This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Who thought we would ever see a legendary performer like Ben Kingsley play a cunning vicious gangster? In a career spanning five decades, Kingsley has played icons like Gandhi, an accountant in "Schindler's List"and Sherlock Holmes's assistant Dr. Watson in "Without a Clue" among others. The last time Kingsley played a criminal was in the movie "Bugsy" as financial master Meyer Lansky. One thing I can tell you is that in "Sexy Beast", the beast is truly within his character Don Logan. He has the fearfulness of a drill instructor complete with a reddened visage and veins materializing on his forehead, yes he is someone you don't want to to get crossed with. And then there's a chap by the name of Dove (Ray Winstone) who's a retired gangster is residing in a villa in the Costa del Sol region in Spain with his wife Deedee (Amanda Redman), who's a former porn star. He rebuffs to go back to London to take part in a final bank heist set up by Logan's superior Teddy (Ian McShane). Logan is the person who doesn't accept no for an answer which Dove informs our audience and I couldn't agree more. Logan's fearful ways is not based off of his toughness, but because he is an angry tyrant by nature. He has the instincts of a doberman, hard-nosed vicious. He takes the loyalties to please his leader an inject fear to those who cross his path. He has a natural talent for utilizing absurdities in volatile way and shows no apologies about it."Sexy Beast" falls in the annals of movies that centres around Cockney people of England along with "The Long Good Friday" and "The Limey". Along with the lines with the darker underground of London, the characters depicted falls right into place. Dove's a gangster who wants out, Logan's manipulation is to inflict fear, Teddy the ringleader has everything in place for this heist and Harry (James Fox) who thinks Teddy's his lover owns the bank and believes his bank is impregnable. The heist at times seems a bit peculiar once Dove agrees to along with it. The criminals seems to have access to this Turkish bathhouse where the vault is, but they lack common sense being they should have drained the pool so the crooks wear breathing gear to get to the vault which naturally the water fills up which leads to an incredible scene where a crook finds a deposit box hoping it contains something valuable, only to get an unpleasant surprise. The opening scene is really quite an eyeful. We see Dove at the Spanish villa sunning himself by the pool, when all of the sudden a giant boulder comes crashing down and nearly crushes him to death. That scene alone is very metaphoric. Eventually, Dove becomes the boulder by the time the second act turns. Kingsley has demonstrated that he can play any character you throw at him. He is scary, ruthless, manipulative, short-tempered, and feeds of his word with remorseless frustration. I never thought he had it in him. His most cunning was the scene where while on flight from Spain to England, where an attendant asked him not to smoke on the plane and to put his cigarette out. But Logan will not oblige without a fight. That scene was worth the applause from the audience. Ray Winstone turns in great performance as Dove, but just was badly upstaged by Kingsley's performance. Winstone has played fearful brutes as well. Who can forget his scary performance as an abusive father in Gary Oldman's "Nil By Mouth" or in "The War Zone" starring Tim Roth. When these performers want Winstone as their villain, they sure could get it out of him. Dove is portrayed as a gangster going legit, retreating to the softer side of life who can still inject fear among the residence in the villa, but is still frightened by Logan.The humour in this movie is usurped by the thriller this movie depicts. Once the heist is done Teddy (cunning but laid-back) offers Dove a ride to the airport, which has few surprises in itself, part jilted, part ironic. These are tough guys that could make "The Sopranos" take notes from them.

With a cast like Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman and Ben Kingsley there was the thought that 'Sexy Beast' should be a really good film and couldn't go wrong.'Sexy Beast' lives up to its potential as a really good film, and rarely puts a foot wrong. While it may not quite one's definition of sexy, it is certainly a beast and a fine one at that. This is much more than a "Ray Winstone gangster film" as it deceivingly appears on the surface. Instead it is a neat, tense crime thriller that pulls no punches and doesn't hold back, scarily so in fact. While there is a lot to recommend in 'Sexy Beast', it is the performances that carry the film and what makes it as good as it is.Ray Winstone has seldom been more restrained and wisely so, while Ian McShane is creepy in an understated way, Amanda Redman is sensual and fiery and James Fox is solid. Stealing the film is Ben Kingsley who has never been more supremely terrifying than here, making for one of the most unforgettable screen psychos, anybody who knows him best from his gentler roles like Gandhi will still love him in those roles but not see them in the same way again.That the characterisation is meaty, particularly the juicy one for Logan (a dream part for anybody wanting to do something different to usual), and that the material is good helps, but it is more to do with that the cast are strong enough actors to do justice to it.Jonathan Glazer, in his film debut after his background in television adverts, brings slick tension and an audacious visual style to his directing. Visually, 'Sexy Beast' is bold, stylish and colourful, with the idyllic scenery contrasting wonderfully with the tension of the story. The music is suitably pulsating.'Sexy Beast's' script, in a dialogue-driven film, positively blisters and the intense brutality of a lot of it makes the most foul-mouthed Quentin Tarantino films family friendly in comparison. The story, while structurally slight, delivers on the suspense and tension and intrigues, particularly in the riveting confrontational chemistry between Winstone and Kingsley (the former in a way playing second fiddle to the latter).It's not a perfect film by all means. The tension and pacing slackens slightly in the later stages of the film and, although clever and slickly done, the caper subplot gets a little improbable towards being wrapped up.Otherwise, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Whenever someone asks me to provide the showcase example of the actor's process done as close to perfection as one can get, I direct them towards one earthquake of a performance: Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast. It takes a considerable amount of work to fully realize a character, bring them to life, make them seem genuine, lifelike and idiosyncratic so as to win over the viewer and elicit the modernized 'putting down the iPhone to engage with full attention' reaction', but Kingsley's rabid London hoodlum Don Logan is just that creation, and then some. He's not even the lead character either, yet royally steals the film, which earned him an Oscar nomination. The film itself couldn't be more brilliant either, cooked up via a stinging, gorgeously verbose script by Louis Mellos and David Scinto, glossy wit from director Jonathan Glazer and actors who go the extra mile to give a fairly arch story some tangible depth. Ray Winstone, reliably superb, is Gal Dove, a boisterous ex criminal who has retired to sunniest Spain with his sexy wife (Amanda Redman) and best friend (Cavan Kendall). Retirement is tricky for someone with Gal's past though, and soon his past barges through the front door in the form of Kingsley's Logan, a terrifying bald beast of a man that would give any sensible person cause to immediately run and hide in the nearest cupboard. From the moment he shows up, heralded by bad dreams that plague Gal and a literal boulder that cascades down the hill into his villa pool uninvited (hello metaphor), things go from worse to hellish. Logan isn't the type of man to take no for an answer, and is a complete and total nightmare to deal with even before Gal tries to shut him down. Logan wants him for a job in London, organized by shark of a mob boss Teddy Bass (Ian McShane, creepy as all hell), but Gal has no interest leaving the sunny shores and just wants the nutter out of his house. Any time Kingsley is on screen you can feel the tension crackle in the air. He's the unvarnished hyena to Winstone's aloof, relaxed teddy bear, a force to be reckoned with and feared. His use of profanity lands like a backhander from Dwayne Johnson, his body language is erratic enough to induce seizures and that cobra gaze could melt adamantium. He's the penultimate antagonist and raises the stakes to the stratosphere, berating every person in sight and maintaining a cold, detached veneer that's more than slightly disconcerting. Not to mention the guy talks to himself in the mirror, which alone is cause for worry. While the story takes place in our world, there's an off kilter, demonically surreal undertone that derails genre conventions. The artfully dirty, near poetic screenplay, stark visions of some sort of evil Chernobyl rabbit thing, lurid editing transitions, whatever it is it's hard to pin down or describe, but you feel miles from your comfort zone and ever so slightly removed from our solar system while watching this odd, scary, compelling and uniquely peculiar piece of work.

This is an Odd Film with an Even Odder Title. A British Gangster Movie that is One of Their Best. Heavy Accents Aside, it is Refreshing, and Hard-Boiled with Steaming Streaming Dialog and a Black-Comedy Edge with Profane Pronouncements and a Sizzling Performance by Ben Kingsley and the Other Cast Members do Great Work, Especially Ray Winstone and Ian McShane.It has Style to Burn and is a Clever Composite of Character Dimension that is Slightly Unusual. There is a Sweet Side to it All as with the Unconditional Love Between the Ex-Gangster and the Ex-Porn Star.Glitzy and Glamorous, the Film is Offbeat and Offensive to Sensitive Types but it Cannot be Denied the Impact it has had on Fans and Critics Alike. It's Foul Mouth May Turn Off Some but the Dialog is Delivered in a Surreal Fashion with Echoes of Impromptu.Overall, it is a Film that can be Divisive but is Gritty Enough and Different Enough (from the goofy Guy Ritchie Movies) to be Recommended for Fans of Neo-Noir and Character Studies. Great Cast and a Great Debut from a Director that has been Surprisingly Absent. Jonathan Glazer Needs to Make More Movies.