Good (bad) guys to root for

Rating: 8/10 (2 June 2003)

In recent years, it has been commonplace for movies to have many twists and turns, and/or the big shocker at the end. The Italian Job, from director F. Gary Gray, proves that neither are necessary. A gold heist turns sour after Edward Norton, who plays Steve, has his own plans for the gold, and makes sure of that once the team reaches the Italy-Austria border. A year later, the leader of the team, Charlie (Mark Walhberg) recruits Stella (Charlize Theron) to join the remainder of his team to steal back the gold.
The Italian Job, free from fancy visual effects, feature actors who are perfectly suited for their roles. Jason Statham as Handsome Rob, Mos Def as the demolitions guy who "had a bad experience" with dogs, and Seth Green, who claims the idea for Napster was stolen from him.
Simply put, The Italian Job is fun to watch from beginning to end, the boat chase in Venice, Italy to the Mini-Coopers in L.A., the sneaky but simple-minded bad guy played by Norton. It is far from perfect, but it deserves to be a box-office success.