The Limey

I was suffering from a particularly bad cold when I watched this film and both it's commentary tracks so forgive me if the review is a little hazy in places. At the time I just couldn't stand to watch anymore daytime television so I thought I'd do something constructive with my recuperation time, so here goes.

The basic plot involves a British ex-con named Wilson (Terence Stamp) who goes to L.A. to find out who murdered his daughter Jennifer Wilson (Melissa George). Once there he's aided by another ex-con Ed (Luis Guzman). Wilson discovers that his daughter was having an affair with a music producer Valentine (Peter Fonda).



Wilson goes after Valentine blaming him for the murder of his daughter. The other main character in the story is Jennifer's acting teacher Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren) who forces Wilson to look inside himself and realise his own failings with his daughter.

The picture quality on the disk is excellent, it's a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen picture. The colour is very strong and bright, the whole film is very sharp and clear.

The DD 5.1 soundtrack is also excellent with surround channels used effectively when required. The musical score fits the film very well.

The disk also comes with a very good set of extras. You get two commentary tracks. One is from Steven Soderbergh (Director) and Lem Dobbs (Writer). The other track is more of a series of interviews with the cast. I enjoyed the first commentary track as it is very informative and Soderbergh and Dobbs disagree about almost everything in the film. I didn't enjoy the second commentary as much as it's mostly just a discussion of the sixties.

There's also some theatrical trailers, some very detailed cast & crew bios (check the fictitious bio of Scott Kramer), some production notes and some excellent technical information. The technical info has a comparative anamorphic and letter box sample and some interesting documentation on the film to DVD production process.



This is a very good film coupled with a very good disk. There's some unusual editing here with the camera jumping back and fore scenes early on in the film. At first this seems quite annoying but you soon get into the flow.

At less than 90 minutes from start to end the film is too short to slow down anywhere so you don't find yourself getting bored. The other interesting thing about the film is that they use footage from an old Terence Stamp film Poor Cow (1967) to show Wilson's memories of his past. These excerpts fit in perfectly with the story.

All in all I can thoroughly recommend this film, especially if your a fan of Mr Soderbergh's work.