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The quoted headline, spoken infamously by Gary Oldman in Tony Scott's "True Romance" (pictured left), popped into my head about halfway through Roger Donaldson's "The Bank Job" (pictured right).  "Bank" is out of control.  And apparently it is white boy day.

The kind of "based on a true story" plot that attaches itself to a movie like Donaldson's is the kind that is entertaining to watch unfold, but in retrospect doesn't really make any logical sense--well it does, but it's more of a logic that certain people who die, die and certain people who need to get arrested, get arrested.  That sort of thing.  There's no real emotional attachment between audience and onscreen players.  When a woman is beheaded in front of an already dug grave, it's more for shock value; there's no pathos.  And what's worse is that it really happened to someone.

This shouldn't stop you from watching "Bank" though.  It delivers on its ads: sex, crime, cheeky bastards.  But its an exercise in predetermined chaos; a frenzy of activity that is on train rails headed toward the inevitable conclusion, to be followed by a loud credit sequence.

And so what began as an initial movie review has derailed into a look back at a more successful film in onscreen chaos: "True Romance."  I can't think of any other movie that features a triple-Sonny-Chiba-feature reference, the late Chris Penn as a good guy and Samuel L. Jackson making 'eating pussy' wisecracks, which all culminates into a final product that not only compelled me to purchase it years ago, but continues to draw me back for an occasional viewing. 

Somehow, in the deeply perverse Tarantino screenplay, there was a certain eloquence to the dialogue and the way the two lead lovebirds (Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette) convinced us to see them as more than a violent Bonnie and Clyde duo; to rather see them as a 90s pop-infused pairing of drifting souls aspiring toward a lost era (Slater's devotion to Elvis, for example). 

The carnage that is climaxed to at the end of "True Romance" held a sort of biblical uprising in its passages.  By the end of "The Bank Job" however, though I was happy to see our lead guys catch lucky breaks, I couldn't help but see frontman Jason Statham tease the audience with promised fight moves for an inevitable "Transporter 3" movie.  I didn't see the exciting climax to an otherwise exhausting plot.

Yet in a current world without a fresh Guy Ritchie flick in theatres, "Bank" proves to be a welcomed but mild return for Statham.  At least he's not in a fucking Jet Li movie.