Can a movie be too British?

Apparently it can. I saw the original version of the caper movie The Italian Job recently, and it was mildly disappointing, although it does pick up at the end, where the thieves make their escape using three Mini Coopers, which seem to take on personalities of their own in a chase that plays somewhat like a live-action cartoon.

The planning stage of the heist, though, the first hour of the film, is supposed to be amusing, and, while I like British humour -- Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and all that -- the comedy in this film wasn't the least bit funny. Benny Hill (as Professor Peach) probably has the best comedy bits in the film, and even he isn't that funny in it. It's kind of tasteless as well. The Brits seem to find amusing the very concept of cheeky, lower-class crooks pulling off a major job (which was how much of the public reacted to the Great Train Robbers of 1963, come to think of it), and they also respond to the warped patriotism of the situation (the Brits in charge, outwitting the European authorities and the Italian mafia, using British-made motor cars), but without any actual, you know, jokes, it all falls flat if you're a Yank. Until the Mini Coopers are unleashed, which is when, as I said, the movie takes off. The remake did a better job of working in the comedy, but the action sequences in the last half hour of the old one hold up better than the action sequences in the new version. It's probably worth sitting through the build-up to get to the heist sequence, but just barely.