Sexy Beast
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Movie Reviews of Sexy Beast
Movie Review: I won't let you be happy
Summary: 5 Stars
These words, "I won't let you be happy, why should I?" are spoken by "Don Logan," homicidal, sociopathic enforcer for London Mob boss "Teddy Bass," AKA, "The Man With The Plan." Logan is the central protagonist in "Sexy Beast," to "Gary 'Gal' Dove," a comfortably retired blagger - bank robber - living in Spain with his wife, and ex-porn star, "Deedee." When not hanging 'round the pool of their villa, Gal and Deedee spend time in bars and restaurants with another couple, "Aitch" - as in the letter "H" - and "Jackie." Aitch is another ex-blagger spending his twilight years soaking up the Spanish sun and living the good life... such as it is.
Gal may be an ex-criminal, a safecracker by specialty, but he's paid the price for one job too many, done his time inside, and he's good people. You can see that by the way he jokes around with the couples pool boy, "ordering" him to clean-up the place while he, Gal, lays around on his lounger, bemoaning the current state of "Dear Old Blighty" and its people, in a somewhat forthright, expletive laden manner! LOL!
The plot of Sexy Beast is as brutally straightforward as is its protagonists. Bass has worked out how to knock-off the most lucrative, most secure vault in London, outside of the Bank of England, and he wants - doesn't necessarily "need" mind you, but for his own reasons wants - Gal in on the job. Gal, as we know, is retired, unfortunately for him he's definitely wanted, and Don is dispatched to bring him back... one way or another.
The first time we hear about Don is when Gal, Deedee, Aitch, and Jackie, sitting in their favorite restaurant, discuss the phone call Jackie received from London letting her know he'd be flying out to see them shortly. Like "Kaiser Soeze" in The Usual Suspects, Don is a character of fearsome, almost mythic reputation, but unlike Soeze, there's no doubting the existence of Don; a real-life bogeyman, monster, psychopath, capable of acts of the most extreme violence in return for little or no provocation. As the foursome sit 'round their table, appetites suddenly gone, their hushed and plainly frightened tones tell us all we really need to know about Don Logan.
Next we see Logan being driven out to Gal's villa from the airport by Aitch and Jackie. They ride in silence, Don looks out the window at the passing countryside with the dead, emotionless eyes of a shark; Aitch and Jackie make sure they give Don no reason to talk to them. They pull up outside the villa, Gal nervously comes out to greet his unwelcome visitor, but Don is not happy, he doesn't like the heat, he's sweating, and he announces his displeasure to those present with a stream of profanity laced invective that would make a drunken sailor blush! (I watched this with a friend a while back, and his reaction to this scene was classic, the shocked look on his face said it all; "WHAT?!?!?! This is the guy who won an Oscar playing Gandhi?!?!?!" LOL!)
The film has a wonderful ensemble cast, but is dominated, and rightly so, by Ben Kingsley's terrifying, murderously savage portrayal of Don Logan, perfectly described in the Amazon Editorial above as, "human nitroglycerine;" everyone around him avoids making eye contact, as if he was a rabid dog. Ray Winston, as Gal, gives another one of his seemingly effortless performances of an ordinary bloke - no saint, but not "bad" either - who you'd buy a pint for if you met him down the pub. And a special mention must go to Ian MacShane as the mobster Bass, all hooded reptilian eyes and blank face, who's act of coldly executed murder towards the end of the film is just as shocking as Logan's frequent outbursts of hysterical violence. Kudos also to Amanda Redmond as DeeDee, Cavan Kendal as Aitch, and Julianne White as Jackie.
Sexy Beast comes from a long line of venerable British gangster films such as Michael Caine's original Get Carter, and the incendiary debut of Bob Hoskins in The Long Good Friday. So be warned, there's a rawness, and an in-your-face brutality about the film that you don't find in most US movies, especially in the script, the one exception I can think of at the moment is the NC17 version of Bad Lieutenant. (Also, American viewers may want to switch on the subtitles at least initially, 'til your ears become accustomed to the strong Cockney accents! LOL!) Needless to say, this one is HIGHLY recommended!
Movie Review: Hunter. Hunted.
Summary: 5 Stars
Gary "Gal" Dove has found bliss in retirement; Nirvana in the sun-drenched blistering heat of the Costa Del Sol, Spain. His hillside villa is a billion miles away from his old life: safe-cracker and thug in gloomy old England.
Within seconds of landing into the arid, teeming battleground of "Sexy Beast", we see Gal Dove (Ray Winstone, ying to Ben Kingsley's yang---see below) supine, 250 pounds of Yorkshire fat, happily simmered and broiled, and long-relaxed muscle, happily slack upon his lounger, baking by the pool.
Happy. Reflective. Content.
He lumbers up from his lounge-chair, snug in a Euro nad-hugger speedo (as only a happy man can carry off without shame), and starts to launch his portly bulk into the pool. Seconds before he does, a boulder, tumbling from the Andalusian heights, thunders inches away from him into the pool.
That's what they call Foreshadowing.
The boulder, of course, is the Emissary of the Devil, already on its way to Gal Dove's retreat. The Name of this particular Devil is Don Logan (Ben Kingsley, the very incarnation of Rage and the movie's black heart), and he does Hell a credit.Stop the tape a second. Don Logan shows up at Dove's Spanish villa, maybe hours after the boulder pays its respects to Gal's swimming pool.
Logan is preceded by the Dread Black Spectre of his Reputation: everybody Dove knows---his wife and former porn star DeeDee (Amanda Redman), his hapless gin-drenched mate Harry (James Fox), Harry's wife Jackie Julianne White)---all of them know Logan. His wrath is legendary.
Sometimes, God knows, it's hard to say "no" to Don Logan.
Now: you see this flick for three reaons: 1) Ben Kingsley 2) Ben Kingsley 3) Ben Kingsley. When Kingsley's off the screen, frankly, you can turn off the DVD and go to sleep. Well, you'll wanna find out what happens, but Kingsley, one of the greatest actors of any age and doubly admirable, in my estimation, because he takes work whenever he can get it (from "Gandhi" to "Species", from "Schindler's List" to "Bloodrayne"---some sneer, I respect)---Kingsley electrifies.
He owns "Sexy Beast", consumes it, dominates it with his legend before he enters the picture, stuns, terrifies, brutalizes, bullies his way into sheer and complete hegemony over every living soul on or off the screen when he's in the picture. Don Logan rules, and Kingsley brings him to life: this skinny, wiry, muscular, tattooed, aggressively in-your-face bald, snapping, hyper-kinetic little creature of hate and hell and fury.
He runs "Sexy Beast", he owns this movie: and---he demands---on the part of his crime boss---that Dove return to the world of crime and hate and potential prison time for ONE LAST HEIST.
You've heard that before? Good. Dove doesn't wanna go. Who would blame him? He's happy, for once in his life, and he's relatively safe. I lived for a while in Andalusia; I knew men like Gal Dove. Dove drinks. He lounges. He soaks up rays. He's plump, flabby, soft. You think he can stand up to Logan, the very incarnation of the blood-soaked and hungry-for-more avatar of War?
You'll see. What's the butcher's bill for Paradise?
Anything more than that and I'll spoil your fun: suffice it to say that when Kingsley is on-screen, the flick is electric; absent the sneering, snapping Logan, and things drag a bit---but they're still intriguing, in a "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" kind of way. But Kingsley brings this sick little gutter masterpiece to life: he makes you flinch. He is brutal, possessive, dangerous, monstrous, insanely funny. I'd hire him, or buy him a drink, or mebbe even befriend him, but then I'm as much a monster as he is.
Truth is, Kingsley is so good, so brutal, so crackling with cruel insane energy, that he basically chews up the flick: he's like a Black Hole, draining everything else white. But it would be wrong to say the other members of the cast don't hold up: they do, in spades. You'll see. Winstone, particularly, is good; stoic, steady, oddly pathetic and noble. Ian McShane, of course, turns in a role as a mafioso sleaze. Dove, Harry, and pool-boy Enrique (the impossibly glorious Alvaro Monje) go hunting a rabbit; that same rabbit---with a few modifications and a better arsenal---returns to Gal Dove in dreams. The Hunter becomes the Hunted.
Now that's a Sexy Beast. Indeed.
JSG
Movie Review: Two deranged rabbits and evil Gandhi in the same year!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ben Browder, at a Farscape convention (yes, I am a huge geek), recently explained what makes a great actor:
"The doctor's coming into a room. But he's not there yet. Actor #1 says: Get the doctor! Actor #2 says: The doctor will save him! Actor #3 says: Here he comes! And we know without a doubt that the person who enters the room next is a doctor, and he hasn't spoken a single word."
Ben's point was that memorable characters are formed by interactions with other actors. Which is why it's silly to give just one person kudos for a particular part, because all the actors who interact with that character help make that actor's character believable. And therein lies the beauty of Sexy Beast.
Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) doesn't show up for the first half of the film. What we see instead are the straw lives of four other people that hurricane Don will blow to pieces. There's Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone), a big shlub with a bad tan and tight swimming trunks. He is madly in love with his attractive wife, Deedee (Amanda Redman). They seem to spend all their time hanging out by the pool, chatting about very little of substance, with another overly tanned chap named Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and his stunner of a wife Jackie (Julianne White).
Until Don shows up.
As it turns out, what we thought were just a couple of middle-class folks living the retiree life turn out to be washed up, worn out criminals and ex-porn stars. And unfortunately for Gal, his life has finally caught up with him in the form of Don.
Winstone and the rest do a fantastic job of exhibiting bone numbing, pee-in-your-pants fear. They are nearly paralyzed by the thought of Don showing up and terrified of saying no to him. Because of course Don wants poor Gal for one last job. But Gal has good reason not to want to play along; he has enough money, a beautiful wife, and he was in prison for the last nine years. His love of the sun, of the simple things, is understandable.
Doesn't matter though. Don is coming to town.
When he finally shows up, Kingsley does an excellent job of making Don as horrible as we feared. He's a psychopath of King Kong proportions; a snarling, spitting, peeing (yes, peeing) pit bull in human form that chomps on everything within reach. The rest of the film follows the job itself, a dark tale of a crime boss (Teddy "Black Magic" Bass, played by Ian McShane) who wants to break into a vault to prove he's a better man.
Sexy Beast's parallels to Donnie Darko, which came out the same year, are uncanny. Both characters begin radical when a massive object (a boulder in Sexy Beast, an airplane engine in Donnie Darko) smashes into their lives. And both characters have a deranged man-rabbit hinting at darker things to come.
Oh, I'm sorry. You didn't hear about the rabbit part? A lot of reviews seem to skip it.
Scattered throughout the film (three times, to be exact) are references to an uncredited, angry rabbit in human form. He haunts Gal's nightmares. He represents everything that Gal is and was, and could be. It's telling that the rabbit-man only appears after Gal and Aitch try and fail to shoot a rabbit at point blank range. Everything goes wrong...even the rifle falls apart. Accompanying them on their hunting trip is their hired help, a young boy who remains mute for the entire film. He's his own rabbit and it turns out he's one of the few people willing to stand up to the scary hunter.
Indeed, if there's a moral in this film, it's that God favors the meek. Sometimes it's because the strong don't think they're a threat. Sometimes it's because the meek get lucky. And sometimes, it's because the meek grab sticks and gang-beat the strong to death.
A fantastic, tightly focused film that deftly wields profanity and terrified looks with the same measured approach. The director, Jonathan Glazer, knew what he was doing when he cast Ben Kingsley. You'll never look at Gandhi the same way again.
Movie Review: No Is Not An Answer!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like gangster flicks, especially of the Cockney 'firm' variety, then you need to see this movie. SEXY BEAST is a fantastic but underrated indie classic. Like some of the other reviewers, I could watch this movie over and over again.
Gal Dove (Ray Winstone) is a retired London mobster now living in Spain, going to fat in idyllic bliss with his former porn actress wife Dee Dee (Amanda Redman) and their best friends, a married couple they've known from when they were back in the life. Into their domestic paradise enters Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), another 'old friend,' showing up unannounced, telling Gal he has a job for him and "No is not an answer."
Logan is one of those small wiry guys who make up for what they lack in height and muscle with an extra dose of psychotic meanness. Crime boss Teddy Bass (excellently played with menacing reticence by Ian McShane) is planning an ambitious heist on a prestigious bank, Logan is to help assemble the crew. Logan wants Gal in on the job and, as far as he's concerned, he's already made Gal's mind up for him. For Logan it is only a matter of how little stroking he will need to do before he strikes.
In one scene, it's late and everyone is in bed, except Logan who is in the bathroom shaving. Standing in front of the mirror he starts thinking about Gal's refusal earlier in the evening. He begins muttering. Needing to relieve himself, he continues thinking and muttering as he urinates all over the floor. By now, having worked himself up into a rage, he runs out the bathroom with shaving cream still on his face, down the hall and, screaming "No! No! No!" storms into Gal and Dee Dee's bedroom kicking and punching the poor man out of his own bed.
Another scene in the movie shows Logan sitting on a plane which will soon depart. Thinking nothing of consideration for fellow passengers, or rules and regulations, he lights up a cigarette. When one of the passengers mildly protests, Logan calmly but coldly informs the man that if he must put out the cigarette, he will be putting it out on him. When a flight attendant intervenes, Logan gets up, grabs his bag and --after telling all onboard he hopes the plane crashes and they all die-- demands to get off. After being removed and brought to airport security, Logan explains to the security officer the incident was all a case of nerves. He concocts a tale about a male flight attendant groping him while boarding! With a straight face, he tells the man that he felt violated and was literally in shock, not even realizing he was smoking a cigarette! Of course, he doesn't wish to make a fuss about any of it and would just like to leave and forget the whole thing.
He walks out the airport, right into a taxi and back to making Gal's life hell. I couldn't stop laughing!
Ben Kingsley does for SEXY BEAST what Joe Pesci did for GOODFELLAS. Both portray sociopaths, incapable of true consideration and comapassion. The way they selfishly crash through life is so disturbing it's comes off comical.
Not giving too much of the story away, but Gal does return to London to do the job. However, not for the reasons you might think. Instead, something occurs which makes Gal feel it necessary to get to London, complete the job and return to Spain quickly as possible. Ian McShane is brilliant in this final segment of the film.
Movie Review: Brutal and Nerve Wracking...And That's Just Kingsley
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a tough, hard movie about a retired safe cracker who is recruited for one last job. It also is funny and uncomfortable in equal measure, with excellent performances by Ray Winstone as the cracksman and Ian McShane as the man behind the job. Most of all, it has a mesmerizing and powerful performance by Ben Kingsley as Don Logan, all barely bottled resentment and anger as the muscle sent to recruit the Winstone character for the job.
Gal Dove (Winstone) has retired from crime and now lives in a villa on the coast of Spain with his wife, who has also retired, in her case from the porn business. They're easy going working class people who just want to bake in the sun and swim in their pool. One morning while Gal is sunning himself, listening to music, a huge boulder shakes loose from the hill above him and comes rolling down toward him. He doesn't see it and doesn't hear it. It barely misses his head and crashes into the pool.
A little later he learns that Teddy Bass (McShane) is sending Logan from London with an offer to buy into one last safe-cracking caper. Logan is more dangerous and lethal than the boulder would ever be. Logan sees everything as a possible affront or a deliberate insult. He's got half a screw loose. He can work himself into a rage in an instant. Just having a drink with him is nerve wracking. When Gal declines the offer, Logan's temperature rapidly starts going up. At one point, late at night while Gal and his wife are sound asleep, Logan wakes up to take a leak in his bathroom. He stands in front of the toilet, starts urinating and quickly talks himself into a rage. He deliberately moves so that he's peeing onto the floor. Then he charges into Gal's bedroom, wakes them up and is almost incoherent with what he seees as the insult of being turned down. It's sort of funny, but frightening. Kingsley gives one of the performances of his life. He is screwed so tight anything can set him off. His Don Logan is muscular, staring, almost rigid at times.
Gal quickly sees that he must join the gang in London or there is no predicting what Logan would do to him...or to his wife and their two friends. The rest of the movie is basically the underwater break-in from a pool in a turkish bath to the vaults of the next door bank. Logan is dealt with satisfyingly, but only after it looks like he will kill a young pool boy at Gal's villa. Gal gets back to Spain by the skin of his teeth, because Bass may suspect what happened to Logan but he really doesn't care.
Ray Winstone does a great job as the retired safe cracker. All he wants is peace and quiet and to enjoy the fruits of his labor with his wife and his friends. He's just a working class guy who does what he must, but who is a little shrewder than many would give him credit for. Ian McShane, on the other hand, does just as good a job, but his character is absolutely ruthless. He can be charming, with a smile that seems genuine. But the eyes are dead. You wouldn't want to cross him. He could turn Tony Soprano into hash.
This is a satisfyingly brutal, funny and ironic movie. The DVD transfer is first rate.