Sexy Beast

Plot synopsis:
Ex-con and expert safe-cracker Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone) completed his prison time and has happily retired to a Spanish villa with his beloved ex–porn star wife DeeDee (Amanda Redman). He shares the company of long-time best friend Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and his wife Jackie (Julianne White). Two scenes foreshadow an end to his peace: a huge boulder nearly hits him and lands in the pool, damaging its tile double-heart insignia. After a hunt where he and his friends fail to bag a rabbit, Gal has a dream of a man with a terrifying rabbit's head pointing a shotgun at him.
The arrival of sociopathic old criminal associate, Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), intent on enlisting Gal in a bank heist back in London shatters his serenity. Teddy Bass (Ian McShane), a powerful crime lord, learned about the bank's vault from Harry (James Fox), the bank's chairman whom he met at an orgy. Gal politely but firmly declines Logan's many progressively threatening then violent demands he join. After Gal suggests Logan's real reason is his obsessive infatuation with Jackie, Logan grows furious then demands to be taken to the airport. On the plane, Logan refuses to put out his cigarette prior to take-off and is ejected. A seething Logan returns to Gal's home screaming obscenities, threatens to kill Gal then smashes a glass beer bottle against Gal's head. The scene cuts with DeeDee aiming a shotgun at Don who merely looks at her with hate.
The scene shifts to Gal having returned to London. When asked by Bass about Logan's whereabouts, Gal feigns ignorance and claims Logan had called him "from Heathrow." In the morning, over breakfast, Gal has another vision of the man with the terrifying rabbit's head approaching and pointing a shotgun at him. He then sees Bass who sits, smiles, and questions him further. Gal continues to insist that Don claimed to call him from Heathrow.
During the heist, Bass' crew use surface-supplied diving gear to drill into Harry's bank vault from a pool in a neighbouring bath house. As he drills, Gal recalls in his mind what happened at his home: DeeDee shoots Logan with a shotgun, incapacitating him. Jackie and Gal join in beating him. Aitch remains too scared to act despite pleas from DeeDee, Gal, and Jackie. A still alive Don looks at Aitch and announces, "I fucked her," meaning Jackie. Aitch picks up a television set, announces, "Yeah, well. Now I've fucked you!" and brings it down on Don's head.
Breaking through the wall, the water from the pool floods the vault and shorts its security system. While helping to empty the vault's safe deposit boxes, Gal secretly pockets a pair of large ruby earrings encrusted with diamonds. After the job is successfully completed Bass insists on driving Gal to the airport. Along the way, stops by Harry's home. Inside, Bass kills Harry in cold blood and immediately and pointedly questions Gal again about Logan. Bass reveals that he knows Don got off the plane while still in Spain. Gal merely responds, "I'm not into this any more." Back in the car, Bass suggests he knows what happened to Logan, saying first, "If I cared, Gal. If I fucking cared. If I gave a solitary fuck about Don Logan!..." then "Spain, eh? I must drop in sometime. Pay my respects." He pays Gal £10 for his services--giving Gal a £20 note and demanding change--then tells him to get out of the car and drives away.
In the final scene, back in Spain, Gal is again home surrounded by his friends. DeeDee is seen wearing the ruby-diamond earrings that he stole. Gal hears Don's voice tell him that he knew Gal would do the job. In his mind, Gal responds that Don is dead now and can finally shut up. The scene zooms into the double-heart insignia at the bottom of their pool to reveal a coffin. The man with the scary rabbit's head kicks open the coffin to reveal a smoking Don. Don looks at him and exhales his smoke with contempt.

Tags: cult, comedy, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
In `Sexy Beast,' Ben Kingsley delivers a bone-chilling performance as the man everyone loves to hate, a role for which he earned not only universal critical acclaim but a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination as well.
Cleverly, writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto have paved the way for this entrance by introducing Logan ahead of time in a series of conversations in which just the mere mention of his name sets off portentous reverberations amongst the people discussing him.Chief among those people is the film's protagonist, Gal, Logan's `retired' ex-partner in crime, who wants nothing more than to be allowed to enjoy life undisturbed in his seaside Spanish villa with his swimming pool and the wife he loves so dearly.
This technique of telegraphing information ahead of time contributes immensely to heightening the suspenseful quality of the film.`Sexy Beast' provides superb performances, a nasty sense of humor and a fascinating glimpse into the dark side of human nature..
Ben also wins the award for Best (and most frequent and creative) Usage of the "c" word, which plays a major part in this outrageously deranged and always thoroughly entertaining (even at its bloodiest) full-frontal bombast of a film.The plot couldn't be any simpler: retired gangster Gal (yes, that's his name) is happy lounging around the pool at his Spanish villa with the woman of his dreams and a drink in his hand.
Suffice to say, the brilliant performances (Ray Winstone and Ian McShane in particular) and the amazingly slick editing make every second of Sexy Beast a kinetic foray into surrealism and a tour de force of epic proportions for Kingsley.
Well, I have really begun to like this film a lot, equally, if not more, than "Snatch."The more I see "Sexy Beast," the more fascinating it gets, and it was pretty interesting the first time!
It also is a good idea to play this with the English subtitles on, unless you can understand the strong British accents, and can interpret the slang words.Ben Kingsley, as sociopath "Don Logan," is unbelievably intense and almost has my jaw dropping when watching him in here.
The film was directed by Jonathen Glazer, who was responsible for most of the recent amazing Guinness beer adverts.Ray Winstone is Gal, a retired criminal enjoying retirement in Spain with friends and the woman he loves.
Ray Winstone puts in another loveable badboy performance that he does so well, but the film is dominated by Kingsley who steals every scene he is in and creates one of the most menacing screen villains in recent memory.
The characters are so interesting, while we hate Logan, we sympathize with his counterfeit Gal who is a retired gangster trying to live a straight life with his family and loyal friends.
Continuing where 'Performance' left off (it even features James Fox) this movie has stand-out performances from all of it's cast, with Ben Kingsley (as Don Logan) producing the scariest bad-guy in cinema since Dennis Hopper's 'Frank'.
Ian McShane does a lot to bury his lightweight 'Lovejoy' persona with an excellent, menacing performance that contrasts well against Winstone's thin bravado, but the honours here have to go to Kingsley who is simply stunning, turning in a masterclass performance and proving (once again) that he is a top-drawer actor with every aspect of his character (posture; accent; attitude) finally honed and utterly (appallingly) convincing.Kingsley's scenes set the movie alight (like the stunning airport sequence, and of course the return to the villa) and it would be interesting to know just how much of the dialogue comes from the excellent script and how much (if any) was improvised.
All the performances are incredible, most notably Ray Winstone, Amanda Redman and Lovejoy himself, Ian McShane, but as everyone points out, Kingsley just steals the show even when he is not onscreen.
As i've seen ben kingsley in other movies and not though he was as good,and Ray Winston was not his usual character all the way through.
It also allows Winstone to exercise his range more than usual and he does not come up short.The film inevitably flags when Don is absent, but to the filmmakers credit the pacing of the final third is briskly done, an awareness that McShane and Fox could not outshine Don.Overall, it's partly a heist story, but mostly a love story, one man's attempt to cover for and get back to the woman he loves.The director's music video roots are for the most part used well in surreal dream sequences with a mutated rabbit, though personally I could have done without the final underground shot that seemed to detract from the overall oppressive tone.
Retired to the Costa del Chill Out, retired thief Gary 'Gal' Dove (Winstone) finds his tranquil existence shattered when menacing gangster Don Logan (Kingsley) arrives on the scene demanding Gal goes back to London to do another job.
The first half of film is the best, set at Gal's Spanish villa, Glazer neatly frames the characters (Gal lives with his wife and his two friends from England live nearby) as they bicker and cower in the shadow of Logan, who wouldn't be beyond sending them all to hell if he doesn't get his way.
Kingsley is really scary as the psychopath, particularly in the way he speaks, which is chillingly authentic.The one thing this film portrays very well is the climate of fear which surrounds anyone in 'the life' Dove and his friends arte like startled bunny rabbits faced with Logan.
I first thing I noticed about SEXY BEAST was that Ray Winstone`s character is called Gal .
But my abiding memory of SEXY BEAST is the character interaction between Gal and Don Logan , it`s like something out of THE FAST SHOW , can`t you just imagine Simon Day or Paul Whitehouse playing a retired gangster working in a hotel as a waiter ?
Ben Kingsley is excellent as Logan , a role for which he received an Oscar nod , but perhaps the best performance - Certainly the most understated - is Ian McShane as Teddy Bass .But for the most part I found SEXY BEAST ( Why`s the film called that ?) to be disappointing .
The reviewer who said Kingsley was the best thing in it and the story was weak must have seen a different film.No one has to say anything about Kingsley's always fabulous work but I was blown away by the authenticity and charisma that Ray Winston as Gary (Gal) Dove and Amanda Redman as DeeDee Dove exuded.
Stuttering like a child, Kingsley's voice is calm one minute and instantly becomes an evil entity in what began as a calm film about a man made good from a life of crime.
This is a movie about a man who wants a life (Gal, played with commendable understatement by Ray Winstone) and another man who doesn't have one (Ben Kingsley as the out-of-control psychopath Don Logan) and so wants to inflict his misery on everyone around him.
I've never seen such fear from other characters, so simply and rawly depicted as when Gal and his wife Deedee (Amanda Redman, again, very well-acted as a good time girl who has probably had some bad things happen to her, but who seems to have found happiness with her husband) walk into a restaurant for what they expected to be a pleasant casual meal with his good friend and cohort in their former lives as crooks, Ted (Ian McShane, playing a tough who is really really afraid of Don) and his wife.
It's neither funny nor compelling, and unless you missed any of the movies it copies from, you'll find it totally unoriginal and daft.Ben Kingsley as a mean crime guy and post-crime lacky Gal is played by Ray Winstone.
The film is called " Sexy Beast" is straight out of the gangster era of the nineteen sixties and Ben Kingsley plays a vicious Gangster recruited to plan a covert robbery against a 'Modern Fortress' of a safe.
This is a spectacular piece of British cinema only made better by the lack of Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis.Ben Kingsley portrayal of a nasty bastard is amazing his delivery is to the point and scary, His character has a slight smile and staring eyes that drill into you and talking himself into a frenzy makes him even more horrible to cope with.What is shown in this film is very quick editing combined with sound continuity so the cuts are invisible and unintrusive, strong use of colour, using a low key to make even the sun of Spain seem dark and a style unseen before, the lack of cliché ridden cockney slang makes this film even more credible.When the film first starts we get a dream like underwater shot which you are not expecting, a metaphor for 'living the dream' possibly, but throughout the film the increasing amount of surrealism adds another layer to this almost perfect British gangster film..
Don't do the same as me and mistake this for just another Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels: although the film features exaggerated Cockney characters, sharp dialogue, snappy direction, and the occasional brutal outburst of violence, its unique pace, offbeat style and surreal asides (that rabbit demon is bloody freaky!) make it a far sexier beast than anything Guy Ritchie has to offer.Surprisingly, for much of its running time, the film is an intense character study, one that relies on talk over action; well over half the film passes without a gunshot fired or punch thrown, but it is riveting stuff nonetheless.
This is largely thanks to flawless performances by its superb cast (not least from Ben Kingsley as psychopath Don Logan, who steals virtually every scene he is in with his utterly menacing manner and ripe discourse), although the film also benefits immensely from director Jonathan Glazer's bold aesthetic, his imagery as colourful as his characters' language and as striking as Deedee's eyes..
Sir Sir Ben kingsley i think this is the right respect for the person of this potential , I haven't seen such energetic performance by any actor ever.The real villain , the real evil , the real beast,the character he portrays provides justice to all these words.However the movie without Sir kingsley is very very common but Sir kingsley makes this movie special with his thrilling performance.Gal , dirty deede , Aitch , jacky all are the characters who cant say a word in front of Don Logan.
I went to see Sexy Beast expecting something really special, based on the multitude of fawning reviews for the film and Ben Kingsley's performance.
This isn't an unwatchable film by any means, but let's call it what it is: a very uneven effort by a first time director featuring some veteran actors doing the best they can, a couple of good ideas and well done scenes, and some occasionally interesting dialogue.
After hearing several positive reviews (and even after reading many more after watching the movie), I really am shocked to see how many people actually liked this movie.It seems that everyone is just head-over-heels in love with Ben Kingsley (irritating "gangster" Don Logan) and his performance when really I found him to be annoying to the point of MAKING ME WALK OUT OF THE MOVIE (1st attempt to watch it, at home).
Now, Ray Winstone (retired thief Gary 'Gal' Dove) on the other hand, did a great job in his part of this movie, though I think that the script itself kinda let Ray down in that his character could have been more slick, expressed himself more about his reasons for not coming out of retirement, shown his skills more when the time for the heist actually came.
Forget flashy explosions or any of that, even just some more exciting shots (which director Jonathan Glazer is clearly capable of, having included some excellent cinematography) or some sense of the tension and danger involved.Ultimately I felt that this movie was a serious letdown, partially because of Ben Kingsley's character all by himself, and partly because all the characters seemed a little watered down compared to what they could have been.
The score is amazing, it really helps to characterize Kingsley's character throughout the film as well as Winstone's at the beginning (GREAT opening sequence).
Ben Kingsley does give a good performance,  but unfortunately I felt like I was the one who was being yelled at during the movie.
This film was a bit of a let down and did not live up to myexpectations at all.The opening sequence, though one of the few truly funny scenesin the film, is awkwardly shot and cut, and a little less "snappy"than I expected from a film reviewed as a "hilarious Britishcomedy."Is there humor is seeing Ghandi (Ben Kingsley) as a blue collarEnglish gangster that is, in my book, anything but intimidating?
Sexy Beast works as a well scored artistic piece; it works as the simplest story ever told and it works as a powerhouse of Academy Award nominated acting from certain individuals.When Guy Ritchie exploded onto the scene with his debut feature Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, he (perhaps accidentally) changed the general aesthetic of the British gangster genre.
Sexy Beast is smart like that; it pays homage to the gangster films of 1980s in the sense it is quite artistic with slow-motion sequences of BBQs firing up and distilled colours during Gal's dream sequences of an Uzi wielding man-sized rabbit.The film gives us these artistic sequences, before hitting us with the mob message-boy of Logan whose first line of dialogue in the film is a statement of the situation complete with obscenity rather than a mere greeting upon arrival, immediately placing him amongst the audiences' bad books.
sit around a dinning table before allowing us to breath with the mid-shots in the kitchen; Logan's back-story with another character and the general use of music, special effects and shot choice all work together and produce a British gangster film worthy of any top ten cannon of the genre, and that counts for all time..
Ray Winstone turns in an unbelievably controlled performance as the hopelessly romantic Gal Dove and Ben Kingsley and Ian McShane just chew the scenery to bits as two of the best screen villains since Darth Vader.I would recommend turning the subtitles on for your first viewing as a lot of the dialogue, particular that of the character Aitch, is difficult to decipher through the thick accents.I could go on and on about this movie to freakish detail but will leave it up to you, dear viewer, to investigate.
I've never been disappointed with a Ben Kingsley vehicle yet, but this film really blew me away.The actors worked with an excellent script, and all the performances were utterly believable.
Ray Winstone, as Gal, plays such a likable character that I was riveted, watching his story unfold.The plot has some wonderful twists and turns, which leave the ending a complete surprise.
Kingsley dominates this fine cast, but great performances are put in by Winstone, as Gal and Amanda Redman as DeeDee, standing up to the ruthless Logan.
See "Death and the Maiden" first, a better Ben Kingsley film.I'll give Sexy Beast a so-so 5 out of 10..
The old gang he ran with back in the day wants him to pull off another job, so they send Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) from London to encourage the relaxed former bad guy.
Ray Winston and Ian McShane are in top form and Ben Kingsley's performance is like a boulder bouncing down off a cliff and landing in your swimming pool..
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.
Although Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone provide stellar character portrayals, the film leaves a bad aftertaste.
18 years ago I think I thought of it as another flashy, profane, British gangster movie with an astonishing performance by Ben Kingsley.
The twilight zone of British gangster films, and Ben Kingsley's finest hour.
But maybe for most people, the main draw here is the acting performances - Ray Winstone plays a typical character for him but one with a lot less aggression and much more inner fear, Ben Kingsley turns up and chews the scenery as the overbearing criminal Don Logan, while Ian McShane was, for me, even more intimidating as the top crime boss back in the UK, a character full of quiet, intense menace.
Sexy Beast is another great example of that.Ray Winstone may play the same character in every movie that his in.
Ray Winstone is a good actor and I do like him has a person and I'm happy that he's in a movie that shows his talent.
Great work Winstone.Ben Kingsley in this movie probably pulls off his best performance that I've seen him in.
Heavy Accents Aside, it is Refreshing, and Hard-Boiled with Steaming Streaming Dialog and a Black-Comedy Edge with Profane Pronouncements and a Sizzling Performance by Ben Kingsley and the Other Cast Members do Great Work, Especially Ray Winstone and Ian McShane.It has Style to Burn and is a Clever Composite of Character Dimension that is Slightly Unusual.
Much is talked about Ben Kingsley's casting as thuggish gangster Don Logan that people forget the other actors with roots in crime or gangster films.James Fox played ruthless Chas in Performance, Ian McShane appeared in Villain and Dirty Money and Ray Winstone has been playing villains of some sort since he was teenager such as films like Scum.Winstone plays Gal a retired safe-cracker living out in Spain with his wife and other ex-con friends.