May 27 movie: The Italian Job. This was the remake starring Mark Wahlberg. I had heard that this version had almost nothing in common with the the original, which we watched a couple of months ago. That's not quite true. The basic storyline and tone are quite different, but there are plot elements in common: the theft of gold bars, a big chase scene involving 3 MINIs in places a car isn't supposed to go, the involvement of the Mafia (Italian in the original, Russian in the remake), the use of computers to disrupt traffic in an entire city, a main character named Charlie Croker, the death in the very beginning of Charlie's mentor in crime. There's even a very brief clip of the original film on TV at one point. But no role for Michael Caine! I thought that was scandalous. If they couldn't find a part for him, they could have at least given him a walk-on.
Bottom line: I enjoyed it, it was fun, but it didn't make me forget the original. "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"
Wow, they used MINI's in the original, too? That's funny. I thought that the remake was perfectly tolerable escapism, including the lame performance by Edward Norton (accused of doing the minimum to satisfy a contract he couldn't get out of).
Michael Caine rocks. I particularly enjoyed him in The Fourth Protocol (1987 Frederick Forsythe spy film with Pierce Brosnan).
the first time Norton appeared on screen I thought "...and featuring Edward Norton as Bruno Kirby." Pretty much nothing he did (and he did pretty much nothing) was able to shake that initial impression