Saturday, August 09, 2008

The Bank Job

Pankkikeikka / Bankstöten. GB (c) 2008 Baker Street. D: Roger Donaldson. SC: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais. DP: Michael Coulter - shot digitally with Arriflex D-20 - via digital intermediate - anamorphic 35mm film print in 1:2,35. Music selections include: T-Rex: "Get It On" and The Storys: "Money". Starring Jason Statham (Terry Leather), Saffron Burrows (Martine Love), Stephen Campbell Moore (Kevin Swain), Daniel Mays (Dave Shilling), James Faulkner (Guy Arthur Singer), Alki David (Bambas), Michael Jibson (Eddie Burton), Georgia Taylor (Ingrid Burton), David Suchet (Lew Vogel), Peter De Jersey (Michael X). 111 min. Released in Finland by Nordisk, Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Timo Porri / Saliven Gustavson. Viewed at Tennispalatsi 4, 9 August 2008. - Cinematography immaculate, without a jarring digital intermediate impact. - If The Asphalt Jungle is the template to the big caper film, and I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street) the original parody, The Bank Job at first looks like a variation of the parody, with a gang of amateurs planning the big caper without skill and without realizing what it's all about. - But the burglars have unexpected luck and unluck. - The safety deposit boxes of the small but prestigious bank contain all sorts of highly sensitive material, including the ledger of the porn king Lew Vogel detailing bribes paid to police officers, and compromising photographs and films of Princess Margaret and officials in high places, trump cards of the chic radical and drug smuggler Michael X. - Supposedly inspired by true events in September 1971, reportedly the biggest heist in British history.

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