There's a spot on that wall that doesn't have a picture of her. What's that about?

I like a good heist movie, which The Bank Job is. What makes it even more intriguing is that it’s true. (More or less. I mean, who expects the real truth in movies these days?) Here’s the setup: Royal scalawag Princess Margaret is being blackmailed with some naughty photos. The British government, hoping to avoid a scandal, engages in a little blackmail of its own, convincing model Martine (Saffron Burrows) to enlist her old friend/maybe flame Terry Leather (Jason Statham) – a custom car dealer with a dodgy past -- in a daring scheme: break into a bank vault and rob the safe deposit boxes, allowing her to steal the incriminating snaps.

What follows is entertaining and suspenseful, as Terry’s band of occasional small-time crooks take on a job that should be way over their head. They do surprisingly well, a few rookie mistakes aside, but the path to ill-gotten riches seldom runs smooth. Between the government types, some nasty thugs who don’t take kindly to having their personal possessions pilfered and a violent Black Nationalist leader, our anti-heroes have their work cut out for them.

The Bank Job offers everything a good heist movie should*: likeable criminals, a job with more to it than meets the eye, humor and the potential for things to go horribly wrong. I enjoyed the workmanlike way Terry’s crew planned and executed their job. Equally interesting was the behind-the-scenes political intrigue. What starts off seeming like a light-hearted movie about scrappy little guys stealing mostly illicit stuff from rich folks turns into a darker, more serious affair by the end. Through it all, it’s suspenseful, entertaining and believable. The Bank Job is a terrific example of a crime movie done right.

* I should point out that these rules are arbitrary and I may not apply them to the next heist movie I see. What can I say, I’m capricious.

Gorilla Pants rating: 3.5 out of 4 bananas