Review of Sexy Beast

Introduction

This is one of those movies that you’ll probably tell your mates about afterwards. Not on the basis of being a great movie, solely because of Ben Kingsley`s preformance. It’s a story of a one time thief (Ray Winstone) who has retired to Spain with the women of his dreams. He’s living his idea of the perfect life until a blast from the past, gangster Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), turns up wanting to recruit him for a bank job back in England. Saying no won’t be easy however as Logan is definitely prize headcase material.

It’s hard to know what to make of this movie at first. I suppose the temptation is to group it with the other British gangster movies. The film set’s itself up as part comedy, part crime movie and part love story depending on how you look at it. It’s a Film Four production so I was expect something with a bit of attitude and maybe just a little bit different from the norm.

Video

The anamorphic 2.35:1 picture is clear and sharp, surprisingly so for what probably wasn`t a high budget production. Colours are also rich and apart from one or two moments that were badly lit it’s all very high quality.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track is well implemented. I would have liked just a little more separation across the front speakers but the rear channels are used to excellent effect with some nice spot effects. More could have been made of the music in the movie, it never sounds as powerful and engaging as other movies I could think of, however all in all a good soundtrack.

Features

More extras than you might expect with Deleted Scene, Behind the Scenes, On Location, Interviews and a Theatrical Trailer.

The extras are a bit of a let down however with the Behind the Scenes feature comprising of most of the Interviews so in essence there’s a lot of duplication. When you consider that none of the extras are at all substantial this is a shame. The Deleted Scene (note the singular) is the biggest let down. The Deleted Scene isn’t so much a deleted one but more of a slightly altered version of a scene in the movie and to be totally honest it`s a total waste of time, you’d be very hard pressed to notice any differences.

Although there are, on paper, a fair few extras it’s a shame that they’re so weak.

Conclusion

This movie isn`t that great to be prefectly frank. You see the story itself is a touch on the weak side. It’s not amazingly interesting and seems oddly paced with most of the film passing by before it gets going. What opportunities exist for some more interesting moments are largely missed. A shame as I`m sure that with a little more thought more could have been done with the initial idea.

Also with this being a Film Four production there is of course the standard few moments where you think to yourself “what on earth was that bit about?”. This time they involve a large sort of human/rabbit type creature carrying a gun. Yes you did just read it right, I’m not drunk . . . honest. Whether this is a reference to the sexy beast in the title or some sort of metaphor for the bottled up aggression of Ray Winstone’s character I really don’t know. It’s annoying, unnecessary and just plain weird.

There is also excessive use of swearing and whilst I personally have no real problems with it I know some people who do so this might not go down to well with them.

The cast do, however, save it from extreme mediocrity. They`re all pretty much uniformly spot on throughout with the out and out stars of the movie being Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley. Ray Winstone is largely restrained throughout the movie which is interesting in itself as you can sense that his character’s presence is not usually this subdued. His submission comes at the hands of Ben Kingsley as the total lunatic that is Don Logan. Boy is this one screwed up and genuinely disturbed man. Top marks to Kingsely for swearing with the best of them as well, who would of thought Ghandi could have been so foul mouthed :).

So a mixed bag really. Some enjoyable moments and cool pieces of dialogue along with some excellent performances make it worth watching but I don’t think it’s one I’d recommend purchasing. A Definite try before you by.