Not as good as the original.

Rating: Null/10 (16 August 2017)

This movie is a typical Hollywood "remake" of a brilliant British original. The story is only vaguely similar to the British one, and this is shown in the use of gold bars as the target of the theft, the three mini's, the chase scene and the traffic jam. Other than that this picture is very far removed from the original Italian Job that has always been one of my favourite classics. The only thing that is really worth watching in this mess is the lovely Charlize Theron and a 10 minute appearance by Donald Sutherland.
This picture is not special in any way, and is just yet another one of these modern-day action movies with a bunch of thieves, some high-speed chase scenes, lots of guns and explosions, some boats and some pretty Venecian scenery. It is the sort of thing I might watch only if I get bored with the news and the commercials, the fresh paint on the wall has finished drying, and the grass outside has stopped growing!
Hollywood has shown us yet again, as if we needed any more proof, that the Yanks just can't make movies as well as the Poms can. This title was originally a Michael Caine British classic of the theft movie genre with a dash of typically understated British humour, and Benny Hill in an uncharacteristic scientific role. How dare the money-grabbers in Hollywood even think that they can "update" such a classic with a bunch of Yankee actors and some speed boats and still maintain the quality of the original? I do not mean to take anything away from the actors themselves here; they have done the best that they could with what they were given to work with, and stars like Mr Sutherland and Miss Theron were obviously brought in as draw cards to grab the audience. They are not the issue, but it always maddens me when the Hollywood sausage-machine tries to recreate a brilliant original movie which cannot be equalled. They should leave them alone because all that ends up happening is that they reiterate just how good the original is. That is what has happened again here, and so I can only give this movie a 4 and tell you to go and grab the original Italian Job and be properly entertained, and forget this ridiculous rubbish!!