What Do The Critics Say?

"Jason Statham, like all the actors, is impeccably cast as the small time crim given a shot at a big job by an old East London acquaintance in the (nice) shape of Martine Love (Saffron Burrows). The story is crystal clear, the plot development detailed, the characters integral to it all and the dramatic scenes, of which there are many; positively sizzle in the best British style. The moral of the story: don't keep your dirty laundry in a bank." Andrew L Urban URBANCINEFILE "True or fake, The Bank Job is a brisk entertainment that doesn't need believability to work." Tim Brayton AGONY & ECSTASY "a heist movie that will have your mind working overtime and loving every minute of it." Linda Cook QUAD CITY TIMES "In a marketplace that tends toward cranked-up action thrills, it's just nice to watch a level-headed crime movie aimed at actual grown-ups." M.E. Russell OREGONIAN "The Bank Job has enough side-plots to create another 2 or 3 films. It doesn’t just focus on the job itself; it focuses on everyone involved, from the team doing the job, to a various assortment of characters (and there are many of them) who have something to hide. It's captivating, intriguing, and enjoyable throughout." Michael Ferraro BRONSON FIVE "Densely plotted and briskly paced, the film weaves a fascinating story of cops and robbers and sex scandals and police corruption. Cool and collected as ever, Statham plays an outlaw capable of capturing the public's favor. Executed with machine-like precision, The Bank Job is a ripping good caper with plenty of interesting twists." Mark Pfeiffer REEL TIMES "It's not the best heist flick, but it's fast, gritty, tense and includes a toffee-nosed British politician with a poncy accent putting on pink undies and an S&M collar while being beaten by hookers. "The Bank Job": Naughty but nice. Worth heading all the way to 1970s London." Gina Carbone SEACOAST NEWSPAPERS

"There have been a few pictures I’ve liked, none that I’ve wanted to rave about. Thankfully, the first really good movie of 2008 is here, and it’s The Bank Job. Donaldson has given the film a fast pace that still allows plenty of time for character and plot development. The performances are solid all around. The Bank Job is smart, and it's exciting, and it's fun at the same time." Mike McGranaghan AISLE SEAT "It makes the Ocean's films look like child's play: or spoiled brat's play. The Bank Job is the best film of its kind since The Italian Job. Has everything adult action fans could want. The Bank Job creates the kind of morally equivocal universe in which you can cheer without shame for the merry thieves." Michael Sragow BALTIMORE SUN "Unlike the many heist movies obsessed with high-tech gadgetry and beyond-human stunts, The Bank Job, in more ways than one, gets down and dirty. Directed by veteran filmmaker Roger Donaldson (No Way Out) and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Across The Universe), The Bank Job’s refreshing realism includes the consequences of messing with very bad people, consequences that Hollywood films typically gloss over. And the film moves solidly through its paces, no storyline leaps, gaps or puzzling ending. All of which makes The Bank Job an unusually satisfying movie-going experience." John Wirt 2THEMOVIES THE ADVOCATE "The best thing about this caper whose elements include a royal scandal, exotic locations, MI5 involvement, a brothel with a clientele from high places, corrupt cops, romance and a heist by a bunch of small-time crooks, is that it is based on fact. It's a complex story with many players, and it's a credit to screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais that the characters and events are woven together with an exhilarating and satisfying dramatic arc. The cast is hand-picked, with Jason Statham perfect as Terry Leather, the imperfect battler from the wrong side of the tracks, who is easily derailed, but not when it comes to his family. This is the best thing Saffron Burrows has done for a long time." Louise Keller URBANCINEFILE

The Inside Story The Sixties had seen flower power, student riots, the green revolution, the first moon landing, Beatle mania and Swinging London. The transition into the "Me Decade", as writer Tom Wolfe called it, heralded the dawn of the computer age, with the creation of the floppy disc and the introduction of the microprocessor. And disco was to come. In 1971, Britain was still coming to terms with the passing of the Sixties. Shoppers were wrestling with the unfamiliar simplicity of decimal currency, a plague of strikes was looming for the Conservative Government under Edward Heath and additional troops were being sent to Northern Ireland as the situation there continued to deteriorate. One day in September, news broke of an extraordinary mystery. An amateur radio 'ham', Robert Rowland, alerted Scotland Yard that he had overheard a robbery in progress somewhere within a ten mile radius of Central London. Rowland, who lived in Wimpole Street, had been tuned in to the 27.15 megacycles radio frequency at 11.00pm on Saturday, 11th September, trying to contact a fellow 'ham'radio operator in Australia. He picked up a conversation between what sounded like a team of bank raiders and their lookout on a nearby rooftop. He began to tape the radio exchanges, while trying to communicate his suspicions to the police. At 2.00am, a senior officer decided to take his report seriously and called in radio detector vans in an attempt to trace the transmissions. Unfortunately, by the time Post Office engineers could be brought in from weekend leave; the 'walkie-talkie' conversations had ceased. As the search intensified, police officers checked on 750 banks in the inner London area, paying special attention to the 150 banks within a mile of Wimpole Street. On Sunday afternoon, they visited Lloyd’s Bank on the corner of Baker Street and Marylebone Road, but found no signs of entry. The fifteen inch thick doors of the vault were intact and secured by a time lock. They were unaware that the raiders were still inside. It was not until the bank opened for business after the weekend that the robbery was discovered. The contents of scores of safety deposit boxes in the vault had been looted in what was Britain’s biggest ever robbery. The gang had dug a fourty foot tunnel from the basement of Le Sac, a leather goods shop that they had leased, two doors away from the bank. The robbers tunnelled under the Chicken Inn restaurant and then, using a thermic lance, through the three feet of reinforced concrete which formed the floor of the vault. The floor was not wired to the alarm system, as it was thought to be impenetrable. Eight tons of rubble were excavated and left behind in the shop when they escaped, with the contents of two hundred and sixty eight deposit boxes. The 'walkie-talkie robbery', as it became known, was curiously similar in execution to the one solved by the legendary Baker Street resident Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle’s "The Red Headed League". In this case, however, countless questions remain unanswered. Only four men were convicted in connection with the crime and much of the loot was never recovered. Of the stolen property that the police did manage to retrieve, most was never reclaimed. Much of what really happened remains a mystery to this day due to a D-Notice being placed on the crime by the Government of the day. It has long been speculated that the action, to remain inforce till 2054 was to protect Princess Margaret from a public scandel over sex photos. When it came to making "The Bank Job", producer Steven Chasman ("Kiss of the Dragon" & "Danny the Dog" a.ka. "Unleashed") revealed research into the story meant delving into the real-life background. "Traditionally, when you think about guys who rob a bank, they’re criminals, but these, I’m not saying that they’re saints, they weren’t looking to rob a bank and, as we say in our film, they didn’t do anything violent. In fact, we did a lot of research: this film was in development for dozens of years and, up until our involvement, no one got hold of the real people involved in the robbery. They couldn’t find them. Half of them were given new identities and disappeared and the other half, our sources said, had passed away." Chasman's hard work paid off. "I found a few of the real people, we spoke with them and we put that authenticity through our screenplay. One of the gentlemen involved; he’s a nice guy, he’s in his seventies now, he told me that they got on quite well with the police, because it wasn’t a violent crime. They didn’t use guns, they didn’t beat anyone up and, in fact, back then there was a lot of controversy about police corruption." And were any off these used in the making of the film? "Some of the guys visited our set, but we kept their names and who they were confidential, because they are living a different life now and they’re parents and grandparents and on a different path. In fact there were a couple of hiccups along the way because one person was involved as a consultant and it brought up so many memories from his past, he didn’t want to go there any more and he withdrew from the process. But then, through some persuading, he got back involved again; a very nice guy. I think their genuineness makes things that much more relevant." When Roger Donaldson ("Thirteen Days" & "The World's Fastest Indian") was sent the script of "The Bank Job" by Charles Roven ("Get Smart" & "The Dark Knight"), he was immediately drawn by the idea of making a film in England again, his first since 1984's "The Bounty". "I was attracted to the fact that it was a real story and there were lots of interesting facts about this bank robbery. My dad was born here, I have a British passport, my son lives in London, so I was keen to make a film here," says the director who was born in Ballarat, Australia. "One of the great things about shooting in England is that there is a fantastic depth of really good, talented actors and so casting is always a great pleasure. For me, the movie is about who’s in it. And there’s fantastic technical expertise, I think this is probably one of the best crews I’ve ever worked with in my life." Roven who produced Donaldson's 1990 film, Cadillac Man, was delighted they would be working together again. "What’s so great is that Roger is the perfect director to make this film: he has done so many different kinds of movies in his career. He’s done the thriller, he’s done the character piece, he’s done the action movie and he has also done those true stories, those true, heart-warming stories like the one he did a couple of years ago, "The World’s Fastest Indian". This is the kind of a movie that allows you to blend all these techniques. It is very suspenseful, it’s got a tremendous amount of real-life comedy and the characters are really interesting and there’s a part of us in all of them." "We were living in London at the time," says co-writer Dick Clement. "What we remembered were the headlines about the radios. It was only when we started to research it that we discovered that the story went off the front pages very quickly. It was there for a couple of days and then nothing." Co-writer Ian La Frenais says he enjoyed the period feel of the story. "So many robbery or heist films that are done now are all so dependent on hi-tech," La Frenais notes, "people breaking in using computers to hack into security systems, so this is an old-fashioned robbery: picks and shovels, digging under the ground, blasting through the bank and tearing those boxes apart with crowbars!" So was it true they were considering shooting "The Bank Job" a lot further south? "At one point we were thinking of shooting the film in Australia," says Steven Chasman ("The Transporter 1 & 2"), "because Melbourne looks similar to a European city. It’s really quite expensive, shooting here, but we felt that we would want to have the authenticity." When it came to finding the right locations, Emmy Award winning Production designer Gavin Bocquet ("The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles") rose to the challenge. "Finding those locations in London that haven’t been changed enough for us to shoot was quite hard. We had sixty or seventy sets or locations to find and, with little money, you’ve really got to be in tune with the director and with Mick Coulter, the cinematographer, to understand what you can shoot in certain locations and what you can’t." "When I counted up one of drafts of the script, I had something like seventy six locations, which is twice as many as you would normally have," says location manager Giles Edelston ("Kinky Boots" & "Starter for 10"). "The story reminded me about several locations I’d used in the past. None of them exists any more: London is one big building site. But we found quite a lot of new material on this, like the Pigalle Club in Piccadilly: it’s always nice to film in a location that has never been on camera before." The big question everyone wants answered is how many of the characters are true to life? "Vogel was based on a real character," La Frenais stated. "But again we had to invent him. He was definitely based on a real character that ran a sort of porn empire - this was before DVDs and the porn movie industry. Those girly mag stores and strip clubs. And the lady who runs the brothel was based on a person who everyone knows of now." "We were confidently told that 'Terry' was involved in the slightly dodgy used car trade. And we were also told confidently that 'Kevin' (I mean, these are not their real names) was a photographer, a sort of would-be David Bailey, but not quite in that league. And clearly there was a woman involved, because all the police reports say they heard a female voice down there, so we have invented Martine, but we knew that she was there. So, in a way, we have connected the dots," Clement offered. And Malxom X? "Michael X was perceived as a political figure and it wasn’t true," says Clement. "There was kind of a connection with him and slum landlords, which had spilled over a few years earlier from the Christine Keeler crisis and the Profumo crisis and had an impact on our story." Jason Statham was cast in the lead role of Terry Leather. Donaldson it turns out is a big of the former British National Diving Team Olympic Diver. "I think he has a very charismatic quality. I really do equate him to a British Steve McQueen in a way," the director says, "a really great, brooding sort of quality about him. He does a lot with a little." Saffron Burrow ("Enigma" & "Frida") was cast as Martine. "We met her in Los Angeles and had tea with her at the Four Seasons," says La Frenais. "We realised that she was so right on for this, the voice, the attitude, the looks: she could look like a '60s girl." David Suchet, an international TV favourite as Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot, was cast as the villian, Lew Vogel, whom he says is "Not a very nice man at all. He can be charming, but absolutely ruthless." Synopsis

"The Bank Job" is inspired by an extraordinary true event, a daring, unsolved robbery, which took place more than 35 years ago in London. A highly-charged thriller, directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows, it interweaves a heady combination of intrigue, scandal and danger and has been described by its producers as "an amazing untold story of murder, sex and corruption." In September 1971, thieves tunnelled into the vault of a Lloyds bank in London’s Baker Street and looted safe deposit boxes of cash and jewellery worth millions and millions of pounds. None of it was recovered. Nobody was ever arrested. The robbery made headlines for a few days and then disappeared: the result of a UK Government ‘D’ Notice, gagging the press. This film reveals what was hidden in those boxes. The story involves murder, corruption and a sex scandal with links to the Royal Family: a story in which lives were put at risk and the thieves were the most innocent people involved.

The Verdict From the Director of "The World's Fastest Indian" and the writers of "Across the Universe" comes this excellent, adult quality film, based on the 1971 robbery of safe deposit boxes at the Lloyds Bank, Baker Street, London. The gang who tunnelled their way into the bank thought they were there for the money. What they didn't know was that amongst the loot they escaped with, was material that the government desperately wanted to keep secret. But the robbery had far wider reaching consequences. As it turned out, box 118 wasn't the only one that was hiding dark secrets. By successfully robbing the banks vault, which it's owners thought was impregnable, these amateur villians, without realizing it, unleashed a wave of fear that would shake the boots of titled persons, Ministers, Police and criminals alike. Those who love their films 'British' ("Last Orders", "Gosford Park", "Bend It Like Beckham") will be thrilled to know that "The Bank Job" never lets its audience down. An exciting, thrilling tale that is perfect for adult viewers! A must see. Very recommended. 4 1/2 STARS. Crew Bytes "THE BANK JOB" was .......
directed by New Zealand Screen Award winner Roger Donaldson ["No Way Out" and "Dante's Peak"]; set decoration by Golden Satellite Award winner John Bush ["Purely Belter", "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and "De-Lovely"]; art direction by Mark Scruton ["Bend It Like Beckham", "Mrs Meitlemeihr" and "Bride & Prejudice"]; costume design by Emmy Award winner Odile Dicks-Mireaux ["Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang)", "Dirty Pretty Things" and "10,000 BC"]; production design by Emmy Award winner Gavin Bocquet ["Radioland Murders", "xXx" and "Star Wars: Episode I, II & III"]; edited by Golden Satellite Award winner John Gilbert ["Crush", "Kerosene Creek" and "Bridge to Terabithia"]; cinematography by Michael Coulter ["Notting Hill", "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Mansfield Park" and "Love Actually"]; original music by ASCAP Award winner J Peter Robinson ["Jackie Chan's Police Force", "Cocktail", "Wayne's World" and "Jackie Chan's First Strike"]. Who's Who?

Jason Statham Saffron Burrows Stephen Campbell Moore Daniel Mays James Faulkner Alki David David Suchet Peter De Jersey Gerard Horan Michael Jibson Georgia Taylor Richard Lintern Peter Bowles Alistair Petrie Hattie Morahan Julian Lewis Jones Andrew Brooke Rupert Frazer Christopher Owen Keeley Hawes Taelor Samways Kasey Baterip Don Gallagher Craig Fairbrass Robert Whitelock Johann Myers Colin Salmon Sharon Maughan Ray Nicholas Les Kenny-Green

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Terry Leather Martine Love Kevin Swain Dave Shilling Guy Arthur Singer Bambas Lew Vogel Michael X - Michael Abdul Malik Det Sgt Roy Given Eddie Burton Ingrid Burton Tim Everett Miles Urquhart Philip Lisle Gale Benson JSnow Quinn Lord Drysdale Mountbatten Wendy Leather Catherine Leather Julie Leather Gerald Pyke Nick Barton Alfie Hook Stanley 'The Knife' Abbot Hakim Jamal Sonia Bern Vogel's Driver Pinky

Run Time 112 minutes Rated MA15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - Liongate - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.