Review of The Italian Job (1969) by James M — 26 Nov 2009

I always thought that the "new" Italian Job with Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron was a remake of the original. I was wrong. The only connection between these two movies is the name of the main character and the use of 3 Mini Coopers.

This version is extremely slow. There is very little action, the dialogue is delivered slowly, and the characters are simply not developed at all. This version of The Italian Job is far inferior to the remake and proved to be one of the most boring movies that I've ever watched.

To its credit, the mini cooper scene was awesome, though 20 minutes of entertainment out of 99 isn't enough. The new version contains a genius heist of illusion and misdirection, but this version is far less clever.

At the end, they lull you into believing that an incredible ending will make it worth suffering through the first 80 minutes of this film... but then they leave it completely unresolved, giving the perfect ending to a disappointing experience.