The beginning has style, but that does not help the rest of the film

Rating: 5/10 (22 November 2003)

My Rating: ** out of ****.
The Italian Job was one of those summer movies I did not see but I heard it was good. So tonight I decided to give it a try. The result was a mediocre movie.
The Italian Job opens with very stylish opening credits. It features nice cinmatography of Venice and has a clever constructed heist scene. Then it moves into snowy mountains which are also beautiful. Unfortunately, from then on it was mostly down hill.
After the sylish beginning, the characters come on and we have to accept them. This is something that never happens. Why? Because the characters are not likable in the slightest. You do not care if they die. As a caper movie, Oceans Eleven was much better because the characters were all likable and had some very clever dialogue. The Italian Job occasionally has some clever dialogue but it is much less successful than Ocean's Eleven.

The performances do not help either. Mark Wahlberg is stiff throughout the movie. Charlize Theron is looking beautiful and is convincing but again her character is not likable. Jason Stratham is fine, but his character is so arrogant that you can not stand him. Seth Green has his moments but hes not entirely likable either. Mos Def is good and he is pretty much the only likable character in the gang. Edward Norton is no better than ok as the villain. Donald Sutherland is good but really wasted. He is only around for a few scenes.
The Italian Job is too long. It really is too long when you dont like these characters. The chase scene with the minis was overlong and not exciting. Even though I was not interested in the characters I felt the movie was hard to follow. The DVD I rented did skip(only for two minutes) but I feel it was more than that. If I was a little more interested maybe I would not have noticed.
Overall, The Italian Job was not quite a failure. It is a good example of style over substance. It has some good moments but not enough for an hour and forty-five minute movie. If fifteen minutes were cut it could have been better.