Initially, I didn't really like the look of Layer Cake, but on the basis of several surprisingly favourable reviews (admittedly from tabloids, who I now believe must be in the pay of Layer Cake's PR people) I decided to give it a go.
Just to give you an idea of how bad this film is, after about ten minutes, I turned to my wife and said: 'we can walk out whenever you like, but I'm kind of enjoying how bad it is'. She agreed, so we sat through the clichéd characters (stolen, lock stock and two smoking barrels, from Guy Richie's far superior film), wooden acting, dire dialogue, desperate direction, tiresome plotting and laughable attempts at any kind of believability or realism. Then after an hour and a half, we could take no more and left. Perhaps it improved immeasurably after that but in the end, life is just a bit to short to spend even a nanosecond watching such pisspoor film-making.
The plot seems to involve Daniel Craig's drug dealer character (Billy?) completing one last score before retiring (yawn). Various obviously- telegraphed and poorly justified plot twists occur. Some people kill some other people. There's a major assassin on the the loose who can get your mobile number but not your address. Sienna Miller turns up, apparently just to get changed into some saucy underwear, then we don't see her again (maybe she reappeared after I walked out, but three minutes out of ninety is a pretty flimsy performance to market the entire film around). Aaaaaaaanyway... You've seen all the characters before, done far better in other movies. The supposedly cool lines are always very self-conscious and fall well short of the level required for the cool lines genre. The direction tries really, really hard to be creative and original, but is simply woefully amateurish (one shot zooms in on Craig's eyes; when we pull out, he's in a different scene. Brilliant, Mr Vaughn. Scorsese: give up now. You'll never come close to such genius). The acting is strictly cardboard cut-out level. You could excuse the actors due to the poor material and director they had to work with but these are generally very good actors, each magically turning in their worst work to date (Craig even overacts in a balaclava, showing only his eyes. Quite a feat).
I could go on but I think I've said enough. Don't go and see this film. You'll only encourage them.
Just to give you an idea of how bad this film is, after about ten minutes, I turned to my wife and said: 'we can walk out whenever you like, but I'm kind of enjoying how bad it is'. She agreed, so we sat through the clichéd characters (stolen, lock stock and two smoking barrels, from Guy Richie's far superior film), wooden acting, dire dialogue, desperate direction, tiresome plotting and laughable attempts at any kind of believability or realism. Then after an hour and a half, we could take no more and left. Perhaps it improved immeasurably after that but in the end, life is just a bit to short to spend even a nanosecond watching such pisspoor film-making.
The plot seems to involve Daniel Craig's drug dealer character (Billy?) completing one last score before retiring (yawn). Various obviously- telegraphed and poorly justified plot twists occur. Some people kill some other people. There's a major assassin on the the loose who can get your mobile number but not your address. Sienna Miller turns up, apparently just to get changed into some saucy underwear, then we don't see her again (maybe she reappeared after I walked out, but three minutes out of ninety is a pretty flimsy performance to market the entire film around). Aaaaaaaanyway... You've seen all the characters before, done far better in other movies. The supposedly cool lines are always very self-conscious and fall well short of the level required for the cool lines genre. The direction tries really, really hard to be creative and original, but is simply woefully amateurish (one shot zooms in on Craig's eyes; when we pull out, he's in a different scene. Brilliant, Mr Vaughn. Scorsese: give up now. You'll never come close to such genius). The acting is strictly cardboard cut-out level. You could excuse the actors due to the poor material and director they had to work with but these are generally very good actors, each magically turning in their worst work to date (Craig even overacts in a balaclava, showing only his eyes. Quite a feat).
I could go on but I think I've said enough. Don't go and see this film. You'll only encourage them.
Tell Your Friends