Sort of Ocean's Eleven Meets Die Hard-- Descent Heist Flick But Nothing Special

Rating: 6/10 (11 August 2015)

Ever since the brilliant remake of "Ocean's Eleven" with Clooney, Damon, Cheadle, et al, heist films have been in vogue. There are about two or three per year since circa 2001, a few have been outstanding, most are about average, and a few are duds. They are entertaining, more or less, but sometimes they rely on too many known plot devices. Some of the exceptional ones include the first "Ocean's Eleven" film (not the Sinatra one), "Inside Man", one of the cleverest of such films, and "The Score" (also with Edward Norton, by the way), which keeps you guessing all the way. (If you want to see a really great heist film set in Victorian England, I suggest "The Great Train Robbery" with Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland produced in the 1970's.) Some average but descent fair include "Tower Heist", and "The Art of the Steal". Among the less memorable ones include both of the "Ocean's Eleven" sequels, "Ocean's Twelve" and "Ocean's Thirteen", and the remake of "Fun with Dick and Jane". The present film, "The Italian Job", despite a few nice moments, fits into the middle category of being marginally enjoyable but not great.
Mark Wahlberg plays Charlie Croker, an up-and-coming sophisticated thief who uses high tech to achieve his plundering aspirations. His mentor is older thief John Bridger (Donald Sutherland) who helps him plan for a heist to lift $35 million in gold from a safe which happens to be in the hands of the Italian Mafia in Venice, Italy. Like Ocean's Eleven, they use a team of safe-crackers and embezzlers who enact the theft. Everything goes as planned, almost too easy, until after the heist is completed, everything goes wrong.
Without giving away what happens exactly, the thieves lose the gold, which is possibly the best part of the film, The film then focuses on about the thieves finding out where the gold resides and how to retrieve it while also getting revenge on those who stole the gold from them which was stolen originally from the Italian Mafia, who also must have stolen it from other people. They also solicit the help of Bridge's daughter, a crackerjack safe-cracker, to lift the gold. The film then uses a lot of Ocean's Eleven-type devices, describing each of the henchmen which will be involved in the heist to retrieve the gold lost from the original heist.
While the film has a couple of unexpected twists, particularly at the beginning, unfortunately it lapses back into tried and true formulas. There's lots of the standard car chases, some subplots and a few characters get "offed" for their troubles. Despite the shortcomings, Edward Norton offers a stellar performance in the clothes of one of the most ruthless characters I've ever seen him play. His performance saves the film. At the same time, I felt some of the other characters were rather flat, especially Mark Wahlberg as the Danny Ocean equivalent in "The Italian Job". Sometimes I find Wahlberg just a bit too humourless and rather stiff. Clooney in the first "Oceans" film is always playful with lots of unexpected comic relief. The film in question is a descent effort, but again the script needed more work, and the ending was a bit predictable. I was hoping for a major unexpected twist at the end, but it never happens. The film tries to be another "Ocean's Eleven" using its devices but little of its charm. I guess my expectations are too high.