THE ITALIAN JOB (1969) **1/2 A film is three nicely done acts. Act I is a slick gangster caper set up solidly between tongue in cheeck, with several bits that remind you what's great about Michael Caine and Nöel Coward. Not their greatest work, but scenes that make use of their greatest skills. Benny Hill steals the best scenes by assuring that there's more...a lot more...to life than mere greatness. Act II is at least arguably a car chase for the ages. Most commonly compared to the corollary scene in Bullitt, this one distinguishes itself with wit and whimsy and creative eye-winking at the camera and the viewers' sense of possibility. Worthy and notable, but not nearly as great as the chase scene in The Blues Brothers. Act III is essentially a feel-good and extended music video. I don't particularly like music videos for the most part, but this one gets you humming along and fits everything that goes before it. The coda plays at existentialism and ‘60s European cinema in much the same way that earlier scenes played at other genres: well, but with an affected over-confidence that betrays either a lack of ambition or priorities centered on something akin to slick and practiced happy hour philosophizing.
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