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Rating:  - "ITALIAN JOB" it definitly was!!
The movie is great! Italian Job is like an old version of mission impossible! I loved it! Out of 10 I give it a 9
Rating: - The Italian Job (original version)
Terrific Brit movie starring Michael Caine. Apparently one of the most popular Brit movies ever. Mini Cooper enthusiasts will really like it. The recent remake is also worth having.
Rating: - The ORIGINAL Italian Job
As always the first is always best - the new version has all the slick tricks and action but the original had acting and real action. I enjoyed every minute of the movie.
Always good to see the oldies in perspective to todays virtual world
Rating:  - Snappy Action; Great Car Chases
This heist movie starts out feeling a little dated, with Michael Caine playing another so-many-birds-so-little-time Alfie-type character - in this case just released from prison and transplanted to Italy. But I was soon swept up in the spirit of the armored car robbery caper he orchestrates. And even though I'm usually bored by car chases, I found this movie's get-away sequence to be ingenious and almost thrilling. It's off and running through impossibly narrow archways, down steep staircases, over bridges, with one literal cliffhanger along the way. A great music score adds to the bounce and jounce of every hurdle that's overcome.
As an additional bonus for foreign car buffs, the DVD includes an out-take sequence with the robbers' cars and the police cars doing an extended, elaborately choreographed minuet in a marbled ballroom. The director rightly decided that this surreal episode didn't fit in with his generally realistic picture. But it's good that the dance was saved.
The DVD bonus materials are overall as interesting as the picture itself. The director's commentary is especially worthwhile, because he recorded it relatively recently, so he was able to reflect backwards and forwards over each actor's career. You get to hear "whatever became of..." Everyone knows what Michael Caine has been doing. But Peter Collinson recaps the careers of Noel Coward, Raf Vallone, Benny Hill, and others who also star in the movie.
This director commentary is like falling into convivial conversation with a master filmmaker. I only disagreed with one opinion he had about his finished picture. He said he didn't like the way Benny Hill's infatuation with LARGE women had been scripted. I think Collinson felt the character's on-screen enthusiasm, with Hill frequently managing to bury himself in some woman's abundance, was in bad taste.
But I personally found Hill's irrepressible enthusiasm rather appealing. It's as irresistible as this movie itself. I didn't see the recent re-make of "The Italian Job," but I have a hunch this original is the version to get.
Rating: - All time classic car chase!
This is the kind of movie that you see once by chance, then you have to see it again. There is so much more character development in this original version than you find in the 2003 remake. I recently bought both versions from Amazon, as they each have their own "style", but the original is from a time when there was no senseless violence, over-the-top graphics, or requisite vulgarity. A great bonus on the original DVD is the theatrical trailers, and documentatries on the making of the movie.
This is a great Sunday afternoon "fun" car movie!
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