Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Uwontlikemyopinion Frenzied, violent criminal associate Don Logan (Ben KIngsley) negotiates, and ultimately terrorizes, a happily retired safecracker Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone) for one last bank robbery. Does he accept?Jonathan Glazer blazes his way through this stylish, surrealistic gangster movie even though most of the film takes place at Gal's villa. Undeniably, the best moments are at the villa when Don screams, curses, and demands Gal for assistance in his scheme. Also, the bank robbery and airport scene stand out. What hasn't been said about Ben Kingsley's portray as Don Logan? It's pure dynamite and is the main recommendation for watching this film. Ray Winstone gives a tough and discreet performance. Although Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone provide stellar character portrayals, the film leaves a bad aftertaste. By bad aftertaste, I'm talking about the vicious sense of humor that is either an asset or hindrance to anyone viewing this film. To me, I find the comedy to be a hindrance because the humor relies on brutality, but is also deeply ironic. Mainly, the entertainment factor depends on personal preference. Same goes for the dream sequences. While the dream sequences give this film an edge in originality, the dreams sequences disturb the entire pacing and make the movie clumsy and odd.

steveo122 18 years ago I think I thought of it as another flashy, profane, British gangster movie with an astonishing performance by Ben Kingsley. Now I think it's one of the best flashy, profane, creative and well written, British or not, heist movies made. With an astonishing performance by Ben Kingsley. Everybody's good. Behind and in front of the camera What really surprised me was how good it is now, how well made it is that it could have been released this week and there'd be nothing to complain about.

amosduncan_2000 This type of Brit Noir was just coming into vogue when "Sexy Beast" came out; though I find it sort of a cross between "The Hit" and one of those dumb things by Madonna's ex husband. A clever touch here and there, but this is a woefully overrated film. I guess if you can understand how Spanish Airport security would be intimidated by an absolutely ridiculous claim of sexual molestation from an obvious lunatic, well, this is your movie. Not much else here is more credible than that, from the heist of the super villain of the impenetrable fortress which obviously lacks the most basic alarm system. Super ruthless, powerful bad guy shows up at your door in the middle of the night? Sure, let him in, he probably won't kill you. Kingsley's celebrated performance is fine but he's been better elsewhere. No fault can really be found with any of the cast. Often Noir is concerned with the desperate lives of the hopeless people who turn to crime. This is sort of an interesting wrinkle on that, though we are never really told just what Gal's hapless buddy did, and how such a person could have been much of a criminal in the first place.

jimbo-53-186511 Gal Dove (Ray Winstone) is a retired safe cracker for the criminal underworld who has moved over to Spain to 'enjoy' his retirement. Things are great for Ray, he spends his days lounging by the pool in his apartment, dining out at restaurants and generally living a care free existence. However, Gal's care free existence is tipped upside down when his friend Jackie (Julianne White) receives a call from Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) who says that he wants Gal to join him in London to help him and his cronies to pull off one last job. Logan gets on a plane and heads for Spain intent on Gal coming back with him to assist in pulling off this job. Gal refuses to do the job, but Don is not the sort of person who takes 'No' for an answer and is determined that Gal will assist with this job whether he likes it or not.What's interesting about Sexy Beast is that it is a character driven film rather than a plot driven film. Character driven films are generally risky because typically if the characters aren't well written then the film will fail - that's not the case here. There is only about a 5 minute segment from the 90 minute running time spent on explaining the heist and it's only sporadically mentioned outside of this scene - until the end when the heist takes place. I could probably fill a 1000 word limit just writing about Kingsley's character, but due to IMDb word constraints I will try and keep my comments on his character as short as possible. On the surface, Logan is a thug, he's arrogant, he likes to let people know he's in charge. If you go deeper into his character, I see a very troubled person - it's clear to me that he's some kind of paranoid schizophrenic (the scene where he's talking to himself in the mirror and claiming that Gal has said various things about him - none of these things have ever been said and it clearly shows that he suffers from mass paranoia). He then proceeds to attack Gal based on what his 'inner' voice is telling him. Likewise, the scene when he's on board the aircraft and he refuses to put his cigarette out - this can be looked at in two ways; 1) He intended to fly back to London, but doesn't like being told what to do and doesn't like conforming to rules and therefore refused to co-operate or 2) He became a nuisance because he deliberately wanted to get kicked off the plane because he needed to complete his task of getting Gal back to London. His reasons are wide open to interpretation and the fact that we're never quite sure what he's thinking or what he's going to do ultimately made him a fascinating character. He's clearly not insane though as the scene immediately after his departure from the aircraft clearly demonstrates -the way he managed to turn the scenario around to make the airport staff believe that he was the victim was not only cold and calculating, but he also made his sob story believable. This shows that Logan is also capable of pathological lying as well as paranoid schizophrenia. What a character!Then we come to Gal; people tend to remember Kingsley's performance in this film (with good reason), but people really shouldn't discount Winstone's performance. His best scenes are the scenes when he is with Logan - Winstone gives a really convincing performance (particularly in scenes where Logan is intimidating him - I felt scared for him and that's a testament to Winstone's acting ability which I think is much better than many people give him credit for).The direction and editing were superb as well; lots of quick editing and stylish camera work that linked scenes together nicely. It was all really clever so full marks go to Glazer for his terrific work. The music was also great; it was retro and cool and fitted in nicely with the tone of the film.Ironically, the weakest part of the film is the heist itself which if I'm honest was a bit dull and derivative, but it didn't bother me because I was so fascinated by the array of interesting characters that I still enjoyed the film even though the plot seemed to take a back seat in the film.Sexy Beast is a great little film which is bound to impress those that love character driven films. It's a rare example of a film that is great despite the fact that the plot takes a back seat to such an extent that it almost becomes insignificant. It sounds bizarre saying this, but if you've watched the film you'll understand what I mean.