inkpusher.com does "The Italian Job"

Rating: Null/10 (3 June 2003)

Warning: teeny-tiny little spoilers!
It's nice to know that every once in awhile, Hollywood puts a little effort into making a good movie. Sure, they don't always make it, but effort counts for a lot.
Take `The Italian Job' for example, a remake of the 1969 film. Effort was put forth to give us a little bit of everything in the hopes that it all added up to a great movie, and they did their best to make the pieces work together. They even got around to following a half-decent plot, even though they had to go all the way back to 1969 to dig one up.
`The Italian Job' is about a group of nice-guy thieves who steal $32 Million worth of gold from a nameless place in Venice, Italy. One clever caper and a boat chase later, and our boys are on their way. Of course, 'Steve' (Edward Norton) betrays them, takes the gold for himself, and tries to kill the rest of the group. Unfortunately for him, he only manages to kill the most loveable father-figurely (yes I know its not a real word) character, inciting the rest of the group to hunt Steve down a year later in Los Angeles and try to steal his gold just to annoy him.
Mix all of this in with a love interest (Stella Bridger), the all-American hero/thief (Mark Whalberg), the gigolo car-guy (Jason Statham), the computer geek loser (Seth Green), the token black guy (Mos Def), some explosions, some car chases, and some Minis, and you have `The Italian Job'.
So, does it all add up?
The answer is a definite resounding `sort of'!
The movie was fun to watch, it's worth going to the theatre for, and it will be a fun rental. That having been said, I'm not buying myself a copy. While the acting was good, the action was good, and even the plot was good, none of it was great.
I'm saying this for a pretty simple reason: international thieves probably aren't all a bunch of super nice people. Trying to portray it any other way means that the actors have to portray slightly unrealistic characters (Oh I don't want to see Steve dead, I just want to see the look on his face!), the plot gets a little watered down to accommodate that (Our plan is simple: we'll wing it!), and the action sequences are limited to scenes where nobody gets hurt (Ok folks, in this scene you drive down the sidewalk, down the stairs, along the subway platform and then in front of the train. Don't hit anybody.).
So basically, it makes for a movie that has it all, and ends up just ok.
If it helps you make up your mind about whether to see it, Edward Norton made it clear he only agreed to do the movie because of contractual obligations. That can be good or bad, depending on how you feel about Edward Norton.
3.5 of 5 Wuffies. Nice try guys, see you next summer.