In 1971, a gang of petty criminals tunneled into a London Bank and made off with the contents of multiple safe deposit boxes. That part of "The Bank Job" is true.

The rest is stitched together from news accounts, gossip and speculation on the part of screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

The result is a straightforward and absorbing heist flick that eschews Hollywood flash and is the better for it.

Terry Leather (Jason Statham) is recruited by an old girlfriend named Martine (Saffron Burrows) with what she says is a fail-safe plan to burgle the bank. The crime will be a huge step up for Terry and his mates, who are more your car thief kind of criminals. With the assistance of a couple of other recruits and a dollop of luck, however, they pull it off.

That's where their troubles begin. Along with millions in currency, the robbers scoop up photos of a royal princess enjoying kinky sex on a tropical isle, a porn kingpin's record of payoffs to bent cops and photos of government mucketymucks cavorting with comely playmates in an exclusive brothel.

Not surprisingly, everyone wants his or her stuff back, and some of them will go to any means to get it. The robbers discover that new wealth palls quickly when you're being hunted by government spies, a murderous porn magnate, an irate madam, corrupt cops and the pimp/drug smuggler calling himself Michael X who had been using the photos of the randy princess to keep himself out of jail.

The bordello photos and payoff ledger were stuffed into the robbers' sacks purely by chance. But Martine has a secret that's soon revealed, and it doesn't settle well with her colleagues.

This isn't James Bond or Jason Bourne. This is a crew of second-rate felons who get in over their heads and pay for it. In fact, at times they're so clumsy that "The Bank Job" has a comical air until it takes a surprisingly homicidal turn toward the end.

The sense of ordinariness is enhanced by the film's grainy, low-budget look and the fact that few of the actors' faces will be familiar to most American moviegoers.

But "The Bank Job" doesn't need bells and whistles or action stars. It relies on its solid story, and director Roger Donaldson and his screenwriters tell it very well.