This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Aww, man it was on non-cable Movies! this evening and I sure will try to see the whole thing soon. I probably only caught the last 30 mins yet still about split a gut.All I would say to the naysayers is that most of what I've read they don't like about this movie is exactly what I like about this movie.Very close to a 9 to me, maybe if I see the rest I will give it higher.

Memorable for its car chase scenes, but otherwise quite poor.A recently-released criminal, Charlie Croker (played by Michael Caine), devises a plan to rob Fiat of a large amount of gold in the city of Turin. He gains the backing of a British crime kingpin, Mr Bridger (played by Noel Coward) and assembles his team. Once in Italy he discovers he now has to contend with the Mafia in order to carry out his plan...Not sure why this is so highly regarded. Yes, the car chase scenes, involving blue, white and red Mini Coopers, are iconic, but that's it. The script is mostly quite silly. Hardly anything is plausible or makes sense and sub-plots are plain random. Far more style than substance, and the style isn't that classy. Michael Caine puts in a solid performance in the lead role. Noel Coward's character provides much of the implausibility. Benny Hill has a supporting role as weird, creepy, fetish-loving, tech professor - an ideal role for him.I enjoyed the 2003 remake far more - action was as good and the script was much more solid. One of the few times I've enjoyed a remake of a movie more than the original.

Michael Caine plays Charlie Croker, fresh out of prison, and looking for work, when he learns that a friend of his, who was planning a heist job in Torino Italy, was instead killed by the mafia, so Charlie instead decides to take over the plan himself, using three mini-coopers, two Jaguars, and a bus, along with the help from various characters played by Noel Coward and Benny Hill, among others, to steal the same gold shipment from Italy, and make their escape, though it doesn't quite come off as planned...Peter Collinson directs, and does an interesting job with the visual approach with this film, with the stylized atmosphere of the prison, to the massive car chase at the climax, and to the decidedly offbeat humor, which doesn't always work well, but again goes far because of Michael Caine's charm, and it's memorably kooky ending.

It's probably not a good idea to see a remake first, but in the case of The Italian Job I did see the Mark Wahlberg/Ed Norton/Donald Sutherland version first. That was an interesting enough film with the action on revenge. But this original with Michael Caine playing the ringleader of a daring bullion hijack has a sense of style all its own. And why wouldn't it with Noel Coward giving his farewell screen performance.Caine is the ringleader of a team of crack hijackers who've been given a plan by the late Rossano Brazzi and it's Caine's job to flesh it out and make it all happen. He's given the plan by Brazzi's less than grieving widow Margaret Blye and he takes it to master criminal Noel Coward.Watching Coward running things from his prison cell put me in mind of Goodfellas where the wise guys are all living the good life via bribes of guards, etc. He might be in jail, but no one is going crimp in any way Noel Coward's sense of refinement. Caine has to sell himself and the job to Coward.But once he does the robbery goes off like clockwork. The caper itself is where this version and the Mark Wahlberg version are at the most similar. Who would have thought that Seth Green would be playing a role originated by Benny Hill as a computer mastermind. Of course computers have changed some in the over 30 years between the two films.Only Ocean's 11 (the Sinatra version) has the same sense of irony in its conclusion as The Italian Job has. Talk about unresolved endings.......