How Stella got her groove back? Wellllllll. . . - The Italian Job

There is one movie genre that really hits the soft spot on me, and then there's another genre that goes great with the first genre. Cars and heists. Yes that's right, I love the car movies like Gone In 60 Seconds (both Cage's and the old version) and The Fast and the Furious with their gorgeous cars and fast paced speed scenes. Then there's heist movies, such as Oceans 11, which I also enjoy. So if you put those two together, The Italian Job is born. I wasn't going into the theater expecting anything REALLY spectacular, since after all, about the only cars you see in action are three Mini Coopers, though after leaving the theater - I was pleased as can be (except for the jerk faces sitting behind me, man they would not shut the...heck up).

Movie Synopsis
The Italian Job starts in Venice, Italy (hmm, wonder where the title came from...) with a group of guys pulling the best heist ever of about $35 million dollars in Gold Bars, and without a single bit of violence. Interesting huh? After they've reached the mountains and had had a little celebration about their successful heist, their betrayed by one of their own. Frezeli, has some ideas of his own, and does a double heist on the gold bars. In the process, he kills Bridger, one of the more respected members of their little groupie.

Baaaaaaaaad idea. Frezeli might have gotten away with the gold bars, but he didn't kill off the entire group like he thought he did when they drove off into the icy cold water, and were then shot at from the guys above. One year passes by, and the guy who was the mastermind behind the heist, Charlie, has found the whereabouts of Frezeli. He lives in Los Angeles. Charlie gets Bridger's daughter, Stella (Charlize Theron) to join the group as their lock expert, a skill passed down from her father of course (though she likes to use technology, since you can count on technology...). She meets the group, and they go to Los Angeles to check everything out.

Like a heist group should include, each of them are specialized at one thing, which will ultimately lead to a successful heist. Charlie is the group leader, "Handsome Rob" is the getaway driver (and boy, can he drive), Lyle (Seth Green) is the computer hacker, "Left Ear" is the demolitions expert, and of course Stella is the lock/safe expert. With their skills, and of course an emotional motive to get revenge on Frezeli, they're now about to pull the most challenging heist they will ever try to pull.

The Italian Job does just about everything right, from the script, to the amount of action, to the car scenes - it's wonderful. There was just enough action to keep me on the edge of my seat, the high speed car chases in the Mini Coopers (souped up Coopers at that) were pretty near tight, and the amount of planning and organization to do what they do in the movie takes an incredible amount of skill to do. The Italian Job is about the cleanest PG-13 movie I've seen in a long while, but even without endless amounts of cussing and bloodshed, The Italian Job packs an insane amount of action.

Character Overview
There were only a few characters that I was familiar with in The Italian Job, them being Charlize Theron (Stella) and Seth Green (Lyle). Both of them did a fantastic job at their roles, especially Seth Green as the hacker, though it would have been a little better if the hacker geek from The Core (yeah, the guy with the weird face and stuff, he's funny as hell though). Green still did a nice job as acting as a geek though (since his recent role, Knockaround Guys had him getting caught up with some nasty crap).

The rest of the group also does a good job, though none of them really "shine" above the rest, they all do their part to give The Italian Job it's original feel (even though it's an old 1969 remake).

Overall
I was very pleased with The Italian Job, and the performance of all the actors. The Italian Job is a much needed breath of fresh air, and is the real true first hit of the summer, even over The Matrix: Reloaded. While I liked The Matrix: Reloaded, The Italian Job just has a more original feel to it, and I just overall loved it so much. I don't know whether it's the souped up mini-coopers, or the strategy and organization of the heist (both of em'), but The Italian Job really hit the sweet spot. Also, a little bit of a disclaimer, the movie The Italian Job was not derived from the Playstation game called The Italian Job. But there is a Playstation 2 game coming that is a movie-game rip-off. I hope that clears a few things up for some people.

happy viewing