Sexy Beast
2000 Directed by Jonathan Glazer
Synopsis
There's a bit of the beast in all of us.
Gary is a former gangster who has made a modest amount of money from his criminal career. Happy to put his life of crime behind him, he has retired with his wife Deedee to the sunny bliss of rural Spain, where he lives an idyllic life with his family and a few close friends. But Gary's contentment is ruptured by an unwelcome visitor from his past. Don.
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Film #2 in Driver’s December Death Penalty AKA The December Project , which is part of Cinebro's The December Challenge. 1 month, 100 movies.
89 minutes
"Shut up, c**t. You louse. You got some f**kin' neck ain't you. Retired? F**k off, you're revolting. Look at your suntan, it's leather, it's like leather man, your skin. We could make a f**king suitcase out of you. Like a crocodile, fat crocodile, fat bastard. You look like f**king Idi Amin, you know what I mean? Stay here? You should be ashamed of yourself. Who do you think you are? King of the castle? Cock of the walk? What you think this is, the wheel of fortune? You think you can make your dough…
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After only one viewing (and now, over two months later), I'm not sure what to say about this, except that I loved it. A kissing cousin to one of my favorites, 44-Inch Chest, Sexy Beast is a blistering, stunning thrill. Give me these swings on the gangster genre any day. Give me darkness, or give me bright blues and golds, blood and dirt, sunburns and white leather. Give me Ray Winstone, always, with his voice and his ferocity and his tenderness. Give me Ben Kingsley as a fucking psychopath. Give me stylized, stylish violence, and tense, lyrical sequences. I want it all, and this movie has it.
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Film #22 of The Damned December Project
This was my first time watching Sexy Beast, and oh buddy is it a sexy beast. Never has Ray Winstone looked so gold and young! Never has Sir Ben Kingsley been so fucking amazing. Never has a heist scene been so original. Never has a British Crime Drama been so different and beautiful.
The confidence of the direction is hard to dispute. There are amazing scenes with amazing shots. The acting is inspired, the editing is really cutting edge. But the thing that strcuk me the most about the directing was the transition shots. A jet engine, the sound of an elevator, a huge furry bunny rabbit man, filling a pool with water.…
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Film #33 of The December Project
I'm not gonna lie, I watched this based on the poster and title combo alone. Sexy beast (or lobster), indeed! This film is much more serious in tone than I expected, even though I had a fair number of laughs throughout. The relatively small story is about a retired thief/gangster named Gal who has settled into his new Spanish villa and is enjoying the hell out of life. When his former boss/mentor wants to bring him in for one last job, he resists, but the guy is so scary he doesn't really have a choice but to say yes.
Ben Kingsley as Don Logan is the baddest ass in the history of badasses. He's…
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Sexy Beast is an endlessly entertaining and deliciously vulgar black comedy. Typically hot-headed Ray Winstone is given a more subtle performance as ex-con Gal Dove, which he delivers nicely. But, my lord, Ben Kingsley performance as sociopathic gangster Don Logan is a sardonic treasure. His entire dialogue consists of profane and violent rants that are simultaneously scary and hilarious. Unforgettable. The plot takes a back seat to Jonathan Glazer's lively stylization and the chaos that Logan creates wherever he goes. The last act actually shifts focus to the often mentioned robbery and finally allows Ian McShane to get in the game as sinister crime boss Teddy Bass. Together Kingsley, Winstone and McShane give three great performances, but this is certainly Kingsley's show. There are also two great montages and also two eery dream sequences that show off Glazer's visual talents. A wonderfully strange take on the typical gangster film.
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So...as I understand it...
Lovejoy owns this business where he sends Gandhi out to Spain to see the Bet365 booky, to ask him information about the 'in play market'.
It gets a bit heated and sweary, and ends in tragedy and a new swimming pool design!Also posh brains get splattered up a mahogany door.
WATCH THIS FILM.
YES.YES.YES.WATCH IT.YES.YES.YES.NOW
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Yes, it's a British gangster film. Yes, it stars notorious cockney geezer Ray Winstone. Yes, it has lots of passive aggressive language and tones. It pretty much ticks all the boxes required for a film of this kind to be thought of as generic, clichéd and uninspiring.
So. Why then is it so bloody good? Is it because Ray Winstone is actually showing why he is thought of so highly as an actor, despite spending most of his time in films shouting through gritted teeth in his gruff voice all manner of threats as "that gangster bloke"? Maybe it's because Ben Kingsley is so absolutely fantastic as the psychotic, constantly on the verge of snapping, absolute nutter? Or because it's…
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Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley were fun but this wasn't anything special.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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Damn, Gandhi! You scary!
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Ben Kingsley is a psychopath. Holy shit.
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Kingsley kind of filled me with dread. As did the bunny monster. As did Al Swearengen.
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"A decent British gangster flick with a brilliant performance from Ben Kingsley & a good performance from Ray Winstone in a rare non-tough guy role."
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The first two acts are wonderful. The decisions while writing this film are genius in the way that it is paced and plays out like no other "come out of retirement for one last job" noir heist film which essentially, it is. It's so rare to see a film like this not being about the score but about the characters and is all the better for it.
The opening shots are beautiful and really pave the way for how off-kilter this film becomes. The performances are brilliant. I love Ray Winstone and I am pleased to see he is capable of playing the main as opposed to the right-hand-man he seems to play in every film. Ghandi's performance as psychopathic…
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Keine Ahnung, was der Film eigentlich wollte. Ich fand ihn mehr als enttäuschend.