One Damn Good Car Commercial! (ok movie)

Rating: 7/10 (4 June 2003)

As a movie, THE ITALIAN JOB is ok at best; good (not great) acting,
nice visuals and pacing, a mediocre plot, but nothing bad enough
to walk out on. But as a car commercial for the new breed of MINI
Coopers, this film is spectacular!
*SPOILERS*
Ok, it's a typical heist film with the odd twist (the underwater safe- cracking was nice, if not improbable), and the cast was fairly solid
(with the exception of a putrid Wahlberg), but when it all came
down to it, the real "stars" of this picture were the three MINI
Coopers, in all their high-flying, speed-racing, ramp-jumping,
bullet-taking, gold-lugging, shiny new glory. The audience I was
sitting amongst actually "ooed" and "aahed" when Theron's little
red number first hit the screen (strangely enough, neither she nor
Wahlberg garnered the same reaction).

The film starts out promising. Mos Def, Seth Green, Donald
Sutherland, Edward Norton and Jason Statham all begin as an
interesting and humourous band of characters, with the only real
uninspired performance being that of the usually good Mark
Wahlberg. Why he claims this is his best film I can't imagine; his
character is completely one-note, and he plays him so blandly it
was as if Mr. Rogers came back from the dead and was inhabiting
his body. Charlize is fine as Sutherland's daughter, though
nothing magical. Seth Green's character is perfect and the
running Napster jokes (including a cameo by Napster founder,
Shawn Fanning) are hilarious; he and some of Mos Def's early
lines add some much needed sparks of humour. Unfortunately,
Edward Norton and Donald Sutherland don't get near enough
screen time.
You can see most of the plot coming from a mile away, and the
dialogue is rife with bad one-liners and give-aways, but I doubt the
filmmakers were out to re-invent the wheel here, so taken as a
typical action/suspense flick it comes out alright. Worth seeing on
cheap night I'd recommend.

7/10. Not worth it's weight in gold, but makes for nice fillings.