Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2780 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

Sexy Best
This is a brilliant British gangster film. Up there with Get Carter,The Long Good Friday et al. It works superbly on all levels. The cast including occasional ham Sir Ben Kingsley are outstanding. Even ex Lovejoy lothario Ian Macshane is pretty good as the metrosexual crime boss Teddy Bass.
Its the best use of a bank job themed film since the original Italian Job.Sexy Beast got a bit lost in the plethora of Brit Gangster flics but it is head and shoulders above them all.The disc has lots of interesting extras. The plot twists and turns,"like a twisty turny thing" and the denoument is sheer class. Buy this film.

"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.

Absolutely gripping.
I get the impression Ben Kingsley did this movie to get as far away from Ghandi as he could. He plays Don Logan, a nutjob of such brooding menace and bantam posturing that you will find yourself tensing during his every second on screen. It is the best performance in the movie but he is run close by Winstone and Redman.

The characters are gangsters but its so much more than a gangster movie, particularly those made by Guy Richie. This is a gangster movie in the same way that the Sopranos is a mafia story and The Wire is a cop show. They only look like that on the surface. The characterisations and subtlety of plot are fantastic.

Unmissable.