Last year, between the two of us, we watched an average of 317 movies.
This year our goal is to top that by watching at least one a day.
And as an extra special torture, we've decided to write about all of them.

10 September 2008

Sexy Beast

Director: Jonathan Glazer
Writer: Louis Mellis, David Scinto
Released: 2000
Cast: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman,

STEVE says: Any movie that opens with a song by The Stranglers is going to get a high mark in my book. And that's good news for Sexy Beast. Not that it was a bad movie, it just didn't live up to the hype.

I realized as we started watching it that I knew nothing at all about the movie except that Ben Kingsley was in it. It's been around for eight years and all I've heard was how phenomenal Kingsley was. At what? Well, just being Kingsley, apparently. And he was, certainly. But his Kingsleyness detracted from the rest of the movie. I didn't even know Ray Winstone was in the movie, much less starred in it, such was the Kingsley-mania.

Once you get past that, the movie itself is pretty good, albeit not much more than a neo-noir thriller, a twist on the old "one-last-heist" scenario. I find myself wishing Kingsley hadn't been anywhere near it, as he overshadowed the plot - which I would have otherwise quite dug - altogether. And that's something "Peaches" can't begin to make up for.

2.5/5