 Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays
Director: Roger Donaldson
Year Of Release: 2008
Plot: Based on a true story, car dealer Terry is brought a bank robbing scheme by the beautiful Martine. Her idea is to tunnel into a bank on London’s Baker Street because she knows the alarms will be off for a couple of weeks. However the bank robbery is the least of the thieves’ problems, when they realise they’ve robbed the deposit boxes of some powerful figures, and may have evidence of a sex scandal linked to the royal family. In fact the info they have is so worrying that the government decides to gag all newspaper reporting on the robbery. |
Is The Bank Job’s Jason Statham a good actor? It seems a simple question, but I can’t decide. Often in interviews even he doesn’t seem to think so, saying that he almost fell into film acting by accident, having previously been in the British National Diving Squad for 12 years, and then becoming a model. He was introduced to Guy Ritchie and the next thing he knew he was cast in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which began his movie career. However he seems to be slightly underplaying his interest in the acting profession, as both his parents were performers and he trained in street theatre when he was a teen.
However Statham does seem to be genuinely surprised by his success following Lock, Stock, and you get the impression that he’s rather self-effacing because he’s expecting his fame to come to an end at any moment. It’s easy to understand where he’s coming from, because his stardom does seem rather improbable.
He’s not exactly the greatest of actors in terms of expressing a vast range of emotions, and I don’t think we’ll be seeing him among the Oscar nominees anytime soon. He has very little range, beyond being able to deliver a line with a wink and a gruff South London whisper (and the less said about his attempt to do other accents, the better).
It also has to be said that while he has both the Transporter and Crank franchises and has starred in the likes of Death Race, War and Mean Machine, none of the films he’s had the lead role in have actually made a huge amount of money at the cinema. For example The Transporter may have got two sequels, but it only grossed $43 million at cinemas around the world. The success of Statham’s films comes from the fact that they don’t cost a whole lot to make and they do exceptionally well on DVD, and have become immensely popular with men looking for a bit of mindless action when they settle down on the sofa with a curry and a beer.
It rather reminds me of the situation with Dolph Lundgren and Jean Claude Van Damme in the late 80s and early 90s, both of whom became massive action stars, even though compared to most major actors, their movies didn’t make half as much money at the cinema as you’d think. However their video sales were enormous, ensuring they became major movie stars.
There’s no doubt though that while Statham’s actual acting isn’t great, when it comes to the action, he is absolutely excellent. Thanks to his athletic background, kickboxing training and hard-man look, he’s bizarrely convincing, even when taking part in some of the more outlandish moments of the likes of The Transporter 2 (bombs, magnets and cars immediately spring to mind).
In fact I think that the reason people like him, is a combination of the fact that while he’s excellent at the action scenes, he never seems to be taking anything too seriously. His ‘it may all end tomorrow’ attitude bleeds into his films, so that while most action stars seem to make their films with a po-faced seriousness, Statham always has a small smirk as if he’s enjoying himself, which ensures the audience knows that it’s just high-octane fun and they only need to relax and enjoy the ride. Even a movie like The Bank Job, which has slightly more substance to most of Statham’s movies, is helped along by immensely by his ‘isn’t this all good fun’ attitude.
It’s an odd sort of fame that Statham has, where he’s great fun but not very good at the same time. He’s one of the top action stars, even though he never has any massive cinema hits. And even he seems to be rather bemused by his success.
I can’t say I fully understand how Jason Statham got to be a top action star, but just like him, I’m prepared to go along for the ride, and as long as he keeps chucking in movies like The Bank Job, which have a little more to offer than just ludicrous action, I’ll be happy.
Next year he’s starring as the wonderfully name Lee Christmas in The Expendables, which brings him together with action luminaries such as Sylvester Stallone (who also wrote and directed the film), Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Danny Trejo, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as wrestlers ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and Randy Couture. Now that should be one hell of a film to watch, and it’ll be interesting to see how he stacks up against the rest of the all-star action crowd. The Expendables is due out next summer.
TIM ISAAC
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