The Italian Job: Critic Reviews

Take this Job and floor it.

This is the zippy remake that Ocean's Eleven wanted to be and wasn't quite.

Small and steady, it wins the race with brains, not brawn.

A pandering, debased, generic little nothing of a movie. And I'm still trying to figure out why I loved it so inordinately.

The Italian Job isn't a masterpiece, but it gets the job done.

Even if there's little question that the good thieves will triumph, the film generates a good share of tension.

A tricked-out remake of a heist flick that was already flat and formulaic in 1969.

Even though the 1969 original Italian Job had Michael Caine in the title role, carrying out the plans of imprisoned criminal mastermind Noel Coward, this new version has it all over the original.

Exciting heist film for teens and their families.

It is in Gray's spirited execution that such by-the-book formula makes for a brisk, slick entertainment hits the summer movie spot.

This is one of those popcorn action flicks that will leave a smile on your face from beginning to end.

The Italian Job turns out well, a fast and entertaining caper designed to give you a couple of fun hours.

Gary Gray's version is tauter, better made but insufficiently idiosyncratic to attract a cult following.

Gray adds some zip to this remake of the 1969 Michael Caine caper flick, but despite two clever action sequences and some uncharacteristically tight performances from his cast (most notably Charlize Theron and Mark Wahlberg), the con remains the same.

A passable time-waster ... directed with some grace and snap.

Itresembles a film made up on the fly. The cast, too, are strictly cut from comic books. Don't expect any unconventional endings either.

Heist movies seem pretty quaint and analog in our era where high stakes crime is primarily electronic in nature. But until someone can make embezzlement cinematically interesting, we're left with theft and this movie just gets away with it.

F. Gary Gray has crafted a fun summer film packed with action, comedy, and a talented ensemble cast.

Gray does a solid enough job behind the camera, although it's clear he feels more at home directing the action sequences than the quieter moments.

Surprisingly gratifying ... In a summer full of computer-generated, nu-metal-accompanied kicks to the midsection, this may be the closest you'll get to drawing room grace.

Cette production estivale est divertissante l'espace d'un instant si l'on ne cherche pas a en trouver les moindres defauts.

This is escapist fare that doesn't pretend to be Shakespeare. For what it purports to be, I found it entertaining.

A light caper movie, with heavy emphasis on the word 'light' -- light plot, light action, light violence, light sex, light humor, light acting.

It is neither good nor bad, engaging nor boring, sexy nor pedestrian.