Charlie's got a 'job' to do. Having just left prison he finds one his of friends has attempted a high risk job in Torino, Italy, right under the nose of the mafia. Charlie's friend doesn't get very far, so Charlie takes over the 'job'. Using three Mini Coopers, a couple of Jaguars and a bus, he hopes to bring Torino to a standstill, steal a fortune in gold and escape in the chaos.
As a modest fun movie, it works, much helped by deep casting contrasts and a nice sense of absurd proportions.
– ,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
rotten:
Caine and Coward play a splendid game of verbal tennis, but by the final reel the laughs are lost in an anthology of dull and deafening car chases.
– ,
TIME Magazine,
21 Apr 2010
rotten:
The film is technically sophisticated and emotionally retarded.
– Vincent Canby,
New York Times,
9 May 2005
fresh:
The cast does its stuff to good effect. Coward, as the highly patriotic, business-like master crook, brings all his imperturbable sense of irony and comedy to his role.