The Bank Job is simply the same heist movie you've already seen made and remade for the past fifty years.
Video:
The anamorphic widescreen presentation featuring a 2.35:1 aspect ratio is fairly competent and has no glaring flaws, yet without any sort of dynamic filmmaking present, there really isn´t a need for excellence at this point.
Audio:
Both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo tracks sound fine, yet there is precious little occurring on screen to make any decent use of them.
Extras:
The feature-length audio commentary with Donaldson, Burrows, and composer J. Peter Robinson is your average, run-of-the-mill, self-gratifying pat on the backfest with undeserved accolades being thrown about with careless abandon. Statham's absence is evidence of the commentary´s lack of necessary inclusion on the disc. "Inside the Bank Job" is a simple, seventeen-minute, behind-the-scenes look at the film that's fairly unremarkable with the exception of an ironic sound byte from one of the film's writers proclaiming that "nobody falls asleep during a Donaldson movie." Well, I did. It took multiple viewings to finish off this film, and to be fair I'm sure that many a soul has passed into slumber land on their couches with the dulcet sounds of "Cadillac Man" echoing through the room.
The best thing on this disc (including the movie) is "The Baker Street Bank Raid," a fifteen-minute featurette covering the original bank heist. It's full of interviews with historians, policemen, and even a former MI5 agent. The inclusion of original crime scene photos along with interviews with people actually involved in the crime that inspired this film solidifies it as necessary viewing. A little further down necessity avenue where it meets up with forgettable street are more than ten deleted scenes spread out over six minutes with optional commentary with Donaldson and Burrows. The only worthwhile event during this special feature is when Donaldson openly admits to not knowing whether or not one of the deleted scenes actually ended up in the film. The second disc on this two-disc set is another one of those fake-o discs that doesn´t have anything on it except a digital copy of the movie. If you need to have the ability fall asleep on the subway while watching this on your iPhone, then this is the set for you. But those of you that don't need the electronic copy of the film should just stick to the solo disc version.
Film Value:
I am by no means a fan of recent "flashy" action flicks like "Wanted," "Underworld" or "The Matrix." Yet "The Bank Job" was still too slow paced even for me. In a world overflowing with great heist movies, an effortless time waster like "The Bank Job" simply has no reason to exist. It will be quickly forgotten over the next three to five years, only to be remembered by the occasional airing on a lazy Sunday afternoon on TNT. Even then I'd rather sit through "Ocean's Thirteen" again before settling for the likes of "The Bank Job." And, no, I wasn't just saying that to be mean.... Okay, maybe just a little bit.
The anamorphic widescreen presentation featuring a 2.35:1 aspect ratio is fairly competent and has no glaring flaws, yet without any sort of dynamic filmmaking present, there really isn´t a need for excellence at this point.
Audio:
Both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo tracks sound fine, yet there is precious little occurring on screen to make any decent use of them.
Extras:
The feature-length audio commentary with Donaldson, Burrows, and composer J. Peter Robinson is your average, run-of-the-mill, self-gratifying pat on the backfest with undeserved accolades being thrown about with careless abandon. Statham's absence is evidence of the commentary´s lack of necessary inclusion on the disc. "Inside the Bank Job" is a simple, seventeen-minute, behind-the-scenes look at the film that's fairly unremarkable with the exception of an ironic sound byte from one of the film's writers proclaiming that "nobody falls asleep during a Donaldson movie." Well, I did. It took multiple viewings to finish off this film, and to be fair I'm sure that many a soul has passed into slumber land on their couches with the dulcet sounds of "Cadillac Man" echoing through the room.
The best thing on this disc (including the movie) is "The Baker Street Bank Raid," a fifteen-minute featurette covering the original bank heist. It's full of interviews with historians, policemen, and even a former MI5 agent. The inclusion of original crime scene photos along with interviews with people actually involved in the crime that inspired this film solidifies it as necessary viewing. A little further down necessity avenue where it meets up with forgettable street are more than ten deleted scenes spread out over six minutes with optional commentary with Donaldson and Burrows. The only worthwhile event during this special feature is when Donaldson openly admits to not knowing whether or not one of the deleted scenes actually ended up in the film. The second disc on this two-disc set is another one of those fake-o discs that doesn´t have anything on it except a digital copy of the movie. If you need to have the ability fall asleep on the subway while watching this on your iPhone, then this is the set for you. But those of you that don't need the electronic copy of the film should just stick to the solo disc version.
Film Value:
I am by no means a fan of recent "flashy" action flicks like "Wanted," "Underworld" or "The Matrix." Yet "The Bank Job" was still too slow paced even for me. In a world overflowing with great heist movies, an effortless time waster like "The Bank Job" simply has no reason to exist. It will be quickly forgotten over the next three to five years, only to be remembered by the occasional airing on a lazy Sunday afternoon on TNT. Even then I'd rather sit through "Ocean's Thirteen" again before settling for the likes of "The Bank Job." And, no, I wasn't just saying that to be mean.... Okay, maybe just a little bit.
Average user rating (1-5):
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[release]23793[/release]