The Italian Job (2003) | Full Review

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The Italian Job is a 2003 American heist action thriller film directed by F. Gary Gray and starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Jason Statham, Seth Green, Mos Def and Donald Sutherland. An American remake of the 1969 British film, the plot follows a motley crew of thieves who plan to steal gold from a former associate who double-crossed them. Despite the shared title, the plot and characters of this film differ from those of its source material; Gray described the film as "an homage to the original."

Most of the film was shot on location in Venice and Los Angeles, where canals and streets, respectively, were temporarily shut down during principal photography. Distributed by Paramount Pictures, The Italian Job was theatrically released in the United States on May 30, 2003, and grossed over $176 million worldwide. Critical response was largely positive, with publications comparing it favorably to the original film while highlighting the action sequences, performances of the cast and humor. A sequel, The Brazilian Job, has reportedly been in development since 2004, but has yet to be produced as of 2021.

Plot

John Bridger, a professional safecracker, has assembled a team to steal $35 million worth of gold bullion from a safe in Venice, held by Italian gangsters who had stolen it weeks earlier. The team includes Charlie Croker, a professional fixer; Lyle or "Napster", a computer expert; Handsome Rob, their wheelman; Steve, their inside man; and Left Ear, their explosives expert. The heist is successful, but as they drive towards Austria with the bullion, they are stopped by men loyal to Steve, who had turned on them and takes the bullion for himself. Steve kills John when the latter admonishes him, and Rob drives the van over a bridge into the waters below to protect the others, using air tanks from the heist to stay alive. Steve leaves them for dead.

A year later in Philadelphia, Charlie learns that Steve has resurfaced under a new identity and is laundering the gold through a Ukrainian jeweler named Yevhen to finance his lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles. Charlie gathers the team, and also recruits John's daughter Stella, a skilled private safe expert, offering her the chance to get revenge on Steve for her father's death. They stake out Steve's mansion, and Stella, disguising herself as a cable technician, is able to map out its interior, allowing them to determine the location of Steve's safe containing the remaining bullion. Steve, unaware of Stella's identity, asks Stella to go out on a date with him. Charlie and Stella devise a plan using explosives to blow the safe while Steve is away on his supposed date, using three heavily modified Mini Coopers to transport the gold out of the mansion. Charlie enlists the help of supplier Skinny Pete for the explosives and mechanic Wrench to make the modifications on the cars.

During one of Steve's visits to Yevhen, Yevhen accidentally reveals that he knows about the Venice heist. To cover his tracks, Steve kills Yevhen, whose cousin, Mashkov, the leader of a Ukrainian crime family, traces the information about the gold back to Skinny Pete via Yevhen's ex-employee Vance.

The group embark on the night of the planned heist but discover that Steve's neighbors are having a party. As the explosives would draw attention, they cancel their plan. Stella, still having to meet Steve, inadvertently gives away her identity by using similar phrases to her father. When the team arrives to help protect her, Steve taunts them, saying that he still has the upper hand, but he secretly plans to transport the gold to Mexico City by a private plane from Los Angeles International Airport after transporting it there in an armored car. Napster hears of this through his tap on Steve's phone, and Charlie and his gang make a new plan to steal the gold en route to the airport by hijacking the city's traffic control system to force the armored car to a planned spot where they will execute the heist.

On the day of transport, they are surprised when three armored trucks leave Steve's mansion, but Napster is able to determine which one carries the bullion and manipulates the traffic accordingly. Knowing that Steve is monitoring the transport by helicopter, they get the car to the target spot and then create a diversion as they detonate explosives to drop the part of the road with the car into a subway tunnel below. After opening the truck, they find a different safe from the one that held the gold before. Although she struggles initially, Stella cracks the safe, and they load up the Coopers with the gold, now revealed to amount to $27 million. They race from the subway to the Los Angeles River and through the city, pursued by Steve's henchmen on motorcycles, with Napster creating a green wave to evade traffic. Charlie disables Steve's helicopter by damaging its tail rotor with his car, forcing it to land.