 16 seconds, these are really just tail ends or beginnings of scenes that were minor cuts, nothing huge here’s a short rundown of the scenes with their approximate times. The scenes included in the reel are compromised of: - Two government officials discuss Michael X’s photos, runs for 16 seconds. - Government officials discuss Michael X and the Black Power movement, runs for 24 seconds. - Martine suggests leasing the shop to Terry, runs for 12 seconds. - Terry and his wife discuss Martine at Eddie’s wedding, runs for 30 seconds. - Terry, Martine and Dave look at old photos of Martine, runs for 21 seconds. - Terry brings Bambas in on the operation to talk about the digging, runs about 1 minute. - Terry pulls into his car shop, runs for 20 seconds. - Guy enters the shop, runs for 19 seconds. - A train rumbles the tunnel the tunnel, runs for 13 seconds. - More chatter outside the shop, runs for 12 seconds. - Terry asks Martine about choosing them for the job, things get sexual, this runs for 1 minute. - Eddie is captured by the mob, this runs for 10 seconds. - Kevin takes passport photos for himself, Martine and Terry, runs for 20 seconds. - Lord Mountbatten gets in the car, this runs for 10 seconds. - Martine and MI-5 talk, this runs for about 20 seconds. There’s also an option to play the full 6 minutes and 16 seconds of deleted scenes with audio commentary includes Director Roger Donaldson, Actress Saffron Burrows, and Composer J. Peter Robinson. Donaldson talks about compacting the story and how most of these scenes weren’t entirely necessary while Burrows talks about the awkwardness of the sex scene. It’s obvious that these scenes weren’t really necessary to the film, most of them were under 30 seconds and didn’t have any pivotal points, except the sex scene with Terry and Martine. The theatrical trailer runs for 2 minutes and 31 seconds. There’s also a bunch of bonus trailers included on the disc: - “Bangkok Dangerous” runs for 2 minutes and 13 seconds. - “The Forbidden Kingdom” runs for 2 minutes and 5 seconds. - “Rambo” runs for 2 minutes and 26 seconds. - “WAR” runs for 1 minute and 36 seconds. - “Chaos” runs for 1 minute and 36 seconds. - “Crank” runs for 1 minute and 59 seconds. - “Confidence” runs for 1 minute and 52 seconds. DISC TWO: This disc is only the digial copy of the film, an interesting idea overall though it’s frustrating when DVD’s claim 2 disc special editions and the second disc is only a digital copy without extras.
Overall
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