A remake to rave about

The sheer audacity of a Hollywood studio turning a very British cult movie into an American caper might have been considered foolhardy. Remember Sly Stallone's remake of Get Carter? No, neither do I. Yet with The Italian Job, they have succeeded.

The new version bears as much resemblance to the classic 1969 original as Mark Wahlberg does to Michael Caine, but that is not the point. Husband and wife screenwriting team Donna and Wayne Powers have taken Troy Kennedy Martin's original script and deconstructed it in a bid to create a broader international caper that would appeal across the board.

Of course, there are similarities between the two. The Minis, naturally, are still there, used in the concluding car chase to speed through places that other automobiles fear to go - in this case, Hollywood Boulevard sidewalk and down into the Metro Rail subway system.

There is the gang, too, led by Charlie Croker (Wahlberg), with a techno boffin (Seth Green), explosives expert (Mos Def) and wheelman (Jason Statham); Donald Sutherland takes over from Coward as the criminal mastermind, Mr Bridger, in an all-too-brief appearance.

They are joined this time by a girl, in the shape of Charlize Theron, as an ace safecracker, an addition that Caine's boys would never have countenanced. In 1969, birds were good for several things, but safecracking wasn't one of them.

The hidden link between the original movie and the new model is Guy Ritchie, whose Locked, Stocked and Loaded gangster movies caught the spirit of The Italian Job and singlehandedly revived the British comedy-crime movie.

The appearance of Ritchie protege Jason Statham in the new movie, plus the nicknames (Handsome Rob, Left-Ear) and multi-ethnic casting (an African-American, a South African, a Canadian and a Brit) is also typical of Ritchie's work, which has clearly sunk its hooks into Hollywood's subconscious.

It is in the plot that the differences are most marked. The London/Turin axis of the original has now broadened out to include Venice - where the bullion robbery takes place - the Swiss Alps, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, where the second robbery of the movie occurs. And if the first meticulously planned and brilliantly executed heist was a matter of business, the second one is personal, owing to a vicious act of betrayal by one of the gang's members.

While it is unlikely that The Italian Job Mark II will become a classic that is quoted down the years as often as Peter Collinson's original (mercifully, nobody revives Caine's immortal line "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off !", though Caine does make a fleeting appearance on a television screen as Alfie), it is thoroughly sophisticated entertainment, with a terrific script that includes a series of running gags (including one about the Napster), two major set pieces of believable complexity and satisfying symmetry.

Above all, it is smart, funny, wellplotted and performed and as slick as a Vaselined eel. If you have to remodel a classic for a new age, this is the way to do it.