Netflix has a load of classic movies coming this February 1st, and among them is one of Jason Statham‘s best films. Just a few weeks after Homefront debuted on the platform, and quickly raced to the top of the charts, the streamer is now adding 2008’s The Bank Job, one of the most well-regarded entries in Statham’s action oeuvre, though it’s one that fans of the Fast & Furious star have mostly overlooked.
The Bank Job is a British heist movie based on a real-life bank robbery that occurred in 1971 in central London. The incident is one of the most famous crimes of the 20th century due to the fact that the stolen money – estimated to be potentially as high as £3 million – was never recovered. What’s also interesting is that the film’s producers claimed to have an inside source – one of the gang members involved in the burglary – who informed them of what really went on.
Statham plays East London gangster Terry Leather, who’s hired by an ex-model (Saffron Burrows) who now has ties to MI5 to infiltrate a bank branch at Baker Street. Unbeknownst to Terry, though, she’s been tasked with retrieving some compromising photos of a British royal that are hidden away at the bank, which are being used as leverage by vicious crime boss Michael X (Peter de Jersey) to keep the authorities off his back.
Sporting an impressive Certified Fresh rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Bank Job is “well cast and crisply directed” by Roger Donaldson, according to RT’s Critics Consensus, and overall is a “thoroughly entertaining British heist thriller.” As a relatively low budget UK release, it didn’t earn much money at the box office, so it’s probably slipped most fans of Jason Statham by. Netflix is the perfect home for it, then, and it’ll no doubt find a lot of love amongst those waiting for Hobbs & Shaw 2.Â
