• VIDEO: The Bank Job

The big trouble with the movie bank-robbers of the modern era is they just don't want to get their hands dirty. It's all either high-tech gadgetry or guns in people's faces or money transfers via an internet link.

What we almost never see any more is what we get loads of in The Bank Job - namely, guys on their hands and knees bashing out a tunnel as they inch their way towards a juicy bank vault.

A glorious, superbly mounted throwback to the gritty caper movies of old - and based on a true story - The Bank Job is set in 1971 London. It involves a gang of none-too-bright crims led by granite-faced family man Terry Leather (B-list action man Jason Statham from The Transporter, Crank, The Italian Job, etc.), who are given a golden opportunity given by well-connected naughty girl Martine (a convincingly accented Saffron Burrows).

Directed with a palpable sense of period atmosphere by expat Australian director Roger Donaldson ( Thirteen Days, The Bounty, World's Fastest Indian - and one of the few directors left who knows how to shoot widescreen properly), the film sports an accelerating pace, a fine balance between drama and levity and a neat side story contrasting the dirty politicians and corrupt cops with honest cops and noble crooks who observe the same honour code.

Best of all, though, is that amid the swish cars, gun fights, double dealing, fisticuffs and digging, the film makes good on its promise by delivering a great old-fashioned pay-off where the real villains of the piece get what's coming to them.