Salon.com's Italian Job Review

Rarely do film reviewers praise product placement. Generally it's a point of annoyance at best and one of contention at worst. But Senior Writer Stephanie Zacharek at Salon.com was so taken by the MINI's appearance in the Italian Job she closed out her review with four paragraphs of pure praise. Here are some excerpts of the review:

“But the real star of “The Italian Job” is not a person but a car. The most exquisite action scenes in the original picture involve three Mini Coopers, one red, one white and one blue…

..The Mini Cooper has recently had a marketing push in the United States, so the more cynical moviegoers out there will probably assume that its presence in the new “Italian Job” is just a marketing ploy. But should we care? This is product placement as pure pleasure. What's more, the Mini is essential to the spirit of both the first “Italian Job” and this one. Even souped up, it sure isn't a fast car, relatively speaking — it's more Little Engine That Could than hot rod. But that fact alone meant that director Gary Gray, his cinematographer Wally Pfister, and his stunt crew had to reimagine the notion of what a car chase means today.

And so the chase scenes in “The Italian Job” are the most exciting ones I can remember seeing in a movie in a long time, probably because they're the only ones I can remember — and that's saying something. …The Mini has the agility and determination of a garden bug.

And that's not even taking into account the look of it. Like the best sort of boyfriend, it's funny and sexy, a motorized cartoon of the Barry White line “Ain't what you got babe, it's how you use it.” I have no idea what it's like to drive one. But I do know that the male colleagues seated on either side of me at the screening sighed audibly the first time they saw Stella's glossy lipstick-red Mini zipping along a city street. It was as if the young Brigitte Bardot had dropped in for a guest appearance. The colleague to my right, who'd never seen a Mini, said, “What is that?” And as my husband later noted, the Mini is the car for guys who don't even like cars that much. By the same token, “The Italian Job” is the action movie for people who don't even like action movies that much. Small and steady, it wins the race with brains, not brawn

If you have time go check out the entire Salon.com review. You need to be a Salon.com member or view a short flash based commercial but it's a worthwhile read.