The Italian Job

The Italian Job, about a bullion robbery taking place during a Turin traffic jam has been re-made and relocated to Los Angeles.

(Edited highlights of the panel's review taken from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight Review.)

LISA JARDINE:
Well, first on the Trade Descriptions Act, it's only really The Italian Job because it has three Minis in it, red, white and blue. They go through tunnels and down staircases. As a remake, this is a remake of a car chase. Leaving that aside, I think the remake is fantastic. I'm allowed to say because I'm a contemporary of the first one. I can leave the first Italian Job alone. I can't stand Michael Caine in that. I can't stand it. I can't stand that it's Austin Powers without the humour and basically Benny Hill you can leave behind. This new film I'll watch any number of times you like. It's every car chase you ever wanted. It's three heists in one movie. A heroine to die for. Charlize Theron, the safe cracker. After GI Jane, she's my favourite female hero.

LAWSON:
Although she has to have a man's hand put on her's to steady her shaking hand when she fixes the safe.

JARDINE:
Only briefly.

PORTILLO:
I am a great fan of the old one. One of the reasons I like the new one is I think it's quite respectful of the old one. They say, we're going to do this robbery in the style of The Italian Job. This one shows all the benefits of new technology. The chase scenes are much better. Cinematography has moved on a hell of a long way in that time. Also the shape of films has changed in that you now have a very good opening sequence and a very good sequence at the end, a bit of a valley in the middle. But it is an American film, so the romantic element is completely predictable and trite. I thought the ending was thoroughly disappointing, whereas the ending of the British film was of course literally a cliffhanger. What a pity in this film they seem to run out of imagination at the end, but well worth seeing.

LAWSON:
It shows the American fondness for happier endings. Ian MCMILLAN, I thought the original had that fantastic sense of the late '60s, it could only be set then. This I thought could have been set any time.

IAN MCMILLAN:
I didn't like it at all. I thought it was something Captain Beefheart sung by S Club Juniors. I thought it was taking an original that had just been destroyed. The bit you mention where the safe-cracker had to have Mark Wahlberg's hand to save her, I wanted to go home at that point. And also the way that the Mini has been changed from a nice English car to this fast American car, called something like the Zapper! I didn't like it at all. Especially the ending. I was expecting another twist at the end. Let's have one more twist, maybe the black guy turns out to be a baddy or something, but then it all just went nice and the music came up. Oh, dear, I prefer Damien Hirst.

LAWSON:
There are games, as Michael suggested, it's a much more tightly scripted film. The patterning, there are lines that come back, there's a very nice detail about someone having no imagination and so on. I thought actually the writing was good.

MCMILLAN:
I thought these guys had gone on these three-day writing courses.

JARDINE:
The no imagination I think worked beautifully and the geek is fabulous and rather appropriate that he is Dr Evil's son in Austin Powers, but the geek who does all the wonderful stopping of the traffic lights and he's Napster or he should have been Napster except his roommate at college stole the Napster programme from him, wonderful.

LAWSON:
That was again a good joke, Michael Portillo, so many remakes at the moment it's because they have this instant recognition, but the flip side of that is they tend to lead to instant disappointment, don't they? Most people will prefer the original, certainly in this country.

PORTILLO:
I suppose the audience divides into two parts. Lots of people will see this who didn't see the first movie because they're not old enough to have done it. I went with minimal expectations because it was a remake of a film of which I was very fond. I came out therefore not disappointed, really quite elated, but it's distinctly an American film with American characteristics. And of course the other one was not just a British film but a film of extraordinary nationalism.