Brit star Stratham has the mark of Caine

HE'S far from a fop in the mould of Hugh Grant or Jude Law but Jason Statham has quietly got on with becoming one of our most bankable movie stars.

Stratham has become of our most bankable movie stars Stratham has become of our most bankable movie stars

The former Olympic high diver is a throwback to the cockney stars of the Sixties such as Michael Caine and Terence Stamp, even if he lacks their acting chops.

Thanks to hits such as The Italian Job, The Transporter and Crank, the muscular star can “open” a movie in the US, something Law can only dream about.

In The Bank Job he broadens his range by playing a family man rather than a hard nut who beats people up. In one scene opposite his wife, played by Keeley Hawes, he actually gets to emote (“I’ve brought you more grief than happiness”) and is rather touching.

It’s the sort of role Caine would have played in his heyday and it’s hard to imagine anyone but Statham pulling off the part today. As Terry, a used car dealer lured into committing a crime way out of his league, he gives his most relaxed and likable performance to date.

The picture is in the tradition of fun British caper movies, with a sprinkling of modern gangster grit and dollops of deviant sex, and it works a treat. The story is inspired by the “Walkie Talkie” robbery of 1971 that saw a bunch of amateur thieves tunnel into Lloyds Bank on London’s Baker Street and rob the safety deposit boxes (their

walkie-talkie communications were overheard by a radio ham).

Unbeknown to them – so the film has it – the gang were being manipulated by MI5, who were desperate to get their hands on a kinky photograph of a royal princess stored in the vault (evidently Princess Margaret, but not named here).

The raid was hushed up when an official D-notice was issued by the government banning newspaper coverage, adding to the intrigue.

Scriptwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Porridge) make sure we root for the robbers by pitching the story as an underdog tale, in which the essentially good-hearted, small-time crooks (“I just want to buy a house for my mum,” says Daniel Mays’s co-conspirator) take on bent coppers, a corrupt British establishment and big-time nasties.

The latter include a Soho porn baron, played with relish by David Suchet.

There is a love triangle in the mix too as Terry is lured into the plot by an ex-lover (a serenely seductive Saffron Burrows), although the relationship lacks a certain fizz, perhaps because in real life Statham comes up to the statuesque Burrows’s navel.

The picture’s first half is a tad overlong, with the robbery itself rather too protracted given its simplicity (the gang simply move into a neighbouring shop and start tunnelling). However, the second half is a belter as the plot twists fly and the noose tightens around Terry and the gang.

The tone also shifts daringly and effectively into darker territory as some violent punishment is meted

out, upping the stakes.

The film is directed by Hollywood veteran Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, Thirteen Days) and he does

a typically efficient and robust job, giving the picture a sense of scale rare for a Brit flick. Job well done.

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