I just saw “Sexy Beast” on DVD after several reccmonedations, and I thought it was just okay.
I mean Ben Kingsley was pretty scary, but not enough to give me nightmnares. I also didn’t get the jackrabbit thing, or Kingsley being shown smoking a cigarette at the bottom of the pool. This movie reeks of being overrated.
What am I missing here?
Or is it that I just really, really do not like British movies? I didn;t like “The Full Monty”, and “Saving Grace” was just fair. I always walk away from them going “huh”? (It doesn’t help that I can’t understand cockney).
My wife says that you really have to be into movies to like British movies like this.
My response is: “Just because they have snobby accents doesn’t make them smarter than us, dear.”
Can someone please explain the point of this movie, and why it is generally considered to be a critical success???
I just watched this last night, and I had the same impression. It was ok, but nothing special to me. For the most part, I have nothing against British films. I loved The Full Monty as well as Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Not to menion the Monty Python films.
As far as Kingsley’s character smoking at the bottom of the pool, I think that was just the main character’s mind and imagination at work. There’s the demon, busting open Logan’s coffin only to find a non-plussed Logan, smoking it up and giving the demon this “pfft” sort of look, as if he’s unimpressed.
I thought Kingsley made a great bad guy and gave a terrific performance, but I couldn’t help but think some of the reason he got an Oscar nomination is because he is Ben Kingsley. I mean really, if some no-name had given that performance, would the film have been noticed at all? But the fact that the guy playing the cruel and psychotic Don Logan also played Ghandi (!) may have gotten the role and the film more attention than it normally would have rated.
As for why the movie is a critical success… I dunno. Ask the critics. I still don’t see what was so amazing about the cliche-festAmerican Beauty or the slow-pacing and pointlessness of Quiz Show (look, all this stuff happened, but it had next to zero effect on television!). And then there’s Citizen Kane, widely renowned as the greatest american film of all time, a technical masterpiece, ground-breaking for its time, but as a story it just doesn’t do anything for me. Every year there’s some movie’s that come out that the critics rant and rave about that I just don’t see the appeal of. Sexy Beast is one of them. It’s not a bad film, but I just don’t think it’s that great.
I guess for those without an insider’s POV, such as not really knowing what goes into the making of a film, having never been to film school or whatnot, this sort of thing is just going to go over my head.
My sister & I watched it Sunday. She hated it, I thought it was Snatch without the cute little dog. I believe the Kingsley performance was interesting and kinda what the academy looks for but I really didn’t think it was worthy of the nomination. (But they didn’t ask me, so…)
I HATED this movie. And I usually do like British movies.
I had a very difficult time understanding just about everyone.
I hated Ben Kingsley’s Don Logan! (Maybe that means Kingsley did a great job, I don’t know.)
I hated the continual use of the F-word. (And I’m not a prude.)
The only thing that I did like was the heist. That was pretty cool.
I’m glad that a friend gave me her DVD to watch before she returned it to the rental place. I really would have hated spending any money on it!
