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Title: Sexy Beast (2000)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Ray Winstone | ... | Gal | |
| Ben Kingsley | ... | Don Logan | |
| Ian McShane | ... | Teddy Bass | |
| Amanda Redman | ... | Deedee Dove | |
| James Fox | ... | Harry | |
 |
Cavan Kendall | ... | Aitch |
| Julianne White | ... | Jackie | |
|
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Álvaro Monje | ... | Enrique (as Alvaro Monje) |
|
|
Robert Atiko | ... | Andy |
|
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Nieves del Amo Oruet | ... | Air Hostess |
|
|
Enrique Alemán Fabrega | ... | Pilot |
| Gérard Barray | ... | Spanish Official (as Gerard Barray) | |
|
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José Maria Cano Ramos | ... | Felipe's Friend 1 (as José Ma. Cano Ramos) |
|
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Desirée Erasmus | ... | Jean |
|
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Santiago Frias Munoz | ... | Policia 2 |
Gal, Deedee, Aitch and Jackie, having left behind respective lives of ill-repute, bask in the sun of Spain and in the most essential brand of leisure. A hazy yarn of barbecues, beer and botched hunting expeditions make up their retirements, until a sudden and unforeseen disruption emerges from their past. Enter the childishly violent and hilariously edgy Don Logan. Through a series of side-splitting negotiations and irrevocable acts, retired crook Gal is forced to shake off the rust and accept one last mission, put forth by the menacing Logan, his ex-mentor. A heist of legendary proportion and personal implications, this job should make for one hell of an encore. Written by gjtackach@gmail.com
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Gal is a safecracker now living in retirement in the Costa del Crime in Spain. Safe from the law and living off the money he managed to put to one side when working. When London gangster Don Logan calls a friend to offer Gal a job, Gal intends to refuse it but is faced with telling him face to face when Logan arrives from London offering Gal the job in two days time. As the unpredictably brutal Logan pressures Gal more and more he is faced with the possibility of having to return to England for a job.
I watched this several years after it came out in the cinema so I was sheltered from much of the hype. I'm not a huge fan of all these new British gangster movies that are about of late as many seem to be in awe of `Lock, Stock' and just are happy to copy rather than innovate. Sexy Beast really gripped me for the most part because it doesn't try to copy like so many others. Instead it is very stagey rather than slick and energetic. The plot weakness is that it has nowhere to really go. The `job' itself is pretty pointless and the key moment that is meant to have us on the edge of our seats doesn't really work.
However what does work is the majority of the film where Gal and Logan standoff to each other. This is very dialogue driven but really works mostly because of Kingsley who rightly got an Oscar nod for this. He drives the film with his brutal and unpredictable character. Winstone is good but is almost a support character when viewed beside Kingsley. The support cast are OK with Fox and McShane being interesting but underused castings.
The fantasy scenes are imaginative and the film is very stylishly done without copying off anyone else. It falls a little flat towards the end and the `job' is not as exciting as one would have hoped basically once Logan `convinces' Gal to take the job the pressure cooker excitement is gone never to be replaced. Up to that point this is quite a wonderful little find.