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the italian job

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!"

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2 Comments

Phil said:

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).

georg said:

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

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