I first thing I noticed about SEXY BEAST was that Ray Winstone`s character is called Gal . I actually know someone called Gal in real life , she`s an Israeli so I wondered why the anti hero in this film has an Israeli girls name when he`s a bloke from London ! I was futher confused why SEXY BEAST has several surreal sequences like a demon tooled up with an uzi approaching Gal`s dinner table . No doubt more pretentious reviewers will discuss the meaning behind these scenes but that`s not really the point - the scenes are distracting and don`t add anything . 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 ? " Tea or coffee you f***in` c*** , the continental or english breakfast you f***in` c*** , cash or cheque you f***in` c*** , I f***ed your wife you f***in` c***
It does have its good points though . Winstone is a fairly limited actor but he`s made a career out of playing rough diamond geezers something he excels at . 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 . Maybe I was expecting something like ESSEX BOYS or THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY with a Spanish setting , but what I got was something similar to PERFORMANCE
It does have its good points though . Winstone is a fairly limited actor but he`s made a career out of playing rough diamond geezers something he excels at . 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 . Maybe I was expecting something like ESSEX BOYS or THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY with a Spanish setting , but what I got was something similar to PERFORMANCE