Italian Job, the review ⇒

The other day we were looking to get out, but not looking to think too much (what a shocker I know) so we decided to take in the Italian Job. A coworker of mine, Robert, recently so the orginal version of this movie and thought it was lousy! So this movie couldn't be worse, right?

As expected, it was pretty mindless. The plot (don't worry, I'm not wrecking the movie) is simple. A gang of thieves, played by Marky Mark, Ed Norton, Donald Sutherland, Seth Green and couple of other people I have never heard, perform a huge heist in Italy. And then during their get away, Ed Norton holds them up and steals all the loot. Understandably, they go after him. On the way they run into the eye-candy of the movie, Charlize Theron. I find her cute, but pretty useless. She has absolutely no screen presence and brings nothing to the movie. She even kept her clothes on...sheesh!

There is plenty of action and they use plenty of neat toys. The dialogue moves along quite quick, which is nice as otherwise you may notice there is no substance. The big prop they use is the new Mini Cooper S. I wonder how much BMW paid them to use the cars in the movie. They (the cars) play a large part in the action and have quite a bit of screen time. Man, those cars are neat. If we didn't have to carry around so much shite, we would have bought one.

Ed Norton is really slimy in this role, you really don't like him at all. Apparently (according to IMDB) he didn't want to do this movie and only did it to fulfill his contractual obligations. As usual though, he puts in a good performance. Not his best, but very believable.

I am beginning to think, however, that Markie Mark has no stretch. Every character I have seen him play seems to be mostly the same; kinda quiet, very cool, very slick. I would like to see him do something a little different in one of his next movies.

Seth Green plays a nerdy character very well. Not much else to say. Not really a key character.

Donald Sutherland is, as always, cool and commands quite the presence.

So if you are looking for an entertaining, sometime funny movie with lots of action, go see this movie.

p.s. Clay, just for you, I didn't put any links in this article. ;=)