The caper film is such a time-honored and recently neglected genre that it's a shame to report that Roger Donaldson's The Bank Job isn't better than it is.
Loosely based on the true-life 1971 robbery of a Lloyds Bank in a ritzy section of London, Bank is a slow-paced and often confusingly plotted crime drama that never lives up to the delicious potential of its premise.
The heist's central figure is Terry Jason Statham, working in a less physically demanding mode than usual), a small-time car dealer and petty criminal who is propositioned to do the job by his old flame Martine (Saffron Burrows). Although she promises a roomful of safe deposit boxes containing untold millions in cash and jewelry, it turns out that her motivations aren't financial. She's being pressured by the British spy forces, who are determined to procure sexually incriminating photos of a member of the royal family that are being used for blackmail purposes by a drug-dealing revolutionary (Peter De Jersey).
Although the robbery is successful, Terry and his makeshift gang suddenly find themselves being pursued not only by the agents of M15 or M16 -- no one is really quite sure which -- but also by a ruthless gangster (David Suchet) looking to retrieve a ledger detailing his payoffs to the local police.
The screenplay by the veteran team of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (The Commitments) doesn't succeed in conveying the complicated scenario in fully coherent fashion, and Donaldson's tonally wobbly direction is atypically unsure. The proceedings never achieve the necessary tension or pacing, and the half-hearted attempts at comic relief mainly fall flat.
Statham provides his usual compelling physical presence and Suchet delivers a memorably pungent performance, but the supporting players are generally unmemorable, and Burrows is given little to do.
While its 1970s setting is reasonably conveyed despite an obviously low budget, Bank fails to rise to the level of the many standard-bearers of the genre dating from the same period.
THE BANK JOB
Lionsgate
Relativity Media
Credits:
Director: Roger Donaldson
Screenwriters: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais
Producers: Steven Chasman, Charles Roven
Executive producers: George McIndoe, Ryan Kavanaugh, David Alper, Alan G. Glazer, Alex Gartner, Gary Hamilton, Christopher Mapp, Matthew Street, David Whealy
Director of photography: Mick Coulter
Production designer: Gavin Bocquet
Music: J. Peter Robinson
Co-producer: Mairi Bett
Costume designer: Odile Dicks-Mireaux
Editor: John Gilbert
Cast:
Terry: Jason Statham
Martine Love: Saffron Burrows
Tim Everett: Richard Lintern
Kevin Swain: Stephen Campbell Moore
Dave Schilling: Daniel Mays
Guy Singer: James Faulkner
Eddie Burton: Michael Jibson
Bambas: Alki David
Tim Everett: Richard Lintern
Gerald Pyke: Don Gallagher
Lew Vogel: David Suchet
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Loosely based on the true-life 1971 robbery of a Lloyds Bank in a ritzy section of London, Bank is a slow-paced and often confusingly plotted crime drama that never lives up to the delicious potential of its premise.
The heist's central figure is Terry Jason Statham, working in a less physically demanding mode than usual), a small-time car dealer and petty criminal who is propositioned to do the job by his old flame Martine (Saffron Burrows). Although she promises a roomful of safe deposit boxes containing untold millions in cash and jewelry, it turns out that her motivations aren't financial. She's being pressured by the British spy forces, who are determined to procure sexually incriminating photos of a member of the royal family that are being used for blackmail purposes by a drug-dealing revolutionary (Peter De Jersey).
Although the robbery is successful, Terry and his makeshift gang suddenly find themselves being pursued not only by the agents of M15 or M16 -- no one is really quite sure which -- but also by a ruthless gangster (David Suchet) looking to retrieve a ledger detailing his payoffs to the local police.
The screenplay by the veteran team of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (The Commitments) doesn't succeed in conveying the complicated scenario in fully coherent fashion, and Donaldson's tonally wobbly direction is atypically unsure. The proceedings never achieve the necessary tension or pacing, and the half-hearted attempts at comic relief mainly fall flat.
Statham provides his usual compelling physical presence and Suchet delivers a memorably pungent performance, but the supporting players are generally unmemorable, and Burrows is given little to do.
While its 1970s setting is reasonably conveyed despite an obviously low budget, Bank fails to rise to the level of the many standard-bearers of the genre dating from the same period.
THE BANK JOB
Lionsgate
Relativity Media
Credits:
Director: Roger Donaldson
Screenwriters: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais
Producers: Steven Chasman, Charles Roven
Executive producers: George McIndoe, Ryan Kavanaugh, David Alper, Alan G. Glazer, Alex Gartner, Gary Hamilton, Christopher Mapp, Matthew Street, David Whealy
Director of photography: Mick Coulter
Production designer: Gavin Bocquet
Music: J. Peter Robinson
Co-producer: Mairi Bett
Costume designer: Odile Dicks-Mireaux
Editor: John Gilbert
Cast:
Terry: Jason Statham
Martine Love: Saffron Burrows
Tim Everett: Richard Lintern
Kevin Swain: Stephen Campbell Moore
Dave Schilling: Daniel Mays
Guy Singer: James Faulkner
Eddie Burton: Michael Jibson
Bambas: Alki David
Tim Everett: Richard Lintern
Gerald Pyke: Don Gallagher
Lew Vogel: David Suchet
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
More Berlin Film Festival news
BERLIN -- Lionsgate held up U.S. rights to Roger Donaldson's "The Bank Job", starring Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows, the parties said here Thursday.
Billed as a sexy thriller, "The Bank Job" is written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and produced by Mosaic Media Group's Charles Roven and Steven Chasman.
The executive producers are George McIndoe, Ryan Kavanaugh, David Alper, Gary Hamilton, Alex Gartner, Alan Glazer, and Christopher Mapp. Relativity Media and the Omnilab Media Group of Australia are bankrolling the film.
Arclight is the international sales agent here in Berlin for the movie which is based on an unsolved daring robbery that took place in London in 1971.
Ortenberg said: "The crime was never solved, and "The Bank Job" poses a startling reason for that, one that has its origins in very high places. A film like this comes along all too rarely, and we're thrilled to give it a home at Lionsgate."
The deal was negotiated for Lionsgate by Block, Eda Kowan, Vice President of Acquisitions and Wendy Jaffe, Senior Vice President Legal & Business Affairs, Acquisitions; and by Relativity Media's Aaron Michiel, on behalf of the filmmakers.
BERLIN -- Lionsgate held up U.S. rights to Roger Donaldson's "The Bank Job", starring Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows, the parties said here Thursday.
Billed as a sexy thriller, "The Bank Job" is written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and produced by Mosaic Media Group's Charles Roven and Steven Chasman.
The executive producers are George McIndoe, Ryan Kavanaugh, David Alper, Gary Hamilton, Alex Gartner, Alan Glazer, and Christopher Mapp. Relativity Media and the Omnilab Media Group of Australia are bankrolling the film.
Arclight is the international sales agent here in Berlin for the movie which is based on an unsolved daring robbery that took place in London in 1971.
Ortenberg said: "The crime was never solved, and "The Bank Job" poses a startling reason for that, one that has its origins in very high places. A film like this comes along all too rarely, and we're thrilled to give it a home at Lionsgate."
The deal was negotiated for Lionsgate by Block, Eda Kowan, Vice President of Acquisitions and Wendy Jaffe, Senior Vice President Legal & Business Affairs, Acquisitions; and by Relativity Media's Aaron Michiel, on behalf of the filmmakers.
BERLIN -- Lionsgate held up U.S. rights to Roger Donaldson's "The Bank Job", starring Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows, the parties said here Thursday.
Billed as a sexy thriller, "The Bank Job" is written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and produced by Mosaic Media Group's Charles Roven and Steven Chasman.
The executive producers are George McIndoe, Ryan Kavanaugh, David Alper, Gary Hamilton, Alex Gartner, Alan Glazer, and Christopher Mapp. Relativity Media and the Omnilab Media Group of Australia are bankrolling the film.
Arclight is the international sales agent here in Berlin for the movie which is based on an unsolved daring robbery that took place in London in 1971.
Ortenberg said: "The crime was never solved, and "The Bank Job" poses a startling reason for that, one that has its origins in very high places. A film like this comes along all too rarely, and we're thrilled to give it a home at Lionsgate."
The deal was negotiated for Lionsgate by Block, Eda Kowan, Vice President of Acquisitions and Wendy Jaffe, Senior Vice President Legal & Business Affairs, Acquisitions; and by Relativity Media's Aaron Michiel, on behalf of the filmmakers.
Billed as a sexy thriller, "The Bank Job" is written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and produced by Mosaic Media Group's Charles Roven and Steven Chasman.
The executive producers are George McIndoe, Ryan Kavanaugh, David Alper, Gary Hamilton, Alex Gartner, Alan Glazer, and Christopher Mapp. Relativity Media and the Omnilab Media Group of Australia are bankrolling the film.
Arclight is the international sales agent here in Berlin for the movie which is based on an unsolved daring robbery that took place in London in 1971.
Ortenberg said: "The crime was never solved, and "The Bank Job" poses a startling reason for that, one that has its origins in very high places. A film like this comes along all too rarely, and we're thrilled to give it a home at Lionsgate."
The deal was negotiated for Lionsgate by Block, Eda Kowan, Vice President of Acquisitions and Wendy Jaffe, Senior Vice President Legal & Business Affairs, Acquisitions; and by Relativity Media's Aaron Michiel, on behalf of the filmmakers.
In "The Weather Man", Nicolas Cage doesn't so much play a protagonist, warts and all, as he plays a protagonist who is all warts. While not thoroughly unlikable, Cage's David Spritz, a weatherman for a local Chicago TV station, is the kind of guy who makes eyes roll in your head. He seemingly can't avoid social blunders no matter how many warnings he gets -- and ignores. So the challenge writer Steven Conrad and director Gore Verbinski face is how to get audiences to invest emotionally in such a schmo. They don't always succeed.
Cage brings so much positive baggage to his roles these days that he can redeem even the most anti-social of anti-heroes, as he did last month in "Lord of War". But David Spritz appears to have baffled him, too, so he takes the approach that David is simply not too bright. Therefore, the challenge faced by Paramount's marketing team is to sell a film, directed by the maker of "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and starring Cage and Michael Caine, to mainstream audiences when the film probably should have been made by Paramount Classics. For this is a Sundance film gussied up with studio production values and big stars. It will be a hard sell.
In the opening shot, Cage wears such a sad-sack look you just know that, all superficial evidence to the contrary, David is one unhappy dude. Professionally, he is an overachiever, making far too much money working a couple of hours each day to deliver the usually bad weather news to Chicago viewers. He even has a promising feeler from a national morning show in New York. However, not too deep below this surface lies a wealth of insecurities and pain, which has little to do with the fact his "fans" love to throw the remnants of fast food at him on the street.
David is divorced and unhappily so. Despite the shrill and condescending manner of ex-wife Noreen (Hope Davis, in a continuation of her smug bitch in "Proof"), he wants to get back together with her. He struggles equally as fruitlessly to win the approval of his dad, Robert Spritz (Caine), a prize-winning novelist who might have a fatal illness. His son (Nicholas Hoult, the youngster in "About a Boy") is in counseling for marijuana use and his counselor (Gil Bellows) shows signs of being a pedophiliac. Meanwhile, his overweight daughter (Gemmenne De La Pena) feels sad and lonely most of the time. To bond with her he takes up -- archery?
The most depressing thing for David, though, is his job. With his father as a role model, he expects more of himself than being a TV weatherman. He is not even a meteorologist, for Pete's sake. A real meteorologist explains to him the risks of predicting weather: "It's just wind. It blows all over the place."
The movie blows all over the place, too, as its meandering plotlines do flesh out this portrait of a success who believes himself a failure, but never expands any further. You understand that David is absent-minded, self-absorbed and tries so hard to do the right thing that he inevitably does the wrong thing. How many illustrations of these lamentable facts do you need in a movie, though?
Somehow, at the end, clouds lift and the sun shines down and you're not sure why. David's big revelation is that it's OK to be a weatherman and not a Great Novelist. That, and his father for once speaks to him without weary disappointment in his voice.
Cage brings intelligence to his playing of a man sorely lacking in same. David often acts like an asshole, but the real problem is a lack of inner resources to confront and defeat the challenges he faces. Caine's exasperated father is his exact opposite, a man with few self-doubts and a novelist's facility for noticing the tiniest nuances in behavior. The young actors who play David's kids do wonderful jobs of expressing youthful confusions in their encounters with the pathetic world of adults.
Since the movie is set in Chicago and briefly in New York, winter weather certainly plays its role. Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael makes you feel the cold even as he finds genuine beauty in the patterns of clouds, ice on Lake Michigan and bundled pedestrian traffic on chilly streets. Designer Tom Duffield contrasts the various environments of David Life's from the sterile steel and glass of his apartment, noticeably bereft of hearth and family, with the comfy digs of his former suburban house and his dad's well-upholstered mansion. Hans Zimmer's music, often with an emphasis on the xylophone, is alternately cheerful and melancholy.
THE WEATHER MAN
Paramount Pictures
Paramount and Escape Artists present an Escape Artists production
Credits:
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter/co-producer: Steven Conrad
Producers: Todd Black, Steve Tisch, Jason Blumenthal
Executive producers: David Alper, William S. Beasley, Norm Golightly
Director of photography: Phedon Papamichael
Production designer: Tom Duffield
Music: Hans Zimmer
Costumes: Penny Rose
Editor: Craig Wood
Cast:
David Spritz: Nicolas Cage
Robert Spritz: Michael Caine
Noreen: Hope Davis
Don: Gil Bellows
Russ: Michael Rispoli
Shelly: Gemmenne De La Pena
Mike: Nicholas Hoult
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 100 minutes...
Cage brings so much positive baggage to his roles these days that he can redeem even the most anti-social of anti-heroes, as he did last month in "Lord of War". But David Spritz appears to have baffled him, too, so he takes the approach that David is simply not too bright. Therefore, the challenge faced by Paramount's marketing team is to sell a film, directed by the maker of "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and starring Cage and Michael Caine, to mainstream audiences when the film probably should have been made by Paramount Classics. For this is a Sundance film gussied up with studio production values and big stars. It will be a hard sell.
In the opening shot, Cage wears such a sad-sack look you just know that, all superficial evidence to the contrary, David is one unhappy dude. Professionally, he is an overachiever, making far too much money working a couple of hours each day to deliver the usually bad weather news to Chicago viewers. He even has a promising feeler from a national morning show in New York. However, not too deep below this surface lies a wealth of insecurities and pain, which has little to do with the fact his "fans" love to throw the remnants of fast food at him on the street.
David is divorced and unhappily so. Despite the shrill and condescending manner of ex-wife Noreen (Hope Davis, in a continuation of her smug bitch in "Proof"), he wants to get back together with her. He struggles equally as fruitlessly to win the approval of his dad, Robert Spritz (Caine), a prize-winning novelist who might have a fatal illness. His son (Nicholas Hoult, the youngster in "About a Boy") is in counseling for marijuana use and his counselor (Gil Bellows) shows signs of being a pedophiliac. Meanwhile, his overweight daughter (Gemmenne De La Pena) feels sad and lonely most of the time. To bond with her he takes up -- archery?
The most depressing thing for David, though, is his job. With his father as a role model, he expects more of himself than being a TV weatherman. He is not even a meteorologist, for Pete's sake. A real meteorologist explains to him the risks of predicting weather: "It's just wind. It blows all over the place."
The movie blows all over the place, too, as its meandering plotlines do flesh out this portrait of a success who believes himself a failure, but never expands any further. You understand that David is absent-minded, self-absorbed and tries so hard to do the right thing that he inevitably does the wrong thing. How many illustrations of these lamentable facts do you need in a movie, though?
Somehow, at the end, clouds lift and the sun shines down and you're not sure why. David's big revelation is that it's OK to be a weatherman and not a Great Novelist. That, and his father for once speaks to him without weary disappointment in his voice.
Cage brings intelligence to his playing of a man sorely lacking in same. David often acts like an asshole, but the real problem is a lack of inner resources to confront and defeat the challenges he faces. Caine's exasperated father is his exact opposite, a man with few self-doubts and a novelist's facility for noticing the tiniest nuances in behavior. The young actors who play David's kids do wonderful jobs of expressing youthful confusions in their encounters with the pathetic world of adults.
Since the movie is set in Chicago and briefly in New York, winter weather certainly plays its role. Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael makes you feel the cold even as he finds genuine beauty in the patterns of clouds, ice on Lake Michigan and bundled pedestrian traffic on chilly streets. Designer Tom Duffield contrasts the various environments of David Life's from the sterile steel and glass of his apartment, noticeably bereft of hearth and family, with the comfy digs of his former suburban house and his dad's well-upholstered mansion. Hans Zimmer's music, often with an emphasis on the xylophone, is alternately cheerful and melancholy.
THE WEATHER MAN
Paramount Pictures
Paramount and Escape Artists present an Escape Artists production
Credits:
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter/co-producer: Steven Conrad
Producers: Todd Black, Steve Tisch, Jason Blumenthal
Executive producers: David Alper, William S. Beasley, Norm Golightly
Director of photography: Phedon Papamichael
Production designer: Tom Duffield
Music: Hans Zimmer
Costumes: Penny Rose
Editor: Craig Wood
Cast:
David Spritz: Nicolas Cage
Robert Spritz: Michael Caine
Noreen: Hope Davis
Don: Gil Bellows
Russ: Michael Rispoli
Shelly: Gemmenne De La Pena
Mike: Nicholas Hoult
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 100 minutes...
- 11/17/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Alex Proyas is attached to direct Knowing, a supernatural thriller that Columbia-based Escape Artists is producing. Knowing is the story of a man who unearths a 1950s time capsule with children's drawings predicting the future. One set of drawings depicts horrible events that already have come true, but one of the events has not occurred, and the man sets out to prevent it from happening. Ryne Pearson wrote the original draft, which was rewritten by Richard Kelly when the latter was attached to direct. The project does not have a studio home, though one is expected shortly. Producers are Steve Tisch, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and David Alper. Proyas directed the Will Smith starrer I, Robot. The ICM-repped helmer also directed the films Dark City and The Crow.
- 2/17/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Brad Pitt is attached to star in Chad Schmidt, a new Steve Conrad script that has been sold to Columbia Pictures for more than $1 million. Schmidt centers on a talented young actor who moves to Los Angeles in the 1980s to pursue his dream of movie stardom. The twist is that he bears a peculiarly strong resemblance to another up-and-coming actor named Brad Pitt. As the real Pitt achieves a dazzling level of fame, the fictional Schmidt, for all of his talent, becomes a comic uncastable joke. Ultimately, Schmidt must struggle to overcome the blow of abandoning his dreams and must make peace with the hard realities of life. Escape Artists partners Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch are producing Schmidt. The executive producers are Escape Artists CEO David Alper and Conrad. Amy Baer will oversee for Columbia. Conrad's credits include Columbia's Pursuit of Happiness, Paramount's The Weather Man and Warner Bros. Pictures' Wrestling Ernest Hemingway. Conrad is repped by Endeavor.
- 2/16/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The untitled Chris Gardner project, which is moving forward as a starring vehicle for Will Smith at Columbia Pictures, has acquired a title, Pursuit of Happyness. The project is based on the true-life rags-to-riches tale of investment banker Chris Gardner (HR 7/16/03). The film is being produced by Overbrook Entertainment's Smith and James Lassiter and Escape Artists' Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch. Escape Artists' David Alper is an executive producer. Marc Clayman, who originally brought the story to Escape Artists, will serve as an executive producer. The project is being overseen at Columbia by Matt Tolmach, Doug Belgrad and Amy Baer. Steve Conrad, who penned Weather Man for Escape Artists, wrote the script. Smith is repped by CAA and next stars in Hitch, also for Columbia.
- 1/27/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Escape Artists and comic book powerhouse Platinum Studios are teaming up for some sci-fi escapism with the high-concept tentpole Cowboys and Aliens for Columbia Pictures. Sahara writers Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Donnelly have come on board to adapt the project, which is set within Platinum's comic book "macroverse" of more than 1,000 characters. Escape Artists' Jason Blumenthal, Todd Black, Steve Tisch and David Alper will produce in association with Platinum's Scott Rosenberg, Ervin Rustemagic and Gregor Noveck. Amy Baer will oversee for the studio. Created by Platinum Studios founder and chairman Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Cowboys and Aliens is set in the Old West, where cowboys and Indians must put aside their differences to battle an alien invasion.
- 5/12/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Paramount Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to Escape Artists' The Weather Man. Gore Verbinski will direct Nicolas Cage in the drama, which is scheduled to start lensing Feb. 17 in Chicago. The project comes to Paramount from Columbia Pictures where Escape Artists has a first-look deal. Sources said that Escape Artists and Columbia weren't able to agree on a budget for Weather Man, said to be in the $20 million-$30 million range, or backend deals for Verbinski and Cage. Penned by Steve Conrad, Weather Man is described as being in the vein of About Schmidt and American Beauty. It's about a divorced Chicago weatherman who is up for a new job on a network morning show in New York. As he is preparing to leave for the Big Apple, he must make peace with his ex-wife and kids. Escape's Todd Black, Steve Tisch, Jason Blumenthal and David Alper are producing. Escape partner Summit Entertainment is handling foreign sales. Cage is currently lensing the Walt Disney Co.'s National Treasure for producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
- 11/24/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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