If you’ve seen any of Jason Statham’s past films then you’ve effectively seen his newest DVD release, The Bank Job. More The Italian Job than Crank, though, The Bank Job is action packed, but it, too, is not simply a shoot-‘em-up popcorn flick; much thought goes into who the men and women on-screen are and what their motivations are for getting into the line of work that they do. Full of mind games (between characters and with the audience) and twists involving the sordid sexual histories of important government power players, The Bank Job is flashy and sensational in a way that screams Hollywood formula…and yet it was based on actual events.

Directed by Roger Donaldson, The Bank Job attempts an intricate look at the elaborate layers of covert deceit that supposedly went into the United Kingdom’s greatest bank robbery of all time. By all accounts, Statham’s Terry Leather--a man in over his head with some very bad people who gets hired to rob a safety deposit box and unknowingly stumbles onto some compromising photos of members of the royal family--should be a sexy character. He (partially just due to Statham’s bright eyes and wry smile) is somehow soft and gentle (at least by comparisons to some of Statham’s earlier characters) as the “he means well” family man who just got in over his head and is now forced into a new way of life. He flits between puppy dog eyes and suave masculinity, offering subtle hints of the rough and tumble bad guy persona for which women (and, okay, a few men) everywhere have fallen.

The Bank Job tries desperately to be a cool and sexy film, and in most areas it does succeed. Donaldson and his cinematographer, Michael Coulter, capture the essence of the 1970s with everything from shot design to color schemes to focusing on the wardrobe and scenery, all which scream “period piece.” In keeping with the thematic emphasis of showcasing new media and technology, The Bank Job was shot in HD, which gives its images a crisp, clear view of a somewhat hazy world: on one hand, Terry is a petty criminal committing a serious offense, but on the other, he is taking down those far worse than he, and he is doing it for all the right reasons. Most importantly, though, The Bank Job makes the audience yearn to be a part of its world. Even when it is seedy, viewers want to live in that era, and they want to be in Terry’s company.

The use of cutting-edge technology in The Bank Job should also be something about which to get excited. Deemed the “Walkie Talkie Robbery” of 1971, the star of the event is really the ham radio that picks up the crew’s radio signals and clues in the police force. Unfortunately, Donaldson does often choose to linger instead on the extremely literal depictions of what’s sexy on-screen: a topless woman swimming in the ocean, for example, which is an image that opens the film, as well as his female lead, Saffron Burrows, as the temptress who propositions Terry with the job offer. At times the film is a bit gratuitous, but it always feels like an almost surprisingly fresh take on a classic heist formula. Though each crew member (from Stephen Campbell Moore to James Faulkner) has their own backstory that manages to get semi-fleshed out, as a whole The Bank Job follow Terry’s journey, and therefore his friends fall by the wayside a little bit, getting somewhat lost in the stereotypical traps of fictionalizing a real-life drama into an action flick.

The two-disc version of The Bank Job on DVD (Lionsgate Home Entertainment, MSRP: $34.98) includes a commentary by Donaldson, Burrows and composer J. Peter Robinson, which isn’t half bad if you can get past the fact that the film’s star is noticeably absent from the recording session. There are also the obligatory deleted and extended scenes, all of which total out at less than 10 minutes and don’t offer anything that isn’t already depicted in the film in a more succinct way, making it pretty obvious why these were left on the proverbial cutting room floor. The standard behind-the-scenes featurette this time is “Inside The Bank Job,” which is just as straightforward as it sounds but does offer some insight into the project past simple reminiscence or fluffy hype.

However, “The Baker Street Bank Raid” is hands-down the most interesting extra: a featurette for those who are interested in true crime, in addition to cinema’s depiction of such events. It focuses on historical footage and interviews from the 1970s, cutting back and forth between the real-life bank robbery and how it was depicted in the movie.

The only special feature on the second disc is a digital copy of the film, making the few extra dollars you will spend on the “special edition” (the single disc retails for $29.95) entirely superfluous.

The Bank Job is now available on DVD.