In 1971, a fairly inexperienced gang robbed a bank in London, England, by tunneling underneath from another shop. Their specific target was the safety deposit boxes. What they didn't know was that a few different groups had various motives both for and against the gang's success and were manipulating everything from the sidelines.

"The Bank Job" is based in fact but discerning which details are real and which are not is impossible to determine, not that it really matters but we do know that the real Princess Margaret and Lord Mountbatten did play significant roles in this true story. The entire plot actually centers around compromising photos of Princess Margaret.

Terry (Jason Statham) is a small, part time hood who has fallen upon tough financial times. His old friend Martine (Saffron Burrows) arrives in the nick of time and she's got a whopper of a plan to greatly enhance Terry's financial status. The two of them put together a borderline criminal enterprise with their buddies and the bank is their target. Terry soon suspects that Martine is hiding something and he clearly doesn't trust her but for some reason decides to go forward with the plan despite his misgivings. As the story unfolds, MI5, MI6 and the local police all enter, with each group having very distinctively different goals for the band of criminals.

Even though Terry is a low level criminal, his instincts are excellent. No matter what direction the robbery and its aftermath takes, Terry manages to stay a whisker or two clear of the forces closing in on him.

Statham's bread and butter has been movies that feature non-stop action and wonderfully choreographed fight scenes. "The Bank Job" is a chance for him to do a little bit more acting and he carries it off, although he won't be receiving any award nominations for this performance, unless there is an award for the heaviest five o'clock shadow in the industry, assuming it is genuine.

Director Roger Donaldson ("The World's Fastest Indian") has put together a solid cops and robbers piece and it hums along briskly and intelligently. I'd still like to see Statham do some more of his standard beat-em-up stuff but he has demonstrated the acting credentials to pull off this bank job.