Jason Statham returns once again as a thieving scoundrel in “The Bank Job.” It is the latest film from director Roger Donaldson whose credits include “Species,” “The Recruit” and “The World’s Fastest Indian.”

In “The Bank Job” Terry (Jason Statham) is a used-car dealer in 1970s London trying to break away from a dishonest life and become legit. But when an old friend named Martine (Saffron Burrows) comes around with a job that will be a big enough score for him to retire comfortably with his family, Terry jumps back into his criminal life.

What Terry and the team he assembles don’t know is that Martine has been blackmailed by MI6 to rob the specific bank because the agency wants them to steal certain compromising photos of a royal family member so they are not blackmailed themselves by a gangster named Michael X (Peter De Jersey).

After robbing the bank Terry and his buddies find out about the plan by MI6 as well as discover a few other things in the vault that get the mob and crooked police after them as well as the good police and MI6. Terry is in serious trouble now and he must find a way to fix everything and please the right people so he and his friends can get away.

Statham does his standard tough guy performance for this movie, but he does it very well. There is some really cool dialogue between him and one of the gangsters as he negotiates the release of one of his friends. He basically makes the gangster look like a jerk while still ensuring that his buddy doesn’t get killed or tortured anymore.

Burrows is very sexy as Martine. She also displays guilt well once the team finds out she has used them to steal the revealing photographs of the princess.

Other members of the cast include Daniel Mays who plays one of Terry’s friends. There are some funny scenes where he talks about his “film” career which is less about acting and more about exposing.

There’s also Richard Lintern who plays the MI6 agent who is in contact with Martine. He isn’t quite James Bond but he does act smooth like he wishes he was.

There are many more cast members in the movie. Many of them are unrecognizable to American audiences but they are all very skilled and none of them detract from the film.

“One of the real challenges of making the film was putting a cast together that you didn’t lose track of who you are following, hopefully, and didn’t get the characters confused with any other characters in the film,” Donaldson said in a “Q” and “A” after the film.

It was remarkable that you really don’t get confused about characters. Almost everyone in the film has a very distinct look or face that distinguishes them. So with all the different factions chasing Terry and his gang you can always tell who the gangsters are and who the cops are.

Overall the movie does a good job of being suspenseful. Donaldson’s direction is probably the first reason for that. He keeps the audience’s attention by making it hard to guess what will end up happening at the end and who will live, die or go to jail.

It is the kind of movie where doubt is cast on the ending. You never only think that there will be a happy ending where all the robbers get away like in “Ocean’s 11.” It’s very possible not all of them will make it out of the movie alive and that creates some great tension.

The screenwriters, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, had quite a bit of room to imagine how things happened since not much is known about what happened in this true story. Of the robbers that got away in real life, they were probably hard to find and not willing to talk about what really went on. Also, the people who lost their possessions in the robbery all had their things in safety deposit boxes so they were mostly unwilling to disclose what they lost. However not everything was changed or made up.

When asked about what made it into the movie intact from the actual robbery Donaldson talked about this scene: “A ham radio operator intercepted … the communication between the robbers and the vault that they were robbing and pretty much as in the movie called in the police. The police at first were skeptical about what was going on and then finally were convinced a bank was being robbed.”

That scene happens in the movie just as he described it. Donaldson also said that just like in the movie the cops showed up to the actual bank but could not get in and check if it was being robbed because of a time lock that wouldn’t open until Monday morning.

So while some elements had to be made up, probably most of the dialogue outside of the robbery scenes and the character development, some of the film is quite true to what really occurred.

It is admirable that they did not take the opportunity to paste “based on a true story” on the movie and then completely change everything around.

Donaldson also said, “The person from whom the story came is an interesting character who I’ve met. It’s hard to tell who he is exactly. He may well be one of the bank robbers.”

Getting to a source like that really shows how dedicated Donaldson and the screenwriters were to making this movie right. It can’t be easy finding someone who may still be wanted by the British government.

“The Bank Job” is a very fun movie. It’s got all the necessary parts that a heist thriller needs: the quirky team, sexy girls, an almost foolproof plan, suspense and a very big payoff. It isn’t quite “Ocean’s 11” but it’ll get the job done if you’re looking for something like that.

Luke Soin can be reached at [email protected]