The Italian Job

Reviewed by Sheryl Vias
May 2005

Developer: Climax Studios Website: Click Here Publisher: Eidos Interactive Platform(s): PS2, XBOX, GameCube, Playstation, PC Players: 1-2 ESRB Rating: T (Teen) Review Rating: 7 out of 10

Speeding right from the movie screen to your very own TV, The Italian Job will let you relive the car chases and wheel gripping action in the comfort of your home. Sticking right to the essential elements of the movie, this game will have you dreaming of owning your own hot little Mini Cooper – or pull a fast paced heist of your own. Either way, it's all about "Get In. Get Out. Get Even."

When a movie makes you dream about owning your own Mini Cooper S, it's a good action-packed movie. When a video game makes you drive around L.A. like a speed demon, either it's a good game… or you're a loser whose nieve little mind is easily influenced. Whatever the case, the Italian Job, brought to you by Climax Brighton and Eidos, is a very good rendition of the film of the same name.

The game takes the key story points plus the action of the car scenes, and adds them up to a solid game title. In Italy, Charlie Croker and his gang pull of an ingenious heist involving a whole lot of gold. One of his team members, Steve, betrays them and runs off with the gold, not before he thinks he's killed them all. In the game, the story mode follows the movie perfectly, picking up where Charlie meets with Stella, a year after the Italian job. Charlie is out to get even with Steve and get back the gold. Queue the mad car chases and speed spiked missions. Vroom!

While the game is an interactive version of the movie, minus Marky Mark and his criminal bunch, it is not as impressive as the movie. The intro is nice. Paramount graciously consented to have scenes of the film cut in with the pixel scenes of the video game. At first I was a little disappointed, since it made me think that the animated scenes looked generic against the real thing. However, during the game it grew on me and I didn't mind looking at what I initially thought were the storyboard images for the movie. And the voice narrative? It's NOT Marky Mark for sure. An untalented monotoned voice actor? Yup.