One that ended up on the queue after one of the "Top 100 Performances" lists came out, recognizing Ben Kingsley's performance here. So, rather a random one otherwise: Sexy Beast.
Plot: Gal, a former safe-cracker, has retired with his wife Deedee and their friends Aitch and Jackie to settle in sunny Spain. The quartet spends their days enjoying sunbathing, barbecues, lazy hunting trips, and other leisurely escapes after years in the London underworld. Until Don Logan, a childish, violent and rather unforeseen disruption, appears from their past to convince Gal to take on one more job. Though Gal keeps turning him down, Don doesn't take no for an answer, and the negotiations escalate, leading to... well, watch the movie! :)
The acting is indeed well done, and Ben Kingsley's performance is the highlight. Ian McShane is good as the master organizer of the heist, but then he's always good as the icy-cold sort of characters. It's all in the eyes - that dead, cold stare is just so good. But it's Ben Kingsley who steals the show. He's childish and aggressive and foul and sociopathic, all wrapped up in one bundle who thinks himself so much smoother than he really is. One of those people who thinks he's so much bigger, smoother, cooler than he really is. He really makes the movie worth watching - a different Don would have left a much lesser movie. I liked a bit of trivia from IMDB's page on the movie - that Kingsley would use his acting of Don to vent "all the anger and tension he had in him, and then he'd be meek as a baby the rest of the day." I can definitely see it'd be hard to have any aggressive feelings left in you after a full day as Don!
The music is a lot of fun, too. Just an edgy, upbeat sort of soundtrack - dunno, just fun. Not much more to say :)
The acting's really the highlight of the movie, though. The writing has a lot of... well, oddities, for lack of a better word. For starters, what the heck is the rabbit monster?? There were lots of little things, too, which just didn't flow smoothly. And the heist just seemed like an after thought, after all the build-up in the first part of the movie. Left a weird feeling.
Another thought is really more about the advertising, rather than the movie itself. Since I don't remember the actual trailers, I'm referring to plot summaries (online and on the movie packaging itself), posters, tag-lines, etc. The advertising really made it seem like a heist film, but in actuality, the movie spends a lot more time on the relation and confrontation between Don and Gal. Honestly, I think that's part of why I think the story felt so odd. You think that a movie is a heist movie, then you're expecting something like The Bank Job or Ocean's 11 or The Great Train Robbery or similar. You aren't expecting something where the actual heist (and all discussion and prep and everything else) is barely 30 minutes of the film. Had they built up as more a confrontation of the characters (which it was), I probably wouldn't have felt so open-ended.
Overall: 3 of 5. Some very strong acting (worth a watch for Ben Kingsley alone), some fun points, but rather a weird movie. Not one for the shelf.
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