“The Italian Job”
Paramount Pictures
Directed by F. Gary Gray
Written by Troy Kennedy-Martin
Produced by Donald De Line
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statham, Mos Def, Donald Sutherland, Christina Cabot and Franky G.
Rated PG-13
(out of four)

With the recent trend of remaking old action films to revisit old story lines with new up-to-date technology, “The Italian Job” revisits material from a 1969 British film by the same name starring now veteran actor Michael Caine and the late Benny Hill. The 21st century update of “The Italian Job” utilizes lots of hi-tech gadgetry and innovative strategies inaccessible to the common thief. And though it lacks the star power and wit of Steven Soderbergh’s recent “Ocean’s 11” remake, the film still delivers some decent bang for your buck.

Donald Sutherland plays John Bridger, an American breaking his parole by traveling to Venice, Italy, to do a job, or in non-thief speak, participate in a heist. As John meets Charlie (Mark Wahlberg) on the streets of Venice, he expresses joy over Charlie’s taking over the organization of their ring of thieves, which includes Steve (Edward Norton), Left Ear (Mos Def), Lyle (Seth Green) and Handsome Rob(Jason Statham).

Within moments, one of the main heists of the movie is underway. The target is a small safe no larger than a dresser containing $30 million in gold bars. The safe sits in what appears to be a private estate guarded by some soccer-loving Venetians. Utilizing high-tech gadgets, the team manages to blow away the space of floor directly beneath the safe causing it to fall underwater where Sutherland’s character, the safe cracker, takes his time to open the safe in a scuba suit while the guards go on a high-speed boat chase after some of the other members of the crew. Everyone gets away fine and the next scene opens in the remote snow covered mountains of Austria.

As the crew celebrates its flawless robbery, the surrogate father-son relationship between Sutherland and Wahlberg is solidified as Sutherland compliments Wahlberg both in private and in front of the crew. This sequence contains the moment of motivation for the rest of the movie.

As the crew traverses a bridge surrounded by icy water in a van, it is confronted from the front and back by two other vehicles. Norton's character, Steve, pulls a gun on his fellow thieves as the drivers of the other two vehicles proceed to steal the bags with the gold bars. As if robbing them wasn’t enough, Steve shoots John dead when he’s scolded for betraying the team. The driver floors the gas, driving the vehicle into the water as Steve empties a magazine of bullets into the van and leaves thinking the whole crew is dead.

Unbeknownst to Steve, the crew survives underwater sharing the remnants of the air in the scuba tanks to breathe while Steve and his goons leave.

The rest of the movie focuses on the crew coming together to find Steve and seek vengeance by stealing back the gold that they stole in the first place. But first they need a new safe cracker, and they turn to none other than the late John Bridger’s daughter Stella (Charlize Theron), who cracks safes for a living for the police. She quickly overcomes her reluctance and decides to join the team. Even then it takes a while for the guys to accept her since they think she’ll choke under the pressure of a heist.

Over time the crew comes together to develop a plan to avenge the death of John by stealing back the money. Charlie (Wahlberg) makes the plans and oversees everyone else to make sure the plan is flawless. Handsome Rob is the getaway driver, Lyle the technology geek, Left Ear the ballistics engineer and Stella, of course, the safe cracker. All make preparations for the big day.

Aside from all the gadgetry and larger-than-life preparations to break into Steve’s new highly secure mansion, there is some light-hearted humor that works with film. The dramatic scenes are few and far between but are believable at times.

Everything seems to be going according to plan until Steve discovers a new plot twist that only means more action and leaves the audience to watch the rest of the plot unfold since the original plan, for the most part, had to be thrown out.

Norton plays his character well as a conniving  murderer/thief and Mos Def might just be another successful case of musician turned-actor as he fills out his supporting role quite well. Everybody else delivers pretty much what you would expect.

With the combination of inconceivably high-tech plans, some chase scenes, light-hearted humor and a couple of plot twists, “The Italian Job” is a suitable action release to compete with the season’s line-up of action flicks.
lou@red-mag.com