| The Italian Job | | Cast : | Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Donald Sutherland, Jason Statham, Seth Green, Mos Def, Edward Norton | | Director : | F. Gary Gray | | Studio : | Paramount Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | May 30, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | December 29, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | italian job | Content
 | The Italian Job is a good action packed film. It has a bit of supencefull parts but for the most part it is a realy good buy. I suggest the movie for anyone who loves action, criminals who get away with it and a hint of romance. It is a great movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | Nail Biting Crime Caper | Content
| Extremely well done heist/buddy flick in the vein of, but not as good as THE BOURNE and OCEANS series. This could be due to the casting. Mark Wahlberg, who showed such promise in BOOGIE NIGHTS, is unfortunately best suited to beefcake roles. The uber talented Edward Norton seems woefully unhappy to be in this one (nor does he appear in any of the press materials recut into "special features") and phones in his most disappointing performance as the turncoat bad guy. Donald Sutherland pops up to compete with Michael Caine and Charles Durning for the most over-used "icon" of his generation. Charlize Theron & Seth Green, however, bring surplus talent and humor to their roles and manage to keep the iffy-ensemble together. Thank goodness for the stunt work and locations (especially evidenced when you see the ghastly and gratefully deleted scenes)!
The music, too, is especially noteworthy and adds greatly to the excitement of this "summer" movie.
The special features are negligible and only reinforce the stereotype that it's best not to let the actors speak anything other than their scripted lines. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 11, 2005 | | Summary | Is L. A. in Italy? | Content
| Even though this movie starts out in Venice, with motorboat chases down the canals following an ultra modern heist of gold bars worth 35 million dollars, most of the action takes place out in California. There really is not much Italian about this job; even the funky music is pure L.A. -- not easy on the ears or senses. It is pretty weird with lots of noise but not much taste.
The dialogue isn't much, either. Seth Green of WITHOUT A PADDLE fame was the best of the bunch, as the computer wiz Napster. He looks so much like Michael Feinstein, it is a joy to watch his antics. They use cell phones and computers which I know were not in the original 1969 version starring Michael Caine who was the original 'Alfie.'
The weird looking cars (mini Coopers) red, white and blue were something like the teen races in 'Rebel Without A Cause' and 'Grease.' They maneuvered down on the Metro underground tracks and through storm drain tunnels to escape the black helicopter after a fashion.
We see the famous junkyard run by the Italians where the garbage men are warned by a 400-lb. Oriental or Ukranian (take your pick). The first attempt to recover the gold which is left -- 208 bricks worth 27 million had to be aborted because of a neighbor's large party in the gated and guarded grand mansions.
There was nothing poetic about this bunch of international criminals. The helicopter flew right past the Hollywood hill sign, Hotel Roosevelt, and Chinese Theatre. The traffic jams caused by a malfunction at the Traffic Control Center showed some buses; #2636 looked like the old white borrowed vehicles KAT has from Worchester, Mass. The mini cars are driven into a cattle car attached to the Union Pacific train and off they go into the wild blue yonder.
It could have been a western except for the Big Brother cameras out on the freeway. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 07, 2005 | | Summary | Revenge is best served cold | Content
| Here Edward Norton proves again that there's no loyalty among thieves, offs the beloved Donald Sutherland and tries to murder the "wrecking crew" of Jason Statham, Mark Wahlberg, and others.
Charlize Theron, not really used as she is capable, plays Sutherland's daughter who joins the remaining group to repay Norton for killing her father a year later and two continents away. Several times the caveat 'it's not about the money' is repeated, which is important lest we forget that these are honorable thieves, not, well, dishonorable thieves. Reminds me of the old legal axiom, "when the lawyers tell you it's not about the money it's about the principle . . . . it's about the money." I mean Hell. It's 35 million dollars!
Anyhow, "The Italian Job" has Theron who as always does a credible job with what she's given and is drop dead gorgeous while she's doing it, Statham who is just as tough as they come and like Dominic West ("The Wire") a credit to his British Roots, and Mark ("I am not Matt Damon and I am much better than Matt Damon") Wahlberg, who does a good job as the leader of the pack and chief retributionist.
The drawback (and it's a fun show) is that there is little feeling to it. You know Sutherland is sponsoring Wahlberg to be the best thief in the world, but we don't know why. Wahlberg et al. travels 5ooo miles to Hollywood and brings the four remaining gang members, with cars, motorcycles and connections to avenge Sutherland, but we don't know how he gets the money to do so (he lost evrything in "the Italian job") or why. Charlize doesn't like Wahlberg but after awhile, she still seems unenchanted with him. And Norton is an evil, murdering bad guy . . . . at least they tell us that but it doesn't seem to come across.
It's like the "Bourne" movies with Damon, kind of the same in the sense that they are big on retribution and have great cinematography. There's feeling there; there isn't here. 4 stars. Larry Scantlebury |
| Rating | | | Date | June 29, 2005 | | Summary | Justice always comes from the underground | Content
| Thieves robbing thugs robbing crooks robbing etc. A first robbery and then a member of this first team robs his team and then the victims of this fink recuperate their gold from him in a spectacular third robbery. From Venice to Los Angeles, from gondolas to cars, from canals to overstuffed streets, etc. The interest is not so much in the action which is simple and well dynamized by a good rhythm. Not so much in the plot and the suspense because we all know from the very start that justice will prevail, I mean that the first robbers will recuperate their gold no matter what. The interest of the film is in the details of the action. It all revolves around the use of hightechnology in city managing (here the traffic and the subway) and in security systems (here safes and the tools to break them without explosives). But once again this does not create any suspense because we know this hightechnology will not fail, except on order and command. The second interest is in the characters. They are simple and their psychologies are also very simple, but less simple than we could have feared. Hence they have some simple depth nearly like real human beings. A father who is absent, a father figure who is looming high and a man who comes into the slot and becomes the absent father who is no father any more but just a plain and desired male lover. This needs two rather good actors to imply and impersonate this situation in simple face expression and body language. The camera does the rest. In other words a good entertaining experience. By the way the fink looks like a fink from the very start : the way he walks, the way he smiles without smiling, etc. But why on earth was he given a slightly mexican or at least latin american look ?
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
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