Bad script. Bad acting. Bad directing. But somehow, I still enjoyed this little caper film...but only a little.

Jason Statham stars alongside a cast of other potentially good no-name actors in this bank heist with a twist (of course). Everything is very formula for the first half as the team sets up and executes the bank job. The dialogue was flat, the wit was witless, and the "relationships" that the writer was trying to form are shallow (to put it nicely). The second half only partially saves the film simply because of the plot complexity that was unveiled. Based on a true story, I have no idea how accurate the plot was, but the twists in the second half were at least interesting enough for me not to walk out of the theater (which I seriously contemplated for the first 20 min).

Things aren't going so well for the small band of East London petty-thieves when sure enough, the old neighborhood bombshell comes strolling back into town with a tip on a bank heist of the century. Statham and the boys agree to rob the bank due to a tip on the bank's faulty security. All goes swimmingly for the thieves, and they're about to get away with it when suddenly, things get complicated (the twist).

Although the twist was obvious, and not meant to be a complete surprise (obviously set up in the first act), it's how the characters deal with the twist that makes the faster-paced second half watchable. Their situation goes from bad to worse and we're compelled to find out what happens -- only at least to justify the $8.75 we spent on it.

Surprisingly, this film has gotten some really good reviews. I don't understand why. The boat-load of exposition that's clumsily delivered by the cast barely covers up the uninspired cinematography and style-less direction. Even though I got a chuckle out of the suave Ocean's 11 wit, and a gritty pleasure from Snatch, I almost wish The Bank Job was at least as good a copy of either of those films. It wasn't. The director isn't sure if he wants to make the characters loveable losers, suave men of the world, or the petty thieves they really are.

By the end of the film we're almost pleading with Jason Statham to go on a pistol and blood rampage across the East London underbelly like he normally would in his movies. We get a glimpse of that, but again, the director takes us in this direction, then backs way off making Statham out to be a hard-luck family man just trying to get by in life.

The "romance" is laughable. The jokes are witless. The plot is at least interesting. Oh, and there's lots of gratuitous nudity that serves no purpose other than to keep me in my seat through the mountains of exposition. Although I said I enjoyed it, I only enjoyed it in a "I've got nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon" way. I won't rent it. I won't even stop on the channel when it ends up on TV. I can't recommend this film.