Breezy fun

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2003)

I guess I was surprised how enjoyable and just light this film was. It seemed like it could have almost been rated PG with a risky enough ratings board. I mean, think about it: no shootings in the climactic minutes, no sex scenes, not all that much obscenity, and no scandalous or heavy concepts to take in. The Italian Job seems weirdly almost a family film... The Italian Job is like some of the great caper/action flicks (Sneakers, The Firm) in that there's a smart villain who can anticipate the movements of his opponent, and the good guys do have to work as a team to meet the challenge. There're some brilliant moves in this game, and the players are obviously having a great time. I mean, even in the REHEARSAL of driving the Mini-Coops through the train tunnels, you can tell how charged these guys are. And the chemistry between all of them, given what a strange hodgepodge they are, reminds me a lot of what made Sneakers so great. However, Sneakers also had THE BOX. And THE BOX has a lot of symbolic things going for it, like the prelude to the information superhighway, the meaning of spying in the post-Cold War world, ideas about media control, and perception of reality mattering more than reality. Here, we've got the same charm, but all we're talking about is gold. So, this is a fun movie, but it won't stick in popular memory like Sneakers has for me and many others. It's a great night out, and this summer, that's all I'm looking to get. ***.5