The Italian Job (2003 film) film upon which it was based. "BusinessWeek" reported in April 2004 that sales of the Mini in 2003—the year in which "The Italian Job" was theatrically released—had increased 22 percent over the previous year. A sequel to "The Italian Job", tentatively titled "The Brazilian Job", was in development by the summer of 2004, but has since faced multiple delays. Principal photography was initially slated to begin in March 2005, with a projected release date in November or December 2005. However, the script was never finalized, and the release date was pushed back to sometime in 2006, and later summer 2007.
The Italian Job (2003 film) Jack Mathews gave "The Italian Job" 2.5 stars out of 4, writing that the action sequences and plot twists were a "vast improvement" from the original, and that the Los Angeles heist sequence was "clever and preposterous". Mike Clark of "USA Today" also questioned the probability of the Los Angeles heist sequence and wrote that the film was "a lazy and in-name-only remake", giving it 2 stars out of 4. Peter Travers, writing for "Rolling Stone", gave "The Italian Job" 1 star out of 4, describing the film as "a tricked-out remake of a heist flick that was already flat