So hurry up, mate; we don't wanna be late. And, by the way... How's your father?
The Italian Job from 1969 is one of those cases of a film under-performing (or outright bombing, in the case of the US), only to slowly gain a following & become an icon of British film making after the fact. In particular, director Peter Collinson sadly died in 1980 of lung cancer, at age 44, never getting to see the impact his fourth (& most iconic) film would have on the rest of the world. Michael Caine blames the film's tepid reception in the States on how it was advertised, particularly towards the infamously misleading poster that Paramount used, which made the film seem to be more focused on sex & the mafia, rather than it being the comedy that it really was; at the very least, it did get nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best English-Language Foreign Film". Over the past 30 years, however, the film has been referenced, paid homage to, & respected through various other works.
The third episode of the original 1985 MacGuyver series, "Thief of Budapest", features a car chase utilizing three Minis, meant to reference the film's iconic chase through Turin, Italy. In late 1990, a charity event named after the film started up, where people would run their cars from the UK to northern Italy & back, and became a yearly event that is still run to this day, having made over £2.5 million since it started, with all of it going to children's charities. In 1999, Welsh rock band Stereophonics released the song "Pick a Part That's New", with the music video parodying the film. In 2003, playwright Malachi Bogdanov wrote Bill Shakespeare's "The Italian Job", a play that told the film's plot using lines from Shakespeare. In 2005, Season 17 of The Simpsons had the episode "The Italian Bob", which made references to the film. For the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London, a famous scene from the film was paid homage to. Finally, the celebrate the 50th Anniversary this summer, Mini recreated some scenes from the film at its Oxford factory.
Still, this is about the movies & accompanying games, so how should we start? Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea...!
"You're Only Supposed to Blow the Bloody Doors Off!"
Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) is a bit of a playboy conman who has just finished his latest stint in jail, only to be greeted by his girlfriend Lorna (Maggie Blye)... in a stolen car. Charlie had already been hired for a new job before even becoming a free man, specifically about stealing a delivery of gold bullion, totaling $4 million, being transferred through Turin, Italy to help with with British finances. Knowing he'll need a large crew for this, he breaks back into jail to get the support of Mr. Bridger (Noël Coward), the respected leader of thievery who is effectively running the entire country from prison. Bridger at first scoffs at the idea of giving Croker help, even ordering that Charlie be beat up for breaking into his own personal toilet, but changes his mind after finding out that Fiat announced plans to open a new car factory in China, in place of the UK. Now Charlie has to get together a team, plan everything out, make it to Italy, get the job done, & escape across the Swiss border, all while the Italian Mafia, led by Altabani (Raf Vallone), is watching over them.
The original 1969 film is an all-time classic, but it's also easy to see why some might not like it. First up, it isn't exactly a fast paced film by any means, even at 99 minutes, but it is a focused & lean story, as every scene has some importance to it, with pretty much no "filler" to it; there's a single deleted scene that would have ruined the pacing. Second, there really isn't any major "antagonist" to be found, even with the Mafia being a part of the plot. They kill Roger Beckerman (Rossano Brazzi), the man who came up with the plan & hired Charlie, at the start of the film, but after that the only other thing they contribute is meeting up with Charlie & some of the crew once they get into Italy & destroy their "fast cars", which were in case the job fails & they need to get away, making the job a "do or die" scenario; Altabani is shown throughout the second half, but never does much else of any importance. Third, considering the massive size of the crew doing the job (about 15, in total), the only truly important character in the entire movie is Charlie, with Mr. Bridger & Lorna, plus second-in-command Camp Freddie (Tony Beckley) to a lesser extent, being the closest to legit supporting cast, as everyone else is essentially tertiary, only having importance in specific scenes, at best. In fact, two of them are named Roger (no relation to Beckerman) & Rozzer, which totally isn't confusing at all, I swear.
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| The Japanese release called it Mini Mini Daisakusen, or The Great Mini Mini Strategy. I love it. |
What makes The Italian Job so good, then, is in the finer details. While most of Charlie's crew feels tertiary, there are some performances that still stand out, whether it's George Innes's Bill Bailey coming off as a simple helper to Charlie, but a snarky boss to the rest of the crew, or Michael Standing sometimes stealing scenes as Arthur, the crew's semi-bumbling explosives expert. There's also the legendary Benny Hill as Prof. Peach, the crew's computer expert who makes it so that a giant traffic jam allows the gold to be stolen in the first place. Hill admittedly gets barely any screen time & is gone from the film, essentially left behind by the crew, before the job itself actually starts, but his natural talent makes the notorious chubby chaser memorable, nonetheless. Raf Vallone also shines whenever he's on screen as Altabani, so it's a shame he's given so little. The music by the iconic Quincy Jones (Roots, The Color Purple) is great, as sparsely heard as it is throughout the film, with the main attraction being the main theme "Getta Bloomin' Move On", also known as "The Self-Preservation Society", an instantly memorable track that's lived on in memory just as long as the movie itself. Then there's the actual heist itself, followed by the legendary getaway & chase throughout Turin, which is filled with all sorts of clever vehicular choreography, ideas, & gags (Arthut steals a whole baked chicken off someone's plate early on, for example, & near the end tells his driver to "make a wish" on the wishbone that's left behind); while it is weird that there's no music at all until the second half, it helps establish this as a realistic heist. Finally, we have the outstanding finale, which is a literal cliffhanger that kind of doubles down on the final reason why I think this movie is great.
Simply put, Charlie & his crew are kind of blunder-heads that just manage to do the job right, only for their own stupidity to sneak back up on them. They spend more money than Bridger intended in preparation, screw themselves over somewhat with the Mafia upon entering Italy, complain about the stupidest things hours before the job, & get blatantly drunk after successfully escaping the cops before getting themselves into a situation they can't possibly escape from. It's similar to that of the original Ocean's 11 from 1960, where the gang succeeds in their heist, only to mess things up at the very end. In a lot of ways, the humor is very British, & sometimes either too subtle or too sudden for some, but overall the original 1969 film is a classic for good reason, and it remains one of my all-time favorites. There was also a novelization at the time, and it apparently differs a ton from the film, including a German group trying to steal Beckerman's plans, Prof. Peach getting rescued after his "exit" from the film, & an actual conclusive ending where Charlie is told by Bridger to give the gold back, as he & Altabani have agreed to divide Europe up between themselves.
Yeah, The Italian Job with a definitive ending? Treason against the Queen, I say! In all seriousness, though, there were "half a dozen" endings (producer Michael Deeley's actual words) written up during pre-production, so the novel likely just used one of those.
"Just remember this - in this country, they drive on the wrong side of the road."
While the film did see a second theatrical run in the UK for its 30th Anniversary in 1999, there really wasn't anything "new" done in regards to The Italian Job until late 2001, as the hopes for a sequel were dashed back in the late 60s. Whatever the reason for its creation, though, a PlayStation game adaptation of the movie came out from developer PixeLogic, a short-lived studio that had done the PS1 adaptation of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds concept album back in 1999, publisher SCi in Europe, & released in North America by Rockstar Games (fittingly enough?) in mid-2002 as a $9.99 budget title. A Windows PC port would then see release a few months later in 2002, with fellow Take-Two Interactive company Global Star Software handling the American release.
In terms of adapting the plot of the movie, the game does the best it can by expanding on it a bit, in order to create a total 16 missions (8 in London, 6 in Turin, & 2 in the Italian Alps) that all involve driving a vehicle in some way. This results in a minor change or two, like Charlie picking up Camp Freddie to impress Bridger instead of invading his toilet, as well as some explanations as to where some of the crew came from, like testing Bill Bailey's skills after serving time, freeing Mini driver Dominic from jail, or keeping up with other Mini driver Tony in order to impress him into joining. The missions also help explain pretty innocuous things, like where Charlie got the bike that he used to destroy the power generator to allow his crew to slip in their traffic light program to create the massive traffic jam.
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| There was a "Collector's Edition" in France, Germany & Spain, but was apparently only for promotional purposes. |
Before I judge the game itself I should point out that, according to the manual, the development team at PixeLogic for this game was comprised of literally just nine people: two designers, two programmers, four artists, & one director; SCi handled the producing, music, voice work, & QA, while Audio Motion did some CG cutscenes. In that regard, the game is definitely a budget title through & through, but it also makes me have to give credit where it's due, because that small team at PixeLogic definitely wanted to push the PS1 as hard as they likely could. Everything, from the cars to the environments to even the people walking about, is a fully textured model, all of the story sequences bookending each mission are done in-engine, and the draw distance is more than decent enough to prevent things from popping in from out of nowhere; even the frame rate is decent enough. Of course, the game has still aged rather roughly simply due to the fact that it's running on a PS1, so everything still looks a bit blocky, and the human characters aren't flattering in the least. In comparison, though, the PC port is actually really damn good, & honestly the better way to play the game today. The visuals are much cleaner, though obviously nowhere near as nice as a game made for PCs the same year, the audio is much cleaner, & the performance (&, in turn, controls) is much better, as on PS1 it felt like 30 fps, at best, while the PC version runs at a solid 50 fps (or just barely below) at all times; FMV cutscenes are hard-encoded to run at 30 fps across both platforms, though. I even managed to get the PC version to boot up on Windows 7 simply by switching compatibility to Windows 2000, which is nice.
Overall, the video game adaptation of The Italian Job is perfectly fine, but does nothing to really escape its budget game nature. The controls are super simple (the handbrake isn't even all that useful, honestly), the missions are rather simple (usually consisting of simply going from A to B, with only one or two that actually have multiple parts), the music is limited to just "It's Caper Time" from the movie & two original songs that are enjoyable enough, & the voice work is decent enough, though none of the imitators sound anything like the original cast. It's also a pretty thin game in terms of content, as the main mode that adapts the movie can be finished in no more than 2-3 hours, with extra modes simply being a series of 10 challenges (four of which are just variants of the same thing), 20 checkpoint races, 20 "destructor" races where you take out cones, & a free ride mode that lets you drive around the recreations of London & Turin; there's also "Party Play", where up to eight players take turns playing through the other modes. Overall, it's a more than decent game, and probably the best that can be expected in terms of adapting a British comedy/heist movie from 1969 into a video game in the year 2001.
Really, the main thing it needed to do was adapt the iconic getaway scene well, & it succeeds there, as that is the best mission in the game.
"I had... A bad... Experience! Damn it, I'm deaf!"
Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg) is part of one final job in Venice, Italy that he brought his safecracker teacher (& father figure) John Bridger (Donald Sutherland) out of retirement for. The job is a success, and everyone celebrates... Until Steve Bandell (Edward Norton), one of their own, betrays everyone, killing Bridger, leaving everyone else for dead, & stealing all of the $35 million in gold bullion for himself. One year later, Charlie manages to locate Steve, now living in Los Angeles under the last name "Frezelli", and decides to take back what was stolen from them & avenge Bridger's death. To do so, Charlie reunites the band: driver Handsome Rob (Jason Statham), demolitions expert "Left Ear" (Mos Def), hacker Lyle (Seth Green), plus two newcomers in mechanic Wrench (Franky G) & Stella Bridger (Charlize Theron), John's daughter who went into safecraking for more honest means, but also wants vengeance of her own.
The 2003 remake of The Italian Job is interesting in that it isn't really a "remake", by most definitions of the word, but rather is more of a conceptual sequel from an alternate universe. The start of the film shows a major heist, obviously meant to be the namesake of the movie itself, only for the actual plot to quickly transition into a tale of our leads wanting to get vengeance against a traitor who screwed them all over, just for his own personal greed. Similar to the original film, the plot here is super focused & without much of any "filler", making the most out of its 110-minute run time. Compared to the original film, the remake also has a better cast of characters, with everyone being given time to shine & even some backstory; even Bridger is given just enough while alive, & his memory remains a strong presence throughout. This also includes Mashkov (Olek Krupa), a Ukranian mob leader who winds up having a small but growing presence during the film, due to Steve's poor attempts to sell off some of the remaining gold for cash. The only character to not get a lot of relevance is Wrench, who is brought into the fold about halfway in by Rob, and not given a whole lot of screen time; the character was a last-minute addition to the film, but Franky G works well with the little he's given.
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| Yeah, they actually kept the "Mini Mini Daisakusen" name in Japan! |
While the 1969 film is definitely a comedy film about doing a major heist, the 2003 remake is definitely a heist film with a lot of comedy. There's a lot more here about getting things ready, making split-second decisions, & having to adjust when things don't go as planned. The comedy is still really solid & enjoyable, though, featuring a nice mix of subtle (Left Ear's "incident" involving dogs never being explained), semi-meta (Lyle riffing on Rob's ability to get into bed with any woman, while Rob is doing just that in front of him), & more obvious (Stella asking why Charlie gets to punch Steve at one point, when it's her father he killed). In fact, speaking about subtle gags, easily the most amusing one is when Lyle's backstory is explained, where he was the real creator of Napster that was stolen by his college roommate, as Shawn Fanning was brought in for a cameo, poking fun at himself during a flashback showing him stealing the program from a napping Lyle; if you didn't know it was Fanning beforehand, you'd likely never realize the gag. The cast is also just simply outstanding, with nearly everyone bringing their A game & visibly having a ton of fun; this film, alongside The Transporter, really launched Statham's career into the next level. The only real exception would be Edward Norton, who was infamously forced into doing the film after already turning it down so as to not get sued for breach of contract with Paramount, which he had a five-year deal with; Norton was as professional as he could be during filming, though. That being said, I think Norton does a great job as Steve, mainly because the character seemingly matches the man's attitude at the time. Steve thinks he's finally finished with his past, only to be brought back into a situation he'd rather not have to deal with, and while he does put some effort in trying to come out on top, it's his general apathy towards his former friends that leads to his downfall. It almost feels as though director F. Gary Gray (Friday, The Fate of the Furious) modified Norton's role slightly to match how he felt about the entire situation, leading to Norton delivering a truly memorable villain; numerous reviews at the time even praised Norton's performance.
As for callbacks & references to the original film, there are some peppered throughout, though mostly subtle. Easily the most blatant ones are Stella owning an original Mini early on, driving it like a pro, & Steve shown turning on his TV for a couple of seconds, with a shot of Michael Caine from the original movie appearing on screen; I think one of the cars Steve uses to hijack to the gold early on is also the same kind of 4x4 from the '69 film. Beyond that, it's mainly a bunch of conceptual references, like creating a traffic jam by messing with L.A.'s traffic lights, bringing in a civilian to help out (Prof. Peach vs. Stella & Wrench), having to deal with a mafia of some sort (Italian vs. Ukranian), two character names (I guess calling Stella "Lorna" or Lyle "Arthur" would have been a little too on the nose), and using a trio of red, white & blue Minis to steal the gold & get away from the city; it's as much an advertisement for that brand as the original film was, honestly. As for said climactic theft & getaway, it's memorable in its own right, though one can certainly argue that the original film had more to it in terms of locales, moments, & gags; there are deleted scenes for a subplot during the chase involving Left Ear having to drive, but it slowed things down. Overall, though, 2003's The Italian Job is a great example of how to do a remake, paying homage in just enough ways to tell what it's remaking, while being an excellent heist film in its own right by telling its own overall story. It's a shame that the proposed sequel, "The Brazilian Job", will likely never come to be, even though all involved parties (including Wahlberg, Theron, Statham, Green, Gray, & writer David Twohy) have continually mentioned that they'd be up for it.
"I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them I don't trust."
Releasing a video game adaptation of a new movie is by no means an original concept come 2003, but Eidos Interactive's The Italian Job: L.A. Heist, developed by Climax Brighton (better known as the now-defunct Black Rock Studio, which made Pure & Split/Second), found itself in a slightly unenviable position, because it literally saw release just barely a year after the PS1 game's North American release. Because of this, numerous reviews at the time compared the two games, with some actually preferring PixeLogic's effort to Climax's. To some, that might sound a bit silly, but after playing through this second game named The Italian Job, I can certainly see why some of the reviews back in 2003 felt that way.
In terms of adapting the story, Climax's game actually works similarly to what PixeLogic did. Across 15 missions, it adapts the main focus of the movie, i.e. getting back at Steve, and it does so by having some missions detail more innocuous things, and just like PixeLogic's game each mission features narration by Charlie... Who sounds absolutely nothing like Mark Wahlberg. For example, you'll have to get fake IDs from Charlie's supplier, "Skinny Pete", actually acquire the Mini Cooper S cars that are used in the climax, & tail Steve's car in order to find out where he lives; all of this stuff was just known from the start, or were simply not explained, because it wasn't important. The climactic getaway changes wildly, though, with Stella being chased through a golf course (referencing a deleted scene), & Charlie chasing down Steve for the last mission, instead of Steve chasing Charlie, like in the movie. Of course, since the game is all about driving cars, with not even a single human being being shown during gameplay, this also results in some sillier things, like having to drive a vehicle onto the roof of a building, and scale the outside of some ventilation shafts, in order to get Lyle into a position where he can hack into L.A.'s traffic system; in the movie, Lyle simply did it from the comfort of a café. What's most amusing, though, is how often Charlie & the gang get chased by the cops in this game, whereas that never happens once in the entire movie; there's a single deleted scene from the movie where Stella is chased, but that's it. Similar to PixeLogic's game, there are also some extra modes beyond the main campaign, namely a circuit race mode featuring six "tracks" based in the city environments you play through in story mode, time trials for the tracks, a "stunt driving" mode that's simply four specialized (& very tightly designed) point-to-point tracks to get through without falling off (with the fourth simply being the previous three in succession), & a free ride mode where you can do whatever you like in the game's two environments, L.A. & Hollywood.
Graphically, the game looks nice enough, especially on the Xbox (which is the version I played), but it certainly isn't one of the best on the system (or any of the systems it was released on, honestly). Still, it plays at what feels like a solid 60 fps, and the vehicles all control extremely tightly & smooth, with the handbrake being absolutely essential for making tight turns; there's even a "Stunt" button that lets you drive on two wheels when in a Mini. You're also scored in terms of performance for every mission or race, with bonus points for performing stunts & going airborne, & points get deducted for crashing into other vehicles; getting A rankings is how you unlock other cars & colors for other modes. One thing to note, though, is that though the game does feature police chases, it never really indicates that you should simply finish your mission & not worry about losing the cops... Simply because it's literally impossible. Cops (or Steve's goons, in a couple of missions) are super fast & insanely aggressive, will literally pop up from out of nowhere on your radar, and the game is ridiculously harsh on getting captured; if you come to a stop at any point with at least two police cars near you, you instantly fail. Still, from a purely technical & control perspective, Climax's game is a very fun, fast paced, & arcade-style driving game, more than surpassing PixeLogic's stiffer & overall slower paced game.
So why did some critics at the time prefer the previous game, then? It's mainly because, instead of one or two major flaws, there are bunch of smaller annoyances & flaws that simply add up, & it honestly really hurts the game as a whole, especially during the main campaign. Aside from the extremely harsh & unforgiving pursuer AI (& capture conditions), the radar the game gives you is often more useless than it should be. Instead of showing a map of the area, it's simply a blue circle, with a large red dot showing you the overall direction of where your objective is, plus darker blue dots when police are chasing after you; there isn't even a map of any sort to look up, in general. Unfortunately, with the environment being as dense as it can, though it's really damn light on traffic for L.A., having just a red dot on a blue circle (that only blinks when nearby) does nothing to let you know when you'll have to turn into an alleyway, maneuver through a mall, or if the objective is above or below you; the first game only used a Crazy Taxi-esque arrow, but at least it was accurate & helpful. Combined with the generally tight time limits you're given, there are many missions that are literally impossible to beat on your first, second, or even third attempt. I guess that might be simply to artificially extend the time spent playing the game, because just like the previous game, there really isn't much to the campaign, as it shouldn't take you more than 2-3 hours to beat all 15 missions, and while the races & stunt courses are neat (& allow for two players to challenge each other), they only add so much to the replay value. In fact, two missions near the end are almost exactly the same exact thing, with the difference being that one is a race, while the other has you being chased. Also, the final mission involves a ~6-minute chase against an AI that drives so recklessly that I actually once saw it flip onto its side, after crashing against a bunch of cars.
As it is, which game is better? Honestly, neither game is a classic by any means, and the best way to put it is that PixeLogic's game is simple but ambitious for the console it was released on, though a bit quirky in some respects, while Climax's game is a really fun driving title held back by a ton of smaller annoyances that just add up over time. At least neither is long, by any means, & I'd still recommend both if you're curious; neither is exactly expensive today.
"You need a team, Charlie; a team of the world's best players."
Charlie Mascarenhas is a professional thief who is given a mini-DVD by the girlfriend of his old friend Raj, who had recently been killed by the Russian mafia. On the DVD, Raj tells Charlie about an old haul of gold stolen from the Romanians by Russia back in 1915 during World War I, and how Russia is finally going to give it back to its rightful owners, all ~$1 billion worth of it in today's money, by train. Raj wants Charlie to finish the job that he started planning, & with the help of Victor Braganza, the man who taught Charlie everything he knows & is currently finishing his time in jail, he'll assemble a crew to do what Raj couldn't. He winds up with Bilal Bashir, an explosives expert who's deaf in one ear; Spider, a legendary hacker who the group has to locate first; Sunny Mehra, a talented make-up & prosthetic artist; Ronnie Grewal, a magician & illusionist who left the business for his own personal reasons; & Riya, an expert mechanic who's been working with Charlie (both professionally & personally) for years. When a traitor is revealed amongst their midst & leaves the others for dead (including a hit on Victor back home), though, Charlie & the other survivors have to team up with Naina, Victor's daughter, & head to New Zealand to not only get the gold back, but also get payback for those they lost.
Indian remakes of American films are by no means anything recent or surprising. That being said, compared to the unofficial status most probably associate with them from the 80s & 90s, this past decade has seen more of a concerted effort from "Bollywood" in obtaining official licenses & making these remakes as official as can be. That's certainly the case with Players, the 2012 remake of the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, co-produced by Viacom18 Studios & Burmawala Brothers. Yes, this is the theoretical film equivalent of a "photocopy of a photocopy", but you have to show it respect for one main reason: It's got moxie. While Players is technically a remake of the remake, in reality it's a remake of both the 1969 film AND the 2003 remake! With a total run time of 163 minutes, over 2.5 hours, the film is really just two films fused into one, with a literal intermission meant to split the two apart; one could also think of it as a self-contained mini-series. The first half is the remake of the 1969 film, where Charlie is given a job by a newly-dead friend, gathers a crew together with the help of an old legend, & heads to a foreign country to do the job. The second half is the remake of the 2003 film, where someone they thought was an ally double-crosses them & steals the gold for himself, killing not just the father figure but also two of the crew. Now, a year later, Charlie finds a lead & gathers the remaining crew back together, along with the daughter of the father figure who wants revenge.
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| Maybe it's just me, but those Minis look a bit... off. |
Obviously, one can guess that the major problem with Players is that it's just too... damn... long, and the fact that it's literally remaking both of the prior films really makes it feel like it should have just been two films, in the first place. At the same time, though, the two halves are a fair bit lopsided, namely in that the the 1969 remake first half is much better than the 2003 remake second half. The origin of the gold is clever, the environment of Russia is different than Italy, & the heist (both in set up & execution) is cool; stealing it from a moving train is also a nice touch of originality. Unfortunately, since neither half is really a "proper" film on its own, this first half neglects to really show how some of the set up comes about; for example, Spider just suddenly hacks into a Russian surveillance satellite, without showing him do it. It ending with the betrayal twist to set up the second half is also a nice touch, with the moment of intermission acting as a cool cliffhanger finale. In comparison, the second half really just feels like a second-rate imitation of the 2003 remake, just with some things changed around. Compared to the first half, which only copied concepts from the 1969 film (like characters & general ideas), the second half outright imitates entire scenes with only subtle changes; the traitor just becomes a copy of Steve, while Naina is now just a fusion of Stella & Lyle. As for the changes it makes, they honestly aren't anything special & are rather generic, like having someone who was thought killed by the traitor being revealed as alive & in on the betrayal the whole time; the ending also tosses in way too many twists & mind games from Charlie to believably accept. In fact, even the Minis, which aren't even directly identified as such (& could honestly just be knock-offs), feel more like an afterthought, and this movie's take on the iconic chase scene at the end is just a low-budgeted imitation, which is amusing since the film had a huge budget (it was even the first Bollywood movie to film at the North Pole!), though I liked the one callback to the 1969 film's getaway.
That's not to say that Players is a bad film, though, because there is still plenty to like. Charlie & Victor wanting the money to open up an massive orphanage is a nice touch, Ronnie's backstory is likewise nice & how Charlie winds up fitting into it is touching, & while the cast's "coolness" feels a bit too forced on you, they all do wind up growing on you. Also, to re-state it, the train heist in Russia is easily the best part of the entire film, and is without a doubt one of the few things that gives Players its own identity. In true Bollywood fashion, there are also dance sequences (which, to be fair, the film even pokes fun at once), but at least there are only three in the entire film, and only one of them (the first one, early on) serves no real purpose at all; the DVD I watched even included promotional "text this code to this # for this song!" messages during them. Overall, Players is enjoyable enough & worth at least a single watch for fans of The Italian Job, but otherwise is both too bloated for its own good as a single film & can't seem to decide how much of a remake it really wants to be, depending on which half you're on. Not surprisingly, its reception in India was mixed, for a lot of the same reasons I gave, & became a notorious box-office bomb, even reinstating the belief in a jinx where the first released film of the year will be a massive bomb, which was previously true from 2008 to 2010.
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And that brings an end to this look back at The Italian Job, and the various theatrical & video game takes it has had. Considering how the original 1969 movie wasn't an instant classic by any means, it's actually kind of surprising that it even wound up getting two remakes from two notably different countries, a video game adaptation, & then a video game of the first remake that came out only a year or two after the first game! Today, the original film is a considered a icon of British film, while the American remake has continued to hold enough of a following to allow the idea of a sequel to remain a (theoretical) possibility. As for the Bollywood remake... Well, it tried; it certainly tried really hard.
Personally, though, the original film remains one of my all-time favorite movies, while the 2003 remake is still one of my favorites from that decade, & I am happy to have finally watched the Bollywood remake, even if I have no interest in ever seeing it again. As for the two games, they're both overall fun, if short, experiences, and I hope to have good times with my own Mini Cooper S Countryman.
Happy 50th Anniversary, The Italian Job!
The Italian Job (1969) © 1969 Paramount Pictures
The Italian Job Game © 2001 SCi (Sales Curve Interactive), Ltd.
The Italian Job (2003) © 2003 Paramount Pictures
The Italian Job: L.A. Heist © 2003 Paramount Pictures
Players © 2012 Viacom 18 Motion Pictures PVT, Ltd. (by my best estimation)
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