Follows the formula, but at least does it with style and creativity.

Rating: 9/10 (23 June 2003)

Contains spoiler The first thing I heard about The Italian Job was that it had a car chase in it that was supposed to be better than the one in The Matrix Reloaded. I'm not sure I would go that far, but there is no denying that there is some great action in this movie. It is, admittedly, an hour and forty minute Mini Cooper commercial, and it definitely follows the typical formula of a heist movie, but there are subtle differences that make it more than worth watching.
Seth Green plays the part of Lyle, who I'll just describe as exactly the same character that he played in Enemy of the State to save time, but he provides some of the most entertaining scenes in the film. The creation of the `Los Angeles' largest traffic jam ever' (although I'm SURE I've been stuck in worse than that in that place) is the movies main attraction, and Lyle creates it with suck geeky style that he makes it cool to be a computer nerd again.
(spoilers) Charlize Theron plays Stella Bridger, the daughter of John Bridger (Donald Sutherland), whose vicious murder provides much of the drive for the conflict of the entire film. Stella plays the beautiful blonde with a whole world of possibilities open to her because she's so intelligent and strong, and then she is sent into an emotional turmoil for most of the film. So basically exactly the same character she played in The Devil's Advocate, Reindeer Games, The Astronaut's Wife, Mighty Joe Young, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Men of Honor, 15 Minutes, etc.
Donald Sutherland is, of course, his usual badass self, with a calm and collected cool that is rivaled only by such greats as Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood. He is an actor who naturally portrays characters who have plans that go just a little beyond what is spoken aloud (except, of course, for the character he played in Backdraft). In a movie that's populated almost entirely by stereotyped characters, it's nice that at least one of the caricatures is not routine and boring.
Mark Wahlberg is another caricature, but he is also not boring just because it's so much fun to watch him be p***ed off and seeking revenge. I've always thought that he had a tiny bit of a hard time playing anything other than a former-musician-turned-actor, but he definitely has his own style which fits perfectly with his role in The Italian Job.
And then there is Edward Norton, one of today's few young actors who promises to ultimately obtain as much skill in portraying diverse characters as people like Tom Hanks and Dustin Hoffman, who are so good at what they do that they can literally play any role in the world should the need arise. One of the only things that I was a little apprehensive about when I went to see The Italian Job was that I knew Norton was going to play the bad guy, and I have always been so staggered by his performances in movies like Primal Fear and American History X that I was a little bummed that I would have to watch him caught and probably killed in this movie (thankfully I was spared the latter, which is more than can be said of movies in similar situations, like Training Day).
Despite my opinion that Edward Norton's role as the bad guy was initially a little disappointing to me, it also turned out to be one of the best parts of the movie, and not only because Norton is such a spectacularly talented actor, some credit also goes to the writers in this category. As a whole, The Italian Job doesn't stray too far from the typical heist movie formula, but the thing that really makes it interesting as we're led to the ending that we always knew we would see is that the villain, Norton, is not a complete moron, as villains quite often are.
When the rest of the team finds him, a year after he betrayed them to steal the $35 million worth of gold that they stole together (in an opening sequence that rivals any one in any James Bond movie ever made), we get some pleasant surprises in a movie that never really promised to have many. Stella goes to his house as the cable-repair technician and ends up on a date with him, and when they're out to dinner, she doesn't easily deceive him with her beauty as long as she needs to, giving him wildly revealing death looks all the while as you would see in the typical heist movie, but he has caught on to her and tricks her into revealing her identity as well. Norton plays a villain that is aware of his surroundings, he's not reckless and ignorant and protected only by the mistakes of his pursuers, as would normally be the case.
This intelligence goes on into the thrilling final action sequence, where he places his gold in one of three armored trucks in order to confuse his pursuers, who he knows are watching every move he makes. I was a little disappointed that the movie took the nosedive at the end where it is explained that every character took his share of the gold and went and bought exactly what they wanted (they did everything here but include the phrase Happily Ever After), but I guess that's the price you pay for getting to have an interesting and entertaining ride to the ending that you already knew you would see. As a whole the movie is about as predictable as they come, but at least they came up with some new things along the way. Given the amount of movies of all genres these days that don't even bother to do that much, this one is a breath of fresh air.