Cheap The Italian Job [Region 2] (DVD) (Peter Collinson) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Italian Job [Region 2]

The ORIGINAL Italian Job
As always the first is always best - the new version has all the slick tricks and action but the original had acting and real action. I enjoyed every minute of the movie. <
>Always good to see the oldies in perspective to todays virtual world

Snappy Action; Great Car Chases
This heist movie starts out feeling a little dated, with Michael Caine playing another so-many-birds-so-little-time Alfie-type character - in this case just released from prison and transplanted to Italy. But I was soon swept up in the spirit of the armored car robbery caper he orchestrates. And even though I'm usually bored by car chases, I found this movie's get-away sequence to be ingenious and almost thrilling. It's off and running through impossibly narrow archways, down steep staircases, over bridges, with one literal cliffhanger along the way. A great music score adds to the bounce and jounce of every hurdle that's overcome. <
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>As an additional bonus for foreign car buffs, the DVD includes an out-take sequence with the robbers' cars and the police cars doing an extended, elaborately choreographed minuet in a marbled ballroom. The director rightly decided that this surreal episode didn't fit in with his generally realistic picture. But it's good that the dance was saved. <
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>The DVD bonus materials are overall as interesting as the picture itself. The director's commentary is especially worthwhile, because he recorded it relatively recently, so he was able to reflect backwards and forwards over each actor's career. You get to hear "whatever became of..." Everyone knows what Michael Caine has been doing. But Peter Collinson recaps the careers of Noel Coward, Raf Vallone, Benny Hill, and others who also star in the movie. <
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>This director commentary is like falling into convivial conversation with a master filmmaker. I only disagreed with one opinion he had about his finished picture. He said he didn't like the way Benny Hill's infatuation with LARGE women had been scripted. I think Collinson felt the character's on-screen enthusiasm, with Hill frequently managing to bury himself in some woman's abundance, was in bad taste. <
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>But I personally found Hill's irrepressible enthusiasm rather appealing. It's as irresistible as this movie itself. I didn't see the recent re-make of "The Italian Job," but I have a hunch this original is the version to get. <
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