The Italian Job: Critic Reviews

Glib, violently unreal, and gone in 60 seconds.

With its impeccable timing, steady kinetic drive and superbly choreographed chase sequences through the canals of Venice and the streets of Los Angeles, the movie, directed by F. Gary Gray, feels a like smooth, exciting whoosh down a ski slope.

Memories of the 1960s caper classic are obliterated by this pointless remake, which uncomprehendingly salvages a few elements from the original, while behaving as if no one involved cared or liked it much anyway.

A lazy and in-name-only remake of 1969's G-rated Michael Caine heist pic.

It cheerfully puts the escape back in escapism.

Does exactly what it's supposed to, which is to make the heart beat slightly faster.

A movie so eagerly and infectiously living for the moment that it barely follows the contours of the 1969 British caper flick that inspired it.

Wide-open absurdity would've helped; instead, there's a clotting of musical interludes and a general air of stoic grit.

A slicker, faster-paced, high-tech upgrade that lifts the sprightly spirit and the main action set piece from the original while developing its own twists and a new ending that, though a bit too pat and eager to please, is a vast improvement.

The film has plenty of giggles.

Good, crisp fun.

The Italian Job has a decent enough heart, and, thanks to Seth Green and Mos Def, some funny moments. It's just not racing with enough adrenaline.

This unglamorous approach has the odd effect of making them seem more glamorous -- we're free to soak up their star quality because there's no hard sell to fight off.

This is just the movie for two hours of mindless escapism on a relatively skilled professional level.

This movie has more personality and humor than most films of its recent type.

This one offers some agreeably mindless fun in which the villains (including Norton) are truly villainous, the payback is satisfying in a purely infantile way, and the familiarity of everything is oddly comforting.

The Italian Job zooms along with confidence, smarts, and some of the coolest car chases this side of the Indy 500.

Smart, quick-paced and entertaining.

It may not steal your heart, but you won't feel robbed.

Wahlberg is largely forgettable, and his would-be romance with Theron is sparkless and perfunctory.

A strangely satisfying though completely preposterous caper movie.

Not only is this new Job a generally better movie than the 1969 caper, it moves through the paces with a light, confident grace very much its own.

Watching The Italian Job in a theater makes you long for a fast-forward button -- to skip past 90 eyeball-glazing minutes of generic caper plotting and cut to the chase, as it were.

In a business starved for original ideas, in a summer of sloppy remakes, The Italian Job sets a kind of benchmark for recycling.

Take this Job and floor it.