The Bank Job
2-disc Special Edition
Directed by Roger Donaldson
Starring Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release date: July 15, 2008

The Bank Job, now out on DVD in both regular and two-disc special edition, is a cool caper story based on the real-life bank robbery in London during the 1970s. The story centers around Terry Leather, played by Jason Statham. Terry is doing his best to stay on the straight and narrow but with piling debts to some dangerous individuals, he needs some quite money and fast. Enter Martine Love (Saffron Burrows) into the picture, an old friend of Terry. It seems Martine has some inside information on a local bank whose alarm system is going to shut off and feels Terry would be the perfect man to rob the place of its safety deposit boxes. Calling upon a few friends, Terry and Martine orchestrate a bank robbery, unknowingly playing a part in a secret mission planned out by the British government to retrieve damaging photographs of a Royal family member. The gang gets into even more trouble once the job is completed, as local police and various crime lords are all over their tail, trying to retrieve the contents of their bank deposit boxes.

The Bank Job is your standard bank heist that goes wrong but then goes right in the end type of movie, which is not a bad thing if that is what you seek. The acting, all various actors from the United Kingdom, is top notch. While American viewers are only familiar with Statham, I think this helps the movie in that it allows all the actors to pull off their respective roles rather easily since viewers are not familiar them or their previous works. I also enjoyed the various storylines revolving around the movie. There are a lot of characters and relationships to keep track of but each storyline is so rich and satisfying, it elevates the movie above the other bank heist movies.

With so much story to break down and present to viewers, I have to take my hat off to the director Roger Donaldson. His directing does not break the mold by any stretch of the imagination but for him to edit and cut together so many storylines to make it coherent is nothing short of amazing. The movie is incredibly story driven and even with so many characters, relationships, and storylines, Donaldson was able to provide each of them with a specific voice and characteristic that made it recognizable to the viewer. Yes, there is a lot of talking and there is a lot more story than your typical bank heist movie, but in the end, all the stories wrap up in a nice pretty package and those following along get a very strong story.

I am a big fan of Jason Statham going back to his first movies with Guy Richie. I was pleased as punched from the first scene in the movie where a bunch of thugs wrecked his car and he did not beat the crap out of him with his fancy footwork. Sure, I love a glorious beat down like the next guy but I rather see Statham stretch his acting muscle. The guy definitely has acting ability and hopefully, more people will take notice of that when watching this movie.

The Bank Job DVD comes with two discs though it is strangely bare bones. There is your standard making of the movie featurette, a trailer for the movie, and some deleted and extended scenes that, once you watched them, will know exactly why they were cut out of the film. There is one featurette that would have been great had it been a little more detailed. The featurette, titled “The Baker Street Bank Raid” talk about the actual bank robbery that occurred in the 1970s. I was interested in the featurette but I wished it had a little more substance to it. All the information provided by the interviewees, other than the fact that there was a bank robbery, are all educated guesses and hypothetical theories.

The second DVD is digital copy of the movie itself. This allows individuals the chance to download the movie into their IPOD or media player.

The Bank Job DVD is perfect for a fan of the movie or for someone who wants to watch a typical bank heist movie. I would save money though and buy the regular rather than the two-disc special edition.