As a movie, THE ITALIAN JOB is ok at best; good (not great) acting,<br /><br />nice visuals and pacing, a mediocre plot, but nothing bad enough<br /><br />to walk out on. But as a car commercial for the new breed of MINI<br /><br />Coopers, this film is spectacular!<br /><br />*SPOILERS*<br /><br />Ok, it's a typical heist film with the odd twist (the underwater safe- cracking was nice, if not improbable), and the cast was fairly solid<br /><br />(with the exception of a putrid Wahlberg), but when it all came<br /><br />down to it, the real "stars" of this picture were the three MINI<br /><br />Coopers, in all their high-flying, speed-racing, ramp-jumping,<br /><br />bullet-taking, gold-lugging, shiny new glory. The audience I was<br /><br />sitting amongst actually "ooed" and "aahed" when Theron's little<br /><br />red number first hit the screen (strangely enough, neither she nor<br /><br />Wahlberg garnered the same reaction).<br /><br />The film starts out promising. Mos Def, Seth Green, Donald<br /><br />Sutherland, Edward Norton and Jason Statham all begin as an<br /><br />interesting and humourous band of characters, with the only real<br /><br />uninspired performance being that of the usually good Mark<br /><br />Wahlberg. Why he claims this is his best film I can't imagine; his<br /><br />character is completely one-note, and he plays him so blandly it<br /><br />was as if Mr. Rogers came back from the dead and was inhabiting<br /><br />his body. Charlize is fine as Sutherland's daughter, though<br /><br />nothing magical. Seth Green's character is perfect and the<br /><br />running Napster jokes (including a cameo by Napster founder,<br /><br />Shawn Fanning) are hilarious; he and some of Mos Def's early<br /><br />lines add some much needed sparks of humour. Unfortunately,<br /><br />Edward Norton and Donald Sutherland don't get near enough<br /><br />screen time.<br /><br />You can see most of the plot coming from a mile away, and the<br /><br />dialogue is rife with bad one-liners and give-aways, but I doubt the<br /><br />filmmakers were out to re-invent the wheel here, so taken as a<br /><br />typical action/suspense flick it comes out alright. Worth seeing on<br /><br />cheap night I'd recommend.<br /><br />7/10. Not worth it's weight in gold, but makes for nice fillings.