The Italian Job
Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton, Donald Sutherland, and others have pulled off the ultimate heist by stealing away $35 million in gold bricks. What wasn't in the cards was a double-cross by Norton. He succeeds in taking the gold and during the confusion, shoots Sutherland and leaves the others for dead in a frozen pond. The rest of the team though lives and after a year passes, finally tracks down Norton in sunny Los Angeles. Soon, they come up with a plan to take back the gold that belonged to all of them. What they really need is a guy to break into the safe and they find their safe-cracker in a woman, Sutherland's daughter played by Charlize Theron. Together, their intricate plan leads them to Norton's handsome mansion and with a bunch of conniving moves and a trio of minis, their goal is to see the shocked and surprised look on Norton's face after he realizes he's been outwitted and outplayed.

Heist films have been getting popular the last couple of years, highlighted by the release of Heist and The Score, also starring Norton. While both were well-done, both also got bogged down with the details of the heist, taking away the fun from it and leaving it to plot tricks to keep us interested. This picture, itself a remake of the 1969 movie of the same movie, gives time to the rest of the backstory, better developing the characters involved and keeping their eyes on the prize while providing a light sense of humor throughout. Credit this to director F. Gary Gray, whose wide range includes The Negotiator and Friday. Simply though, it's a straightforward story, not really too tricky to figure out, that along with its ending shows a lack of imagination, like its villain in Norton. The simple plan they devise works with what seems to be a huge amount of luck and characters are introduced only to become red herrings. So plot holes are abound in the film, some of it a bit dated (Napster's so old now), but at its core, The Italian Job is an enjoyable film to watch. 3 stars