High action movie keeps you at the end of the seat. Its one of the best collection in my library.

This is a real "thriller". The plot moves right along and the acting is excellent. We watch this movie frequently.

Although HD DVD lost the HD war, I still love it. The Italian Job looks great on a 1080p TV.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Though it bears little resemblance to the original 1969 thriller starring Michael Caine, the 2003 remake of The Italian Job stands on its own as a caper comedy that's well above average. The title's a misnomer--this time it's actually a Los Angeles job--but the action's just as exciting as it propels a breezy tale of honor and dishonor among competing thieves. Inheriting Caine's role as ace heist-planner Charlie Croker, Mark Wahlberg plays straight-man to a well-cast team of accomplices, including Mos Def, Jason Statham, and scene-stealer Seth Green in a variation of the role originally played by Noel Coward. As the daughter of Croker's ill-fated mentor (Donald Sutherland), Charlize Theron is recruited to double-cross a double-crosser (Edward Norton in oily villain mode), and once again, speedily versatile Mini Coopers play a pivotal role in director F. Gary Gray's exhilarating car-chase climax. It's perhaps the greatest product placement in movie history, and just as fun the second time around. --Jeff Shannon

A clever movie that is action packed. A definite must see. Mark Walhberg does a job in pulling off a heist in all sorts of creative ways.

Lots of surprises, good and bad. Acting is superb from all. Just a few slow spots that upset the pace a bit, but I really enjoyed this film four stars worth.

Good DVD. Was slow in a few shots, but action so fast, one will not fall asleep. MD

I ordered a new HD-DVD, and the one I received was significantly scratched...so much that it would not play properly.

Never before in the annals of product placement, not with Disney's Love Bug or Bond's Aston Martin has a car so thoroughly captured the imagination of its producer and director.
Beginning as three ordinary, if zippy and sassy little urban go-mobiles, the brave little Minis are transformed into brawny, high-powered brutes that lead motorcycles on a merry chase through-and under-the streets of Los Angeles.
The Coopers have great screen presence and their acting performance was by far the best of any cast member. I look forward to seeing them in other movie genres: romantic comedy would be a natural.
There is one sour note however. In pursuit of a cinematic device called a 'plot', the story begins and ends in the only city in the world where there are no cars.

Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine

Film about a company of master thieves who plan the perfect heist of millions of dollars worth of gold bullion in Venice and pull it off, only to be double-crossed by one of their own, Steve (played by Edward Norton), who kills the leader of the company John Bridger (played by Donald Sutherland) and leaves the rest of the company for dead, making off with the gold bullion. But the other members of the company do not die, and, led by former second in command Charlie Croker (played by Mark Wahlberg) vow to avenge their leader's death and recover the gold bullion. When a year later they track down Steve living the good life in Los Angeles, they enlist the help of John Bridger's daughter and highly skilled safe cracker Stella (played by Charlize Theron) to help them avenge their leader's and her father's death and also recover the gold bullion. The heist is on.

Comments: I found this to be a commendable movie. There are good action sequences in the two main locales of Venice and Los Angeles in which the film is set, the heist scenes are very clever, the main characters all gel well, there is some wry humour and the iconic elements from the 60s original - such as the Minis and the gold bullion - are all in place. I have not seen the original so I cannot compare the two films but this film was very good, although I felt the ending could have had more impact. Nonetheless this is a very well made - if not perfect - film. Go and see it.

Hollywood does another remake. Hollywood puts Marky Mark in another remake. Hollywood makes an inferior remake.

Hollywood? Why all the remakes?

Not a bad movie. It is fun to watch but it has all been done before and better. Ed Norton really disappointed me as he is usually a good actor. Marky Mark is not a good actor and neither is Mose Def or Seth Green. Donald Sutherland and Charlize Theron must have felt like gods among fools working with these schlubs. That said, I still like Jason Statham. The guy has charisma.

I'll keep this short. The movie itself is fantastic. However, I would surmise that this Blu Ray was ported back when Sony thought that MPEG-2 was the best codec for HD video. Now that they've had to fall in line with HD DVD and use VC-1 for most of their transfers, the quality of this movie is poor at best. I've compared this version to both the DVD and the HD DVD version and both are superior to this version. The artifacts and quality in general is atrocious.

Unfortunately, this is the problem with BluRay right now. They have hundreds of great movies out there that were encoded using MPEG2 and they look terrible. They need to go back and remaster all of these movies because they are not even on par with DVD quality.

Resurrect the plot of a 1969 Michael Caine movie, recast it with a collection of sharp young actors, and move the action to Los Angeles. The result is 2003's "The Italian Job", a fast-paced and enjoyable action thriller.

The movie opens with an elaborately-planned heist in Venice, Italy. A crack crew of thieves goes to Mission: Impossible-like lengths to extract a fortune in gold from a canal-side mansion and escape to the Italian Alps. There, one of the crew (Edward Norton as a slick and selfish bad guy) betrays the rest, killing the aging master thief (cameo by Donald Sutherland), stealing the gold, and scattering the crew.

Fast forward a year. Charlie Croker, the master thief's protege (played with cool precision by Mark Wahlberg), locates the traitor, living in a fortress mansion in Los Angeles. He reassembles the team to steal the gold back. This effort is the heart of the film, as Charlie's team plots their entrance into the mansion and their escape afterward. The highlight of the movie is a nail-biting chase across Los Angeles, with Charlie's team in specially modified Mini-Coopers and their former teammate in hot pursuit by helicopter. A tense final confrontation at the Los Angeles train station reveals a few final plot twists.

Charlize Theron does an excellent turn as Croker's safe-cracking love interest. Seth Green is the team's computer whiz and comic relief. Jason Statham is the team's hunky automotive expert. Mos Def and Franky G have nice supporting roles as additional muscle recruited for the Los Angeles job.

This movie is highly recommended as an entertaining action thriller. This DVD version includes some nice extras on the making of the movie, to include how the amazing Mini-Cooper stunts were performed.

Definintley a grat movie that can not be forgotten. I would recommend for a good comedy and twisty movie. Also the scene with the Mini's is excellent.

I had started a trilogy of great movies and The Italian Job meet my standards for entertaining enough to own the collection. The pliot is creative in how the crew goes about setting up the heist. Nonetheless, we must not forget that movies are for just that "entertaining" us when we have downtime. Kudo's

The Italian Job is so much fun to watch! All the actors are amazing and the action is one of a kind! Some people say Mark Wahlberg doesn't act in this movie but i guess they just didn't pay attention when they watch ed it cause he was really good! And Seth Green is so funny! don't miss this movie!

"The Italian Job" is a heist movie. To some extent, if you've seen one of these (especially the ur-heist film "Rififi"), you've seen them all. Hey, if you've ever watched a movie, you know that when a master thief makes "one last score" before retirement, things are going to go horribly wrong. It's just like being a cop in a movie two weeks before retirement. "The Italian Job" does not transcend any expectations, but it doesn't fail to meet any of them, either. The performances are good, and the script makes as much sense as you would expect it to. The action sequences are well-done, and there are enough car chases to remind you of the Golden Age of car chases in the 70s and early 80s. In the end, while it is a decent movie, there is really nothing memorable about it, other than the cars. "The Italian Job" is a decent rental; you will likely not be disappointed, and you may even have a good time with it. But it's just not distinctive or memorable enough to add to your permanent collection.

When I first heard of this remake, I was sure it was going to be awful, and that it would never live up to the Michael Caine original. As it happens, there's not much living up to do, since it bears so little resemblance to the original that directly comparing the two would make no sense. There are one or two points which can be compared (and I will get to them), but other than that, this film can quite easily be considered by itself.

The first comparable point (which is quite minor, really), is the characters. Yes, Mr. Bridger and Charlie Croker have the same names as the original characters, but that is where their similarities end. Please, if you're doing a film with the same title and same character names, make the characters at least similar. The bulk of the film is very enjoyable- a heist is pulled off rather successfully, one partner double crosses the others, and things kick off when the cheated partners go out for revenge. It has casing jobs, safe-cracking, breaking in and a couple of great getaways- all the ingredients of a good heist film.

Unfortunately, it has one thing that heist movies do not need- emotional ties. What is it with Hollywood these days that means that every film needs to have some kind of personal reason for things happening? Why couldn't they just make a heist film about a group of thieves trying to steal gold because it's there, rather than because it was taken by someone who killed your dad / friend / brother / favorite poodle? So... the ties are set up, the heist is planned and pulled off, and they make their getaway. This is where the second comparison comes in. The original film featured a very long race through underground shopping centers, down church steps, over roofs, all to avoid a traffic jam. Whilst this new film features cars racing down steps, and through tunnels, it's very obviously a case of "fans will expect this, so we'll put it in", as there's very little of it, and it does to some extent seem tacked on.

Admittedly, this section of the film did please me a little bit, in that Croker says "let's do it like The Italian Job". Although his reference to the characters is referring to the job pulled in the film's opening, it also seemed to be a nod to the original as this section did bear the most similarity to its namesake. Overall, I quite liked The Italian Job. It did have some flaws, but then it had some great moments. I found it very enjoyable to watch, and would advise others to see it.

I wonder how many MINI Cooper automobiles were sold thanks to this movie? It couldn't help but add to the sales of this little car, which is featured in this film, along with an attractive cast.

The film doesn't overdo the violence, has a pretty intelligent script (with a few short exceptions). features interesting characters and is nicely firmed. The cat-and-mouse game between Edward Norton and Charlize Theron's characters is suspenseful and fun to watch.

Once again, however, we are manipulated into rooting for criminals portrayed as "the good guys." How many times has this happened since the days of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" in the 1960s? Yet, it still gets five stars because it is an extremely entertaining movie and it also doesn't overboard on the profanity or sex....and, yes, those little cars are cool. Everyone I've talked to who has seen this film, enjoyed it.

I've already given this movie a 4 star rating with the regular DVD review so the 3 star is for the blu-ray transfer.This is probly the worst movie I've seen on blu-ray so far that was made in the past 10 years.The video is only slightly,slightly better than DVD and thats just becouse the colors are a tad bit more vibrant.The sound is standard 5.1,no uncompressed or TruHD.Maybe if this is the first time your buying this movie get the blu-ray but if you have the DVD I would suggest stay with that.

The Italian Job is an awesome movie! It's action-packed & is very clever. I had a copy of the movie, but the disc got scratched, so I bought another copy to replace it. It's one of the few movies you won't get tired of watching, even though you already know what's going to happen.

Incredible special effects that were done without benefit of CGI. Just really good escapist fare. I highly recommend it!

Hi, everybody i saw the movie with my girlfriend and it was perfect,
We love the story and the color of the minis stunning.

We recomended this movie by far.

I love this movie and I really don't know why so many people are complaining about the quality of the transfer. I thought it was quite good. Not perfect, but good. Much better than the standard def DVD upscaled.

I have this movie on regular DVD and the quality far exceeds the Blu-ray version. As another reviewer wrote, I have so much noise and a line through the center of the screen, that the movie is not watchable. These things should be recalled.

I love this movie, I had it on DVD and I got it on HD DVD recently. My only gripe is the quality of the video transfer. There is a lot of graining and artifact noise, especially on dark scenes. The blacks on the DVD version look better than the HD DVD version's blacks...

Regular DVD in upscale player is better than Blu-ray. For some reason there are a significant amount of artifacts to the point of a distracting line in mid-screen. If you haven't trashed your regular/upscale DVD player, then buy the regular DVD and save some money. Don't get me wrong, the movie itself is fantastic...just the quality of its current Blu-ray version is sub-par. I'd return it, if I could.

The Italian Job brings to the screen the story of a group of thieves bent on revenge on one of their own who betrayed them by murdering their leader and running off with the gold.
Mark Wahlberg, Donald Sunderland, Edward Norton, Charlize Theron, Seth Green, and the rest of this AMAZING cast, have outdone themselves with their performances, which are commendable to say the least. All the actors, without exceptions, give it their 100% and it really shows! Very well written and very well presented, the movie is without a doubt guaranteed to provide more than just a few thrills, not to mention a few laughs.
The setting, the plot, the dialogues, the humor, and the music are all wonderful!
In short, The Italian Job is a movie definitely worth watching and one to seriously consider adding to your movie collection!

I live right around the corner from a Mini Coop dealership and I'm an Italian-American, so I thought it fitting that I finally rented this movie. It's a remake of the 1969 original starring Michael Caine. Whereas that film took place in Italy, the remake stays there only for the introduction and then swiftly moves to California.

I love heist films. Like Ocean's Eleven or Heat, it's all about the cast. You can see a pattern in the characters:

THE WHEELMAN: This is the guy who mans the getaway vehicle, be it helicopter, jet, or car. Handsome Rob (Jason Statham, my favorite action hero) plays a decidedly scrappy, suave wheelman. This also happens to be almost the exact character from The Transporter. Hopefully, Statham will move beyond this type of character, but it's a testament to action tropes that he can actually be typecast as "the wheelman."

THE TECH: This guy is almost always a nerd and usually the comic relief. Lyle (Seth Green) nails this role and actually steals the show with his jokes. One ad-libbed sequence of Lyle mocking Handsome Rob is the funniest part of the movie. Of course, the challenge with this sort of character is that he needs to be able to pull off seemingly magical feats of technological wizardry without overshadowing the expertise involved. When Lyle manages to take control of the entire traffic system, you really have to wonder if he couldn't be better off striking out on his own. He's almost too good for the movie.

THE DEMOLITIONIST: The demolitionist's job is to blow things up. Sometimes he's a homicidal maniac, other times he's cool and collected. Left Ear (Mos Def) is a cool customer. And he doesn't like dogs. He gives Lyle competition for the funniest line in the movie:

Left Ear: This dude got dogs. I don't do dogs... I had a real bad experience, man.
Charlie Croker: What happened?
Left Ear: I had. A bad. Experience.

THE OLD MAN: You've seen this guy before. He's probably the former leader of the group. He's seen too much, been around the block too many times, and he knows his days are numbered. He just wants one last, big heist so he can retire forever. He almost always dies in the film. That pretty much sums up John Bridger (Donald Sutherland).

THE HOT CHICK: A recent invention, the hot chick's purpose is to keep men interested. She can have a variety of roles (tech, wheel-err-woman, demolitionist). Sometimes she has her own unique set of skills as safecracker. That's John's daughter, Stella (Charlize Theron), who competes admirably in the sea of testosterone.

THE LEADER: Handsome, smart, a safecracker himself, this guy is the one who pulls off a sneaky job right under the bad guys' noses. Unfortunately, Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg) is more narrator than anything else. He seems to have very little to do, and that's a shame, because Wahlberg's talented enough to do much more.

The villain is Steve (Edward Norton) a thief turned bad. He knows all of our protagonists' tricks, so he knows how to counter them. And since he stole the gold from the original Italian Job, he's the perfect foil. Norton plays him with just the right amount of shifty-eyed sleaze.

The Italian Job has lots of cool car chases, lots of near misses, and a lot of twists and turns (literally and figuratively) that make it a brisk, entertaining movie. You get quickly caught up in the machinations of the characters, which allows the film to get away with a lot of unbelievable nonsense. But who cares? From the funky flashbacks to the quippy asides, it's clear that Italian Job doesn't take itself too seriously.

Although it's more Job than Italian, the Italian Job is still a fun ride.

I recently rented this movie from Netflix and I'm glad I didn't buy it due to the poor video quality. The picture is grainy at 1080P like others described especially at low light levels. When you spend the money upgrading to Blu-Ray, there is a certain expectation that the quality will be substantially better, and in this case it is awful. A pity since this is a great movie. Paramount, shame on you.

I agree with one of the other reviewers here. The picture is quite grainy on a Full HD 1080P screen. 19.95 is a great price if you don't have it yet but I think the DVD looks a bit better even on a HD telly because you don't get the digital noise. Also only has Dolby Digital soundtrack so not much to be gained in terms of sound either.

This is a good cast and a fun story, and what I really like about it is not everything they do works for them the first time, so it seems more realistic that way. There's suspense and action and great characters. Theron and Wahlberg play off each other well and are both great actors as is most of the cast. I highly recommend this if you are into the "root for the theif" type of movie. It's one of those movies where everyone's a bad guy and you get to root for the anti-hero. Oh and Edward Norton plays a great bad guy. You really love to hate this jerk.

Nothing unique, but loads of fun.

First of all, the film is terrific for its plot, acting and beautiful scenes but when you see it in Blu Ray you feel as though you can reach out and touch it. Crystal clarity and natural colors elevate the movie experience causing me to want to see it over and over again. Enjoy

The Italian Job was fun to watch. It was a good double-cross/revenge story that kept me thoroughly entertained all the way through.

Kudos to Director F. Gary Gray for making such a good feature film when his directorial resume mostly consists of rapper videos. Gray's other most recent notable feature films were 2005's flop sequel to the classic Get Shorty (1995) and 2003's A Man Apart (which I have not seen).

Storywise, The Italian Job really worked well. It had a good flow that kept you interested. There were way too many of the typical over the top Hollywood action film sequences that are just plain old unbelievable: cars driving down busy sidewalks at high speed; driving through a busy subway; people surviving sure-death situations; absolutely zero police response to what would realistically summon a cavalry of cops...these kinds of surreal action take a bit away from the movie.

The cast is pretty good, and the acting is very good. The story is familiar enough as it is popular throughout the history of film: A heist is made by a group of thieves/one of the crooks goes rogue/the group seeks revenge.

So if the genre is up your alley, then by all means The Italian Job should work for an evening of entertainment. And if you like it, you're in luck....A sequel has been announced for 2008 called The Brazilian Job with (mostly) the same cast and director (the most important aspects in a recipe for a successful sequel).

Let's hope in the sequel that Gray keeps a better handle on reality. I'm sure that it'll be F.I.N.E.

As a veteran action-flick fan, I found this film very satisfying on all fronts: the plot was believable and coherent, the bad guy was compellingly evil and arrogant; the technology was current and appropriate, the settings - specially Venice - were interesting, the female lead (Theron) was sexy and a nice mix of feminine, seductive, vengeful, and hard-nosed; the main and suppoorting characters were clearly-drawn, human, and interesting, the violence/action scenes were well spaced and paced, And the (classic) ending was predictable and still satisfying. I commend the writers, producer, and director for maintaining a steady level of "What's going to happen next?" suspense throughout the flick. Worth investing in, if you're an action fan!