A tale of two capers

Not so much a remake as a totally remodelled and reconfigured machine,

Before I start receiving anguished phone calls about disrespecting Peter Collinson's original 1969 movie, allow me to clarify a few points: The Italian Job Mk I is a classic of its time, a thoroughly Sixties machine down to its sump plug. It was made just after England's historic World Cup victory, at a time when Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson's 'I'm Backing Britain' campaign was at the last gasp - when Swinging London was beginning to realise the party was over.

The idea that not only could you have a Cockney lothario hero (Michael Caine as the fast-thinking criminal, Charlie Croker), albeit with the support of Noel Coward's incarcerated crime genius Mr Bridger, but also Benny Hill as a lecherous boffin, Professor Simon Peach, now seems quaintly absurd, but such was the gusto of the movie that nobody cared. In its way, the film was as much a shameless call to arms for jingoistic British 'culture' as Laurence Olivier's Henry V had been in 1944.

The new film is very different. The boffin is now a computer nerd, Lyle (Seth Green). It is he who manipulates the LA traffic lights in the climactic chase, again conducted with a trio of Minis.

But while F. Gary Gray's film is generally of a much higher calibre than the original, its setting is also more generalised. The use of international locations - Venice, the Swiss alps, Philadelphia and Hollywood - make for interesting backdrops but they don't actually stamp their identities on the movie in the way that London and Turin did in the original.

Moreover, the characters have changed. Caine dominates the original film, with Benny Hill making a feast of his lecherous television comedy personality, but it is difficult to remember the rest of the cast and whom they played. The Mk II version is peopled with several memorable characters. And, being a modern American movie as opposed to a 'period' British one, the girls get a proper role. Charlize Theron's safecracking babe not only performs her allotted task with conviction but also turns out to be an ace behind the wheel of a speeding Mini. The girls in Mk I are little more than dolly-bird window (un)dressing.

Which leaves us with Charlie Croker. The intriguing thing about Charlie is that it takes two actors to replace Caine's original character - Mark Wahlberg and Jason Statham. Unlike Caine's Croker, Wahlberg is cool, concerned, quick-thinking but underplayed - he does not carry the cheeky-chappie mischief of Caine. In the new film those elements have been usurped by the one British member of the gang, Handsome Rob (Statham) who is not only the wheelman but also a great seducer, able to worm his way into the confidences of women who might assist the gang's schemes.

Thus while the first film is a classic icon of British cinema without actually being a great movie, the latest version is a much better movie, but is unlikely to achieve cult status. Collinson's original surfs the Zeitgeist of the period, taking in political incorrectness, cynical manipulation, wanton destruction of expensive automobiles and British xenophobia. The latter-day version is politically correct, the criminals are rendered less cynical by giving them a dastardly double crosser to contend with and the overall action is pumped up into not just one, but several set pieces of inventive complexity.

In terms of remakes it must be accounted a success. In many ways it shares the qualities of the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. The original, with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, was as much a victim as a blueprint of its period. The remake with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo was every inch the superior beast - a sophisticated adult-orientated romantic comedy/thriller which, ironically, was a throwback to the romantic comedies of the Forties.

Given that Hollywood appears to be running out of original ideas, the remake business is proving very profitable. The prime consideration in this game is to ensure that the original movie is worth remaking and then completely deconstruct it for the new, sophisticated audience. The dangers of taking a great original movie and trying to repeat the success are evidenced by the lamentable US remake of Get Carter (Sylvester Stallone stepping into Caine's shoes) and Payback (the Mel Gibson remake of Point Blank). So how the Coen brothers' upcoming remake of The Ladykillers will turn out is anyone's guess. One thing's for sure, though. Now that Hollywood has a taste for it they will continue to remake and remodel. After all, there are 84 different movie versions of Cinderella. Which just goes to prove that there is more than one way to skin, stuff and remount a classic.