A BLEND OF BRITISH FACT AND FICTION : "THE BANK JOB"

As you know by now, I’m all for innovation and trying new things. Be it different genres, directors or countries of origin, variety is the spice of life and never more so when it comes to movies. But then again… There’s nothing really like re-visiting old favourites is there? I personally think that old favourites in matters such as this are specifically to be re-visited not “had” every day. First of all, if you consume said favourite every day (in whatever form it happens to come in), it will be “the everyday” thing. Part of your routine almost. And slowly, it will cease to be a favourite. You will, undoubtedly, become bored of it. However,  if you have it there, shining like a gem in a whole selection of different  “things”, it will always be special, your enjoyment will always have that edge to it. For me, as you know, there are several favourites. But nothing really beats a good old gangster movie. Especially a heist. I don’t know what it is about them, especially because the element of surprise is not always at the forefront of the creators minds.  (And I mean, let’s be fair, there are only so many directions the plot can go in, right? Actually wrong when it comes to this film, but you know what I mean. ) But anyhoo. That’s my guilty little treat. A bit like that totally kitch ‘90s tune you have on your mp3 player that you only play on the train when no one can see your screen (come on, you KNOW the one I mean…). And I’ll tell you something else. I don’t even care if its stars Jason Statham. Again. Because he is good at heist films. Period.

The Bank Job is based on a true heist. Of course “based on” means that there is a significant amount of truth in it with some imagination to fill in the gaps thrown in. This is the story of a group of petty criminals (the leader of the gang being, as always, Jason Statham) who are handed the opportunity of the bank job of a lifetime by an acquaintance (Saffron Burrows). The idea is to tunnel into the bank from the empty shop that they have leased almost next door and empty out the safety deposit boxes. This is, of course, a brilliant opportunity to get rich quick for the friends because, as the acquaintance points out, a lot of people hide compromising stuff in there. They may not even want to risk reporting it stolen. The friends think about it for a minute, and then pounce on the idea. But there are complications. First of all, the acquaintance is not as innocent as she may have first seemed; she is acting on the part of MI5 (or is it 6??) because there are some VERY compromising pictures of VERY important people that need to be got back NOW.  Secondly, like we said, there indeed is compromising material in the bank, put there by rather unpleasant people. And while it is true that they will never report it missing, this does NOT mean they will not come after it themselves... Have our friends finally bitten off more than they can chew? Will this heist actually turn out to be (literally) the last thing they ever do? You’ll have to watch and find out.

Now, I did a bit of research on this one as I jotted down my thoughts and considerations. First of all, the heist bit, as far as we can ascertain, is spot on. Down to the details. It occurred in 1971 and there was, according to one website, actual talk of compromising photos being found but of whom they were and how they compromised them remains a mystery to this day. I will not go into the details of the robbery as yet seeing as you haven’t watched it yet (probably) but I found it especially amusing to find out that the “discovery of the walkie talkies” as it were was also spot on the money. Nothing as queer as folk, eh?  All other connections (including “the photos” and the connections to the intelligence services) are more a matter of speculation but still, stranger things have happened in life…

The film itself is about as British as they come. Not surprising since, it turns out, it was written by the co-creators of British classics like “The Likely Lads” and “Porridge” (I apologise if that means nothing to you, but Porridge is one of my favourite sit-coms and I had to give it a plug). The humour is British, the characters are VERY British and well, it’s a 1970’s period film to boot. Now, this is my filmic equivalent of chocolate cake with chocolate-fudge sauce (and if, like my mother, you hate chocolate, I mean this as a compliment). But if it isn’t yours, I have to add that the combination of extraordinary real life events and some really creative writing and directing has meant that this is one heist movie you will NOT see coming. The plot twists come left and right when you least expect them and the characters are so charming, you end up rooting for them without quite understanding what happened. I mean, I started watching this after a very tiring shift, just to unwind for half an hour with every intention of leaving it half-way and going to bed early. I ended up watching the whole two hours and completely upsetting my own sleep patterns for a week. Totally worth it. 

WHEELING AND DEALING FOR THEIR LIVES : "LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS"

Yes, another epic / infamous Guy Ritchie – Jason Statham extravaganza. And yes, I know, all this is not actually considered much more than just entertainment. But then again, I reckon we need to be entertained from time to time, right ? And if this entertainment basically comes in the form of a successful, if slightly violent comedy concerning the crime world, well, all the better. On the back of the copy of the film that I watched, the DVD company had opted not to put much of a synopsis, just a lot of visuals and comments from critics. I found this a bit odd but carried on watching the film regardless. It turned out there was a reason for this. Although the film starts off on quite simple premises, it grows and grows, adds in characters left, right and center, strands of the story interweave when you least expect them too, in short it all gets so convoluted and the film is such a comedy of errors that I have actually now written half a paragraph about it without being able to tell you the story itself. So go figure… =) Ok seriously though, here’s my stab at it without giving the plot away. So, 1, 2 3 and 4 are four mates. They make their living in various forms of shady business, 1 shifts stolen goods, 2 cheats in high stakes card games etc. It’s a bit of a risky business but they seem to be basically getting on alright, until that is, 2 (who is not, naturally, the only person cheating at high stakes poker) ends up owing a notoriously ruthless crime boss half a million pounds. Now this involves his three mates as well, as they helped him get the money to join the game together and the crime boss is well aware of this. So the giddy foursome have a week to get the money together or… Er you know. Apart from the obvious, the crime boss has also declared he will take 2’s father’s bar – not exactly a clean slate himself – which complicates matters. Now, it seems pretty straight forward – and a tad boring – up till here. It is precisely at this point that things start to get “complicated”. It all starts, as you can imagine, with a cunning plan – a heist no less – to get the money together. It goes totally AWOL from thereon in. I will say no more, but believe me, it’s absolutely brilliant. Guy Ritchie has two main assets in my book. Firstly, the two films of his that I have seen – Snatch and this one – both contain, clean, snappy editing that is especially well suited to their genres. The editing is also very fast – paced and innovative, keeps you on your toes throughout. Ritchie then couples that with snappy dialogue. It’s a very British thing really, you either like it or you don’t; I personally love it. Snappy, sarcastic, but creative and hilarious with it. Throughout the film, like Snatch, there are a few clichés. But I mean, as long as you’re not looking for anything life-changing you’ll be fine. Ritchie also is very good at getting together an absolute plethora of bizarre characters. They may or may not be clichés, my point is there are so many of them you would never really expect them to work well together. Funnily enough no, everyone has just the right amount of screen time and although they seem disparate they work really, really well together. In short, yes, a very fun and funny movie. Plus, I really cannot over-estimate the success of the script in weaving all manner of bizarre storylines together. I mean if you watched Snatch and thought that was convoluted… You really ain’t seen nothing yet…

FAST LIVING, WHEELING AND DEALING WITH "SNATCH"

I had heard a fair bit about this one. Mainly in connection to Brad Pitt’s Irish accent therein. And, as a side note, said accent is something to be marveled at. Even Irish friends gave it the seal of approval and trust me, they do not approve of every Irish accent going in cinemas these days. Now, I am not, generally speaking, a great fan of Guy Richie. I was actually surprised to see he directed this little number. But what can I tell you, apparently there is an exception to every rule and I just hit mine. Snatch is a fun and fast-paced piece of comedy – action, ideal to brighten up your evening after a tiring day at work…
Turkish (Jason Statham) is a boxing promoter. Only he isn’t a big-shots boxing promoter yet, so he mainly concentrates on illegal bare-knuckle boxing stuff. The whole thing’s a bit iffy ofcourse but Turkish has a few good fighters on so he makes a living. That and the slot-machine arcade. One fine day, however, the whole operation comes into a bit of jeopardy. It all starts with Turkish deciding to buy a new caravan (he lives in a caravan and the old one is… Well… Falling to pieces). Only he decides to buy said caravan from a group of Irish travelers who are passing through the area. This turns out to be a big mistake. What starts as a simple business transaction ends in his best fighter (who is due for a fight with the fighter of the local crime boss in a matter of days by the way. And like most crime bosses, “Bricktop” does not like this kind of nasty surprise) being hospitalized by the Irish Traveller’s equivalent of a bare-knuckle boxing champion (Brad Pitt and his impressive… Accent ;) ). Turkish can only really see one way out of the whole thing, getting the traveler to fight instead. But not only does the traveler not quite perform as he is asked / expected; an 84 carat diamond, three very inept robbers, a dog and a Russian ex-KGB agent enter the mix with alarming speed. It will take all his ingenuity – and possibly a miracle or two – for Turkish to get out of this mess alive…
Ok, so, the thing to remember is, don’t expect this film to actually change your life – if you see what I mean. It is, however, genuinely very good fun. It is classic British humor, one cannot avoid that fact, however it is mixed with a lot of action comedy, some old favorites (like the dumb robbers) and some new, innovative characters (like Brad Pitt’s character – I mean honestly, how often do you see Irish travelers as part of a big-budget movie?). In short, it is in my opinion a very successful mix. I mean, you will, in some places get a bit tired of the clichés; the ex-KGB agent for example. Or any number of Jews and Jewish stereotypes that, as you can imagine, come attached to the 84 carat diamond. And yet they all interact so brilliantly, the dialogue is so witty and the adrenaline flows so freely that, honestly, this film is one of those little numbers where even though there are some obvious little faults here and there, really, they are so easy to overlook… I know IMDB is not considered an “academic” source, but it is composed of people’s votes, which gives it a different sort of value. And if this film made it into the top 250 over there, there definitely is a reason for it… And I can see exactly what it is…