Mar. 7, 2008 - Shawn Willis

ustralian director Roger Donaldson (“The Recruit,” “Thirteen Days”) - working from a script by the veteran British team of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais - has crafted a respectable mix of fact and fiction with the largest real-life bank heist ever at a local branch of the Lloyds Bank, all set to T-Rex's Bang A Gong.
It's 1971, and Terry Leather (Jason Statham) a small-time used-car dealer with a shady past and a new family, is looking for a big score to wipe out his gambling debts and escape the intimidating loan-shark’s hoodlums demanding payment. But things go horribly wrong for Terry when beautiful Martine (Saffron Burrows), a flourishing model from his past, approaches him with an opportunity to lead a crew of his own choosing to what she describes as a foolproof bank heist on London’s Baker Street.
Terry is at first hesitant, but he eventually agrees to set up the caper without telling his wife, Wendy (Keeley Hawes). Really, he just wants to "get out of the game." But, he's about to lose his garage, and no other options are falling into his lap. So he gathers together his old mates for the task of tunneling into the bank’s safety deposit vault.
However, he is unaware that Martine is actually working for government agent Everett (Richard Lintern), and has been sent to retrieve the compromising photographs of a certain royal personage hidden in a bank security deposit box owned by revolutionary/drug dealer/pimp Michael X (Peter De Jersey).