Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5659 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-03-17
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Synopsis

Award-winning Jonathan Glazer presents his feature film debut with this lushly photographed, expertly written, and brilliantly performed convention-defying gangster film. Sexy Beast jettisons the slickness of the "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" school in favor of intricate character development. In its opening shot, Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone)--a big-bellied ex-gangster with a cockney accent--is sunning himself by the pool at his luxe villa in Spain, when a gigantic boulder hurtles down a hillside, almost killing him. The near miss serves as a troublesome portent, but it hardly affects Gal, who is immersed in his tranquil life with wife Deedee (Amanda Redman), who he adores with earnest fervor. However, Gal's peace is soon shattered by the arrival of Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), a brutal former accomplice looking to recruit Gal for a heist. A battle of wills ensues when Gal refuses to leave retirement, and the frighteningly intense Don refuses to take no for an answer. Glazer expertly heightens the film's tension using shifts in the pacing and flashbacks, while Kingsley and Winstone imbue their characters with gorgeous life.

Customer Reviews

Don Don Don!
A good film worth between three and a half to four stars. What makes the movie - and this is no disrespect to anyone else involved in it's production - is the performance of Ben Kingsley as Don Logan.

Ray Winstone plays Gal, a convincing ex-player from London's gangland, retired to Spain with his soulmate, Dee-Dee (Amanda Redman). Their idyll is shattered by the imminent arrival of Logan, over from Blighty to court Gal for One Last Job. The tension builds well and upon watching the movie for the second time, you can appreciate exactly why Gal, Dee Dee and their two closest friends, feel such terror from one human being.

What is Don? He's a psycopath, a bully, violent, agitated, foul-mouthed, manic and paranoid. Bigger men quake in their boots in his presence but that's not because the script demands it - it's because the viewer's imagination is so convinced by it.

Back in London, after a savage brow-beating, Gal has to contend with Ian McShane's menacing and sinister crime boss, Teddy Bass, and James Fox' foppish portrayal of a banking tycoon. And amidst it all, Gal just wants to turn his back once and for all on this old life and return to the Costa and be with his love, Dee Dee.

Despite everything, this film is a love story. A love of what's really important, a love of staying on top, a love of money, even a love that dare not speak its name. And be prepared to chuckle over the fast, profane soundbites of Don Logan's hatred and bile.

"There's this bloke, who knows a bloke, who knows a bloke."
One thing we can all agree on, whether you hate or love this country, we Brits make great films. We don't churn them out by the truck load like Hollywood. We craft them, we style them. Debut director Jonathan Glazer's "Sexy Beast" is a hand-crafted, tailor-made, idyllic yet unsettling piece of cinema. It's a beautifully photographed and superbly written gangster film, but more vocal than any other film you will have seen before, with the most offensive word in the world used as commenly as 'and' or 'the'. Still, the explicit language is almost poetic in its delivery, and rolls off the tongue in such a way that it becomes almost totally acceptable to even the most tender of ears.

Ray Winstone plays Gary 'Gal' Dove, a now retired, once expert safe-cracker, who resides in his personal paradise, in Spain with his beautiful wife (Amanda Redman) whom he adores more than anything, and their two friends. His love for his wife is evident throughout, especially in a touching scene played in slo-mo to the hauntingly beautiful song "Lujon" by Henry Mancini. Their paradise is suddenly shattered when they receive a call from Gal's former boss Don Logan (the superb Ben Kingsley) regarding a one-off heist. Upon Logan's arrival, a psychological battle of wills and words begins - you don't say "NO" to Don Logan.

Ben Kingsley is outstanding as Don Logan and gives the performance of his career. His quick-witted, quick-thinking manner is cooly challenged by Winstone's Gary Dove who keeps it together for the woman he loves. But Logan is still outnumbered 4 to 1, and they take advantage.

Ian (Lovejoy) McShane also gives a superb performance as a mob boss, probably the most evil man in London, who knows everything, about everything, about everyone.

Sexy Beast is an assault on the senses. It pushes the viewer to the brink with explosive performances, blistering dialogue, beautiful photography, flashes of violence, and elements of comedy, and leaves you glad knowing people like Don Logan always get what's coming to them, in the most spectacular way.