The Bank Job

I am not a big fan of British’s movies, but I have to admit that this movie is a good. Like other common movies, it has a main actor that all cameras always focus on him. Jason Statham fills in as the main actor in this movie. For those who never know who is Jason Statham, he was born in 1972 in the city of London. Jason Statham has done quite a lot in a short time. He has been an Olympic Diver on the British National Diving Team and finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992. He has also been a fashion model, black market salesman and starting his actor debut in 1998.

Since then, he has done some good movies, say it like, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch (plays with Brad Pitt), The One (Plays with Jet Li) and the big hit movie was Transporter in 2002. Then, it was followed by another hit of British movie called Crank. He is my favorite British actor up to now.

Plot
The story is begun in East London 1971. Jason Statham plays as Terry Leather, a London car dealer. He got an offer from Martine Love, a former model, informs him that Baker Street bank’s alarm is off for a couple weeks. One thing he doesn’t know that Martine Love has another plan. Her primary goal is a safe-deposit box contain photos. Those photos show a sex scandal links to the Royal family. The movie is telling a true story of how one of the biggest robbery in British history took place.

In September 1971, thieves tunneled from the basement of a renovated bag store into the vault of a bank in London’s Baker Street. In this movie, they show Lloyd’s Bank, but I’m not sure whether it is the same name of the bank in reality. Anyway, the thieves broke safe deposit boxes with full of cash and jewelry worth over three million pounds. If we are looking back to history, there was none of it was recovered and nobody was ever arrested. How they get away from the bank, runaway from the secret service of England and the criminals who doesn’t want their secret to be revealed? You may want to watch the movie to keep the fun a little bit for the movie.

Conclusion
This is a good movie with a good storyline, especially with “based on a true story” tag on the cover. The one thing I like about this movie, it’s very entertaining and never takes itself too seriously. They are still able to put some jokes on the job. The plot is good and they are successfully tied everything together. We can see the funny thing when unknown person accidentally hears the conversation of the thieves through walkie talkie during the robbery and informs the police about it. The police are getting confused because the thieves never say the name of the bank through walkie talkie. They have to check every bank in every corner in London to make sure that the conversation is not just a joke. In overall, it’s very entertaining movie.

Facts
This is the facts shown at the end of the movie:

• Soon after the robbery Scotland Yard underwent a major purge of corrupt police officers (as per the movie, the thieves also robbed a book recording all bribes given to police across England)

• A number of senior members of the government resigned following revelations about the activities at Sonia Bern’s brothel (as per the movie, Sonia Bern’s brothel was the place where the picture of sex scandal was taken)

• Michael X was hanged in 1975 in Trinidad for the murder of Gale Benson (as per the movie, Gale Benson was the undercover agent from British agency killed by Malcolm X soon after the robbery)

• Michael X’s file in the British National Archive remains classified until the 1st of January 2054

• Porn King Vogel was jailed for 8 years for crimes unrelated to the robbery (as per the movie, Porn King Vogel was the one who owns the book with all the records of corrupted police)

• The loot taken from the Baker Street Bank was thought to be in excess of 4 million pounds, more than that of the Great Train Robbery

• Over 100 safe deposit box holders refused to identify their losses from the robbery (The thieves will say "Thank you very much for your generosity. Have a nice day..")

Casts

Jason Statham as Terry Leather (The one, Transporter, Crank)
Saffron Burrows as Martine Love (Troy, The Guitar)
Stephen Campbell Moore as Kevin Swain
Daniel Mays as Dave Shilling
James Faulkner as Guy Singer (Hitman, The Good Shepherd)
Alki David as Bambas
Michael Jibson as Eddie Burton
Georgia Taylor as Ingrid Burton
Richard Lintern as Tim Everett

Writers: Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais

Director: Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days, Dante’s Peak)

Runtime: 111 min