ROGER DONALDSON

Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBBB. 

United Kingdom/USA, 2008.  Mosaic Media Group, Relativity Media, Skyline, Atlas Entertainment, Omnilab Media.  Screenplay by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais.  Cinematography by Michael Coulter.  Produced by Steven Chasman, Charles Roven.  Music by J. Peter Robinson.  Production Design by Gavin Bocquet.  Costume Design by Odile Dicks-Mireaux.  Film Editing by John Gilbert.  

Roger Donaldson’s marvelously entertaining heist film never feels like you’ve seen it all before, despite the familiarity of its trappings. Based (loosely) on a true story, it stars Jason Statham as a financially frustrated car dealer who has the opportunity to save himself when a gorgeous former associate of his (Saffron Burrows) approaches him with a robbery idea.  Statham puts together a few friends and they plan the robbery of a local bank, having no idea that Burrows is actually working with the British government, who are only interested in the contents of one particular safety deposit box:  a London slumlord and drug runner has been roaming the city without fear of arrest because he has in his possession photographs of Princess Margaret in a wild gang bang (this part of the story has never been substantiated). The folks at the top want the pictures back so they can finally put the man in prison where he belongs. Do things go as planned? They never do, and you’ll have endless amounts of fun watching the various ends of the story play themselves out as our heroes unwittingly piss off all the wrong people. Terrific stuff.