Sexy Beast - L'ultimo colpo della bestia

Gal is a safecracker now living in retirement in the Costa del Crime in Spain. Safe from the law and living off the money he managed to put to one side when working. When London gangster Don Logan calls a friend to offer Gal a job, Gal intends to refuse it but is faced with telling him face to face when Logan arrives from London offering Gal the job in two days time. As the unpredictably brutal Logan pressures Gal more and more he is faced with the possibility of having to return to England for a job.

I watched this several years after it came out in the cinema so I was sheltered from much of the hype. I'm not a huge fan of all these new British gangster movies that are about of late as many seem to be in awe of `Lock, Stock' and just are happy to copy rather than innovate. Sexy Beast really gripped me for the most part because it doesn't try to copy like so many others. Instead it is very stagey rather than slick and energetic. The plot weakness is that it has nowhere to really go. The `job' itself is pretty pointless and the key moment that is meant to have us on the edge of our seats doesn't really work.

However what does work is the majority of the film where Gal and Logan standoff to each other. This is very dialogue driven but really works mostly because of Kingsley who rightly got an Oscar nod for this. He drives the film with his brutal and unpredictable character. Winstone is good but is almost a support character when viewed beside Kingsley. The support cast are OK with Fox and McShane being interesting but underused castings.

The fantasy scenes are imaginative and the film is very stylishly done without copying off anyone else. It falls a little flat towards the end and the `job' is not as exciting as one would have hoped – basically once Logan `convinces' Gal to take the job the pressure cooker excitement is gone never to be replaced. Up to that point this is quite a wonderful little find.

Ben Kingsley's portrayal of gangster Don Logan is destined to go down as one of the most memorable mobsters in filmdom; up there with the best from Robinson, Bogart, Cagney, Raft, deNiro, Pacino et al. Kingsley's all that good and more. And the other actors, in their portrayals of fellow gangsters and their lovers, are also excellent. The story is simple. Gal (Ray Winstone) is a retired English gangster living a life of leisure at his Spanish villa. Then one day his idyll is shattered by a visit from Don Logan, an old protégé, and man to be feared. Logan's intent is to lure Gal out of retirement for 'one last job'. Gal wants nothing to do with it, and the first half of the movie is a battle of wits between the two men. The second half of the film deals with the heist and its aftermath. The crime is downplayed in the movie which is primarily a psychological exploration of these gangsters; their personal demons, and the relationships amongst themselves. They are indeed scary people, no sympathetic characters here.

This is one of the best movies of 2000, and is highly recommended. I don't understand how IMDb reviewers can rate this movie so low. In my book it definitely rates an "A".

This is one fascinating dark little film. Supported by fierce cinematography, black humour, chilling characters and strong language, 'Sexy Beast' works on many levels. It can be viewed as a conversational film, a study of characters and a psychological thriller. The writing is brilliant as some of the dialogues induce both humour and chill. The screenplay is pretty tight, leaving no place for loose ends or irrelevant subplots. Glazer's direction is wonderful as he keeps the viewer engaged throughout the entire 90 minutes and effectively infuses wicked humour and suspense. The characters are so interesting, while we hate Logan, we sympathize with his counterfeit Gal who is a retired gangster trying to live a straight life with his family and loyal friends. Logan desperately wants him to do a job but Gal bravely yet hesitantly turns it down. Logan won't give up and even he notices that everybody hates him (which is beginning to make him feel powerless). The cast deliver solid performances. Ray Winstone is amazing. He easily conveys Gal's complexity and dilemma with pathos. Ben Kingsley as the hatefully irritating and intimidating Logan is superb. Ian McShane is scary. Amanda Redman is electrifying in a smaller role. 'Sexy Beast' is one slick wicked little film. Not a movie for everyone, but worth watching for those who enjoy black humour and dark cinema.

This is a spectacular piece of British cinema only made better by the lack of Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis.

Ben Kingsley portrayal of a nasty bastard is amazing his delivery is to the point and scary, His character has a slight smile and staring eyes that drill into you and talking himself into a frenzy makes him even more horrible to cope with.

What is shown in this film is very quick editing combined with sound continuity so the cuts are invisible and unintrusive, strong use of colour, using a low key to make even the sun of Spain seem dark and a style unseen before, the lack of cliché ridden cockney slang makes this film even more credible.

When the film first starts we get a dream like underwater shot which you are not expecting, a metaphor for 'living the dream' possibly, but throughout the film the increasing amount of surrealism adds another layer to this almost perfect British gangster film.

Let's assume you are a casting director, there are two roles: one is Gal, a retired safe-cracker enjoying the life of Riley in a beatific villa in Spain with his wife and friends; and the other is his former criminal associate Don Logan, a browbeating, invective-pelting psychopath who wills to recruit him to a new job and will not take no for answer. Then you are given two candidates: Mr. Gandhi himself, Sir. Ben Kingsley and a bovver heavy Ray Winstone, the choice is rather self- evident.

However, that is not the case for UK scenester Jonathan Glazer when he begins to work on his feature film debut SEXY BEAST, who does the obverse, fingers Mr. Winstone for the hapless Gal and Mr. Kingsley for the rivetingly menacing Don Logan, a delectable volte-face rewardingly earns him an Oscar nomination, meantime, Winstone also magnificently brings about an incarnation very different from his usual image, a rough diamond type, graced by the lovey-dovey intimacy between him and his wife DeeDee Dove (Redman), an erstwhile porn star.

It is a taut iteration in the UK gangster genre, the story is nothing too sparkling, it is Glazer's swift and impressive execution takes the full credit. The harbinger arrives in its opening, a boulder falls right in into the swimming pool of Gal's villa (which betrays a sloppy CGI burnished effort), while he is sunbathing under the blistering heat, this portends an impending threat which will disrupt the placidity and imperil those who cannot get away, Don Logan is coming to visit, and he will not be in a pleasant mood if he knows that Gal determines to decline his very generous offer. So sparks fly, but not without a droll war of (swearing) words and things will inevitably get physical, Kingsley's intimidating presence deviously pays off the looming dread simply elicited by the mention of his name, and after an ironical turn of events, he does manage to press-gang Gal into partaking in the action however reluctant he is, to break into a bank vault via water pressure, The suspense isn't swelling during the action, but after, when the head of the criminals, Teddy Bass (McShane, another great villain, less showy but infallibly lethal), a character turns out to be far more ruthless than Don Logan, bluffly tells Gal that "he knows what they did in Spain" and promises he will come to visit in the due future. Well, why there isn't a sequel to this?

Parlaying his reputation as an eclectic music video director into this breakout debut, Glazer has concocted up a stunning-looking fare seeped with robust characterization, pulsating rhythm of montage, scintillating chromatic disposition and optimal pop taste, ultimately transmogrified it into a beguiling conglomerate of romanticism, perversity absurdity and bloody gallows humor like an arch cautionary tale: there is no easy way of going straight, so think twice before you get your feet wet!