View 1.

THE name in itself seems like an unscrupulous marketing ploy to attract filmgoers, but ironically, very little of the film is staged in the country famous for its pizza, mafia and fanatic football fans.

OK, all the plot is involved with the heist in Italy, but that could have taken place anywhere. The plot of the film derives yet another revenge-aimed film with plenty of the familiar hoodlum style violence and skullduggery that saw John Travolta become a plausible actor.

The filming is good, as is the acting, but then you would expect that from the likes of Donald Sutherland. The use of the new minis was good, but not necessarily needed, but then the filmmakers were obviously trying to keep some of the ties to the original film. They even came up with quite a weak plot line for the reason why they were using the minis in the first place. 

Although if they had carried through with this plot line it could have made the film, as it was imaginative and relatively new. 

There are several references to the first and better film, with the Guards near the beginning watching a football match, minis in the sewers of America, a van on twisty turny roads of Italy that sort of thing. 

Overall, the film was weak, none of the original humor was there neither was there the extensive planning and detail covered, like the original, although the recovery of the gold was well thought out and executed.

Having said all that the film is entertaining, and if you watch from the point of view off the Americans attempting to emulate great British movies then it is a good attempt. Rating well 3 out of 5 because of the entertainment, it's a good watch, but you won't need to engage your brain much and if you miss an important bit of information, (how) then it doesn't matter much as it gets explained again anyway.

Film Review by Eric Lyon-Taylor

OK this is a good film for entertaining US audiences, except this lacks the 1969 British films humor and whit. Not to mention originality. Why does Hollywood insist ripping off other movies? It is not the first time Hollywood has cashed in on another film, just a few other examples… Ringu into The Ring, Ringu II into The Ring 2, Get Carter into Get Carter and Abre Los Ojos into Vanilla Sky. 

Not content with changing history with U-571 in 2000, now they are making what is seen as a cult British film into an American action film. The acting is not fantastic and flat and the plot carries no real resemblance to the British film except they use Mini Coopers to carry gold and crash a computer that controls traffic.    The stunts are not ground braking and are not as humorous nor as fantastic to watch as the original. Sorry Eric, I only rate this as 2 stars. An entertaining rip off of one of my favorite all time films.  Even the beginning is a rip off of another UK film, can the reads guess what film that was? 

Film Review by Patrick Trollope

Directed by:- F. Gary Gray 

Cast first billing only:- Mark Wahlberg as Charlie Croker, Charlize Theron as Stella Bridger, 
Donald Sutherland as John Bridger, Jason Statham as Handsome Rob, Seth Green as Lyle, Mos Def as Left Ear, Edward Norton as Steve, Fausto Callegarini as Italian Guard, Stefano Petronelli as Garbageman/Thug, Fabio Scarpa as Garbageman/Thug, Cristiano Bonora as Garbageman/Thug, 
Tiberio Greco as Garbageman/Thug, Jimmy Shubert as First Detective, Tammi Cubilette as Second Detective and Mary Portser as Stella's Receptionist. 

Running time:- 111 min

Eric's verdict 4 stars out of five stars:-

Patrick's verdict 4 stars out of five stars:-