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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Bank Job, The
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 54 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Dick Clement
Ian La Frenais
Directed by: Roger Donaldson
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 7, 2008
DVD: July 15, 2008
Running Time: 110 minutes, Color
Origin: UK
Summary
RATING: R for sexual content, nudity, violence and language
Starring Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Alki David, Michael Jibson, and Richard Lintern
A car dealer with a dodgy past and new family, Terry has always avoided major-league scams. But when Martine, a beautiful model from his old neighborhood, offers him a lead on a foolproof bank hit on London's Baker Street, Terry recognizes the opportunity of a lifetime. Martine targets a roomful of safe-deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry. But Terry and his crew don't realize the boxes also contain a treasure trove of dirty secrets--secrets that will thrust them into a deadly web of corruption and illicit scandal that spans London's criminal underworld, the highest echelons of the British government, and the Royal Family itself. This is the true story of a heist gone wrong in all the right ways. (Lionsgate)
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
One of the pleasures of The Bank Job is that it returns us to the days when robbing a bank was a gritty, hole-in-the-wall affair.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The gritty heist picture The Bank Job has everything adult action fans could want, starting with a grand, fact-inspired gimmick.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Entertaining and subtle at once, it doesn't just dazzle us with the hows and whys of a particularly wily brand of thievery; it transports us to a specific time and place that often seems to fall between significant eras. The Bank Job is set in a country that's in transition, an extended metaphor for the way its characters are in transition, too.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Jason Statham, possibly the greatest B-movie leading man of this era, stars in a complicated and clever imagining of what might have happened in the mysterious 1971 London bank heist dubbed the "Walkie-Talkie Robbery" - in other words, it was unbelievably high-tech.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Nothing more than an efficient time-killer with the added bonus of being based on a real misadventure. But, unlike its benighted cast of characters, it gets the job done without a hitch.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Feels both absolutely of the 1970s and absolutely fresh.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A heist movie in the classic tradition - it details every aspect of the caper, from its genesis to its aftermath. The fact that there's political intrigue and espionage swirling around the edges only makes it more fascinating.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
The suspense aspect works like mad, but what's also noteworthy is the character component, which at times evokes a "Smash Palace"-era Donaldson.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Slick, ice-cold and enjoyable, The Bank Job is a bit of all right.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Dull title for a juicy, fact-based caper movie that's full of surprises I have no intention of spoiling.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Based more on rumor and supposition than fact. It's a highly entertaining set of hypotheses.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Statham fans weaned on the adrenaline flowing through "The Transporter" and "Crank" may feel short-changed, but the rest of us can appreciate the unassuming, old-fashioned craftsmanship of The Bank Job, which is based on a true-life heist.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Imagine a blend of "Snatch," "Ocean's 11" and "The Italian Job." Then juxtapose the staples of the caper genre with real events involving national security and high-level corruption, and the result is The Bank Job.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The Bank Job engages us fully with a tale that's well-fashioned more than anything else, a fascinating study of morality at several levels of English society, and of honor, or the lack of it, among implausibly likable thieves.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
Statham's totally believable. He might yet become Bruce Willis.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
What makes director Roger Donaldson's movie greater than zany heist fare is that this particular robbery really happened and that this episode illuminated an almost moral clash between the haves and the have-nots of Great Britain.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
The actual robbery that the picture is based on is shrouded in mystery, and the screenwriters, Dick Clement and Ian La Fresnais, have engaged in a fair amount of entertaining invention.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
The film dawdles at times. but for the most part Donaldson keeps just the right amount of tension present in each scene.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
There is not a lot of scintillating dialogue in The Bank Job, but there are plenty of kinky sexual allusions and it includes a torture sequence about as brutal as anything you're likely to see in the movies these days.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Fascinating: supposedly the crooks kept all the cash and jewelry, but their sponsors in the MI5 were really after sexually explicit blackmail photos of Princess Margaret and other aristocrats that were being held by the revolutionary Michael X.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
One doesn't want to oversell the film; you could catch it on DVD and regret nothing. But, frankly, in a marketplace that tends toward cranked-up action thrills, it's just nice to watch a level-headed crime movie aimed at actual grown-ups.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
Unlike the other great caper films of the last 10 years, like "Ocean’s 11" and "The Italian Job" – stylish affairs in which punishment is close enough to give the audience a sense of lingering danger but never so close that it gets in the way of the technological fetishism and love of tailored shirts that apparently make grand larceny such a kick – the blowback in The Bank Job is real and ugly and involves some sort of pneumatic paint-stripping machine that would freak out the Coen Brothers.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Semi-decent, somewhat okay, not-half-bad.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
The workmanlike title The Bank Job is a nice fit for this wham-bam caper flick.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
A slow-paced and often confusingly plotted crime drama that never lives up to the delicious potential of its premise.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Stina Chyn
The Bank Job secures the viewer’s attention pretty quickly and does not relinquish that hold for a second.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Donaldson also misses the chance to score some easy laughs from his petty criminals, who are infinitely more audacious than they are competent.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
What The Bank Job ends up stealing is all your precious time.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
The movie doesn't hang together as a thriller, and the characters don't hang together as interesting people.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 54 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chet R gave it an8:
Extremely well done, maintaining its intensity--almost--to the very end.
Robin A. gave it a7:
Great fun ... Statham is believable as the leader of the gang mixed up in trouble they can not imagine.
Seb H gave it a9:
I'm constantly bemused by reviews that state that the director is 'dump' - oh the irony. Ignoring the fact that this is set in the '70s (yes, cos that's when it actually happened), perfect combination of suspense and grit, and even the odd bit of humour, it's one of those precious few action films that isn't so predictable you actually want to find out how it ends. I was entertained and thrilled - can't believe people want more these days.
Ken W. gave it a9:
One of the best films I've seen in a long time. The European flavour is always appealing, the cast was great. I've watched the DVD 4 times & each time I'm on the edge of my seat, nervously. If you liked SNATCH this is a must see movie.
Lee T. gave it a2:
What has happened to the mind of Stephanie Zacharek? This erstwhile movie reviewer for Salon.com is almost never wrong. But she loved this movie and this movie sucks in so many ways. The problem with "The Bank Job" is that it's simply a hokie movie - hokie directing, hokie acting, and hokie soundtrack. The director is so dump he must have thought that really awful '70s-style direction and soundtrack would somehow invoke the '70s, but all it invokes is what was truly awful about the '70s. And now this movie adds to the list of things about the '70s and make people want to cringe.
Steve F gave it an8:
Ten times better than 99% of the action movie sh%t that comes out of the states. Worth checking out! Awesome poster too
Kev T. gave it an8:
If part of this movie is true, it is proof that life can be better than fiction. I have no doubt some liberties were taken with the story, but the movie does become more than just another bank robbery movie. The characters do feel very unoriginal, but then again it is supposed to be about real people. There are only so many character types out there. If you are looking for big time action flick, this is not it. There is some action, but they seem to try and keep more realistic. There are a couple of moments of action that felt fake, but it was not bad. The acting is generally good, although there are a few moments where people should have been more shaken up or rough looking considering what they just did or were doing. I think the casting was fine, but again, very predictable. Bottom line, is this a great look at a unique part of British history, well I am sure some where under the layers of Hollywoodizations it is, but that is the key. Watch this movie for entertainment, not for facts. Otherwise it is a good movie well worth renting and ownership if it is on sale.
