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Parents' Guide to

The Bank Job

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Caper movie mixes clichés, brutal violence.

Movie R 2008 115 minutes
The Bank Job Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 16+

Based on 4 parent reviews

Pres
Pres Adult
November 7, 2020
age 18+

Soft Porn - Terrible Movie

Not for kids or teens. Awful movie with a lot of sex, and gratuitous nudity throughout.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
darthsitkur
darthsitkur Adult
July 31, 2012
age 15+

crappy movie, but i loved the fight scene

this movie sucked, the only good part was the fight at the train station
See all 4 parent reviews

What's the Story?

You've always been looking for the big score, Martine Love (Saffron Burrows) tells Terry Leathers (Jason Statham), "the one that makes sense of everything." And so, in THE BANK JOB, Terry -- like many movie crooks before him -- is lured into a scheme (inspired by a real-life 1971 heist) to rob a London bank. With a crew comprised of both friends and specialists, he tunnels from a nearby shop into the bank's time-locked vault, where they find a trove of safety deposit boxes. It's only after finishing the job that Terry learns the heist was actually instigated by a spy tasked with retrieving one box's contents: pornographic photos of British politicians and aristocrats (including a royal princess). Now he has to outmaneuver government agents, gangsters, and both corrupt and good cops.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4 ):
Kids say (5 ):

Statham is surely charismatic, but the film is defined by its thinly drawn characters (the stereotypical militant, the hypocritical politicos) and by-the-numbers plot. Though Terry probably believes himself when he tells his wife that "All I want is to get out of the game," he's also plainly thrilled by challenge, the chance to beat the system one more time. But he's surprised by the ferocity of his adversaries, who have much more at stake than he does. These include not only the politicians caught with their pants down, but also a gangster who keeps cops on his payroll and a militant who's used the princess photos to blackmail his way out of a prison sentence. As Roger Donaldson's movie keeps track of all these plot strands at once, it becomes more procedural than compelling.


Meanwhile, per heist movie formula, Terry's bad behavior is offset by the even worse behavior of his opponents. Theft, deception, and adultery don't look so terrible compared to murder and torture, especially since the robbers seem like they're having fun, trusting and kidding one another in ways that the generally humorless assortment of gangsters, pimps, revolutionaries, and authorities can't manage.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how heist movies tend to portray their "heroes." Even though they're planning robberies, characters like Terry and the guys in the Ocean's movies are sympathetic -- is that realistic? What defines a "good guy" and a "bad guy"? How does this movie make Terry and his outlaw gang seem less offensive than the bad cops and government authorities? Viewers who want to know more about the unsolved real-life 1971 robbery that inspired the movie can click here.

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