“…the latest Jason Statham cock-er-ney cor blimey crime caper, The Bank Job which is being described as a five-star “belting British blockbuster” by Company magazine – hmm.“
Well I’ve eaten my words, my hat and some humble pie because this is actually quite a good film. Statham and co. are a bunch or thieves tempted into a foolproof simple caper by Saffron Burrows (you would) that turns out to be anything but and draws them into a web of conspiracy and corruption populated by Meanwhile crimelords, drug gangs and the Government. Written by veteran wordsmiths Clement and La Frenais this really is a likable film that benefits from a uniformly good cast and a great sense of humour. The one down side are the harsher moments of violence that really seem out of place but besides that I have nothing bad to say about this film. In fact I was tempted to make it DVD of the Week but then I saw…
Futurama: The Beast With A Billion Backs which follows on from the hilarious Bender’s Big Score. Like the previous film I must admit that I laughed my shiny metal butt off watching this and again it works much better than The Simpsons did at feature length, which I put down to the situation having a much wider scope for story (space travel etc) and the fact they are not trying to conquer the world via the big screen. Had The Simpsons Movie been released direct to DVD I doubt the makers would have felt the need to explain the Wolfcastle / Schwarzenegger joke for those not in the know. Anyway as with the best of the TV show it’s a nicely absurd story that really hits high notes when the gags coem from the mercenary nature of Bender and the unthinking cruelty of Professor Farnsworth …but even so it still ain’t DVD of the Week.
…neither are Garage or Taxi To The Darkside (both unseen, both very interesting) or even Oz: Season 5, 
which sees HBO’s deranged, slightly rubbish but highly enjoyable (not to mention camp) prison drama hit new levels of mentalness: which prisoners will be allowed to train seeing eye dogs? which Aryan will be thrown out of the gang for having the gums of black men? will Luke Perry still be bricked behind the canteen wall? Hilarious stuff.
DVD of the Week goes to the new three-disc edition of Peter Weir’s beautiful Picnic at Hanging Rock. The film tells the story of the unexplained disappearance of a group of schoolgirls at the titular site and if ever you had to point to cinema as poetry I’m pretty sure you would be hard pressed to find a better example. The set contains both the original cut and the shorter Director’s Cut, a two hour ‘making of’ and loads more.
