Sexy Beast:
There are many things that I have always loved about British gangster movies, and that is that the language is always raw, the villains are always really hard, and you just know that when push comes to shove they will kick the arse of any villains that the Americans (or anyone else for that matter) can come up with. Even when we get the laughs from film like snatch and Lock Stock you still would not want to mess with Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinny Jones) or Brick Top (Alan Ford). But this tradition of British hard men doesn’t start with these fairly recent releases; we have classics such as The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa starring our very own Bob Hoskins that have shown us the hard men of the UK.
Then back in 2000 we had Sexy Beast, and a new British gangster that would mesmerise us, a guy that after watching the film would be the main talking point, a guy that was a complete and utter lunatic that made you laugh nervously even as you watched the film, and no it wasn’t Ray Winstone. So who is this person, this most unlikely candidate? Well you may be surprised to hear (well at least those of you that have not seen this film) that it is Ben Kingsley.
Sexy Beast was recommended to me by a friend, and trusting his judgement I rented the movie. It starts of with Gary (Winstone) and his wife DeeDee (Amanda Redman) enjoying the sunshine of Spain where they have “retired” away from the crime and grime of London. They also have company in the forms of Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and his wife Jackie (Julianne White), and the four of them together enjoy a seemingly idyllic life sunning themselves, eating out and BBQs.
This idyllic lifestyle is shattered when news comes to Gary (Via Aitch) that Don Logan (Kingsley) is coming over to see him, Logan has been tasked by Teddy Bass (Ian McShane) to get together a team for a job and the reason for him flying out is to lean on the now retired Gary to join his team, Gary doesn’t want to do it and sort s out in his head what he will say to Don, the only issue being is that no-one says no to Don Logan.
Personally I thought the movie was pretty good, even if it was not particularly long at only 88 minutes, and fairly uneven in its execution. With the best part of an hour concentrating on Spain in an amusing and laid back way and then the meat of the film coming at the end. But the acting and performances by everyone in the film are particularly strong and it is that which elevates this film from just ok to pretty good. Ben Kingsley steals the shows for me, even though I am a massive Ray Winstone fan, and his acting is very good, Kingsley attacks his sadistic, psychopath character Logan with both hands, expletives pouring from his mouth, his actions leaving the audience moving uncomfortably in their seats and his talk with himself in the mirror confirming his “should be committed” status.
Winstone on the other hand plays a totally different role to the normal gangster I’ve seen him as before. He is believable as a retired cockney gangster who is sick of it all and just wants to be left in peace. He acts submissive, almost scared in Kingsley’s presence which not only increases Kingsley’s screen presence but also ensures that we, the audience cannot really predict what is going to happen next. Even Ian McShane who plays Teddy in this movie gives a great performance as a ruthless crime boss; I had only ever seen him in Lovejoy years ago and did not think that he would be any good in the role of the big boss man. It’s nice to be proved wrong on that score.
The film moves between comedy to love story to crime caper with relative ease, although not lingering in any of these areas for an uncomfortable length of time and makes for a satisfying, if short film.
Picture and Sound:
On my setup the picture was lovely; the 2.35:1 transfer came across crisp and clear in every area. Scenes that were set outside in the Spanish sunshine were rich in colour with no colour bleeding, you can almost feel the heat when seeing Winstone sunbathing. Nor did I detect any noise or enhancements of any kind. Likewise night scenes came across crisp and clean with nice deep blacks and plenty of detail.
Sound wise, the film is mostly dialogue based with the centre and front coming across clear and precise in their delivery I found that I never had to strain to hear what was going on. The odd musical soundtrack used the rears and LFE to good effect
Extras:
Deleted Scene: The padding out of a scene within the film, it didn’t really add much to the overall story.
Theatrical Trailer:What can one say, it’s a trailer!
Behind The Scenes: Delves into the story lines a little more by way of interviews with the main cast whom explain their take on the film.
Poster Gallery: Pictures of posters, great…if you like that sort of thing.
On Location: Shows a few of the scenes being set up and acted, repeats some footage of the behind the scenes extra
Cast and Crew Interviews: Interviews from Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, Cavan Kendall, Julianne White, Jeremy Thomas (the Producer) and Jonathan Glazer (the Director). Again a few bits are repeated from the other areas of the disk. The interviews seem to be cropped into multiple of 30 second cuts this was the one extra that could have been interesting but turns out to be hacked to bits and therefore has lost all its good points.
Overall:
Even with its uneven execution and short running time Sexy Beast is a very good film to watch. I would say it was more of a Love Story than a gangster film though which is something that Winstone touches on in the extras although Kingsley brings a definite air of menace to the role which shocks as it is normally Winstone being the hard man. I will be getting this for my collection although that is more because I am a Winstone fan and I can see it appealing to people that really relish seeing Ben Kingsley in such a role, he really is a lunatic. Elsewhere for fans of gangster films, I am not sure if there is too much there to warrant buying the film. I suggest a rental first and make your decision after that.
In a twist to a comment made in the film. "What was the film like Don" "yeah, it was alright".