The Italian Job is true to the genre. It's a remake--or an homage as they prefer to call it--of the 1969 film by the same name starring Michael Caine. The 2003 version stars Mark Wohlberg as Charlie, the chief of thiefs. When the film opens Charlie is leading his crew, including Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statham, Mos Def, and Donald Sutherland in a very fine heist in Venice. All goes well until the final getaway, when Steve--Edward Norton--gets a little greedy and decides he wants all the loot. Not only does he want the loot, but he plans to eradicate the team as well. I guess it's the Treasure of the Sierre Madre clause, a thief is a thief, after all.

Only one member of the team is killed, however--it's Donald Sutherland's character John Bridger--leaving the remaining gang plotting how they will get the money back. Enter Bridger's daughter, Stella, the very delightful Charlize Theron, who is not only stunningly beautiful, she's also a safe cracker who contracts her services to the FBI. She joins the team to revenge her father's death. All pretty predictable stuff.

In fact, it's all pretty predictable stuff. Stella becomes bait for Steve, but there's a trip up in the plan which calls for plans B and C to kick in.. They're all fun.

The characters each have incredible skill in one area. Seth Green is the techno nerd who controls the traffic by hacking into traffic light grid. Jason Statham--you'll remember him from Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels--is the driver, they call him Handsome Rob. He has some power over women. I'm sure his cockney accent doesn't hurt. Mos Def is left ear, he's the demolition expert, who lost the hearing in one ear--guess how!

So you have this bunch of quirky fun characters who are amazingly gifted--it's such a shame that these guys don't work for NASA, you know, but I digress. So you have these quirky guys who just want to get their money back. The film is completely loaded for us to like the gang. Steve is as evil as can be. He's the only one who uses a gun, he has a snarl on his face the whole time, and he is lecherous of the fair Charlize. The other guys just doubt her ability.

And just in case the film is not fun enough, enter the mini coopers. Three of the most delightful little cars you could ever hope to meet, that get souped up beyond the ability of your average mini. A large part of the film is spent buzzing around in the cars, and that's just fine.

The end result is fun. There's not a lot to this movie, certainly nothing out of the ordinary. The Italian Game is fast and fun, it's enjoyable enough to watch, but other than desperately wanting to buy a mini cooper, there's very little that stays with you after the credits roll.


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