Layer Cake's Recent Activity

list Layer Cake's Recent Activity - Spout http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Layer Cake on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg Layer Cake's Recent Activity - Spout http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 Film:Layer Cake http://www.spout.com/films/Layer_Cake/244581/default.aspx

Title: Layer Cake
Year: 2005
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Plot: A mechanic in the British drug trade finds himself caught in the middle of some dangerous circumstances in this crime thriller. XXXX (Daniel Craig) is a nameless go-between in the British mob who buys drugs from underground wholesalers and them sells them to street dealers, keeping the system flowing and making a tidy profit in the process. XXXX is looking forward to getting out of the game, and has displayed both smarts and caution in how he's handled his business, but before his overseer Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) will let him go, he has a couple of favors that need to be done. First, Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon) is a mob boss whose daughter has gotten hooked on hard drugs and run away from home; Jimmy needs XXXX to find them girl and bring her to him before Eddie's men can get hold of her. Second, Dragan (Dragan Micanovic) is a Ecstasy wholesaler who has had a large shipment stolen by Duke (Jamie Foreman); Jimmy wants XXXX to get the Ecstasy back to Dragan, but Duke isn't eager to sell and Dragan is becoming impatient. Between these two matters, XXXX isn't so sure he'll get out of the business alive, especially after he finds himself falling for Duke's nephew's girlfriend, Tammy (Sienna Miller). Layer Cake marked the directorial debut for Matthew Vaughn, best known as a producer for Guy Ritchie's lad-centric crime movies. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 19
Number of Lists: 35
Number of blog posts: 4
Number of discussion threads: 3
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Thu, 07 May 2009 22:31:56 GMTLayer Cake2005Matthew VaughnA mechanic in the British drug trade finds himself caught in the middle of some dangerous circumstances in this crime thriller. XXXX (<a href="/players/P____15549/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Daniel Craig</a>) is a nameless go-between in the British mob who buys drugs from underground wholesalers and them sells them to street dealers, keeping the system flowing and making a tidy profit in the process. XXXX is looking forward to getting out of the game, and has displayed both smarts and caution in how he's handled his business, but before his overseer Jimmy Price (<a href="/players/P____15634/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Kenneth Cranham</a>) will let him go, he has a couple of favors that need to be done. First, Eddie Temple (<a href="/players/P____25729/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Michael Gambon</a>) is a mob boss whose daughter has gotten hooked on hard drugs and run away from home; Jimmy needs XXXX to find them girl and bring her to him before Eddie's men can get hold of her. Second, Dragan (Dragan Micanovic) is a Ecstasy wholesaler who has had a large shipment stolen by Duke (Jamie Foreman); Jimmy wants XXXX to get the Ecstasy back to Dragan, but Duke isn't eager to sell and Dragan is becoming impatient. Between these two matters, XXXX isn't so sure he'll get out of the business alive, especially after he finds himself falling for Duke's nephew's girlfriend, Tammy (<a href="/players/P___367562/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Sienna Miller</a>). Layer Cake marked the directorial debut for Matthew Vaughn, best known as a producer for <a href="/players/P___242801/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Guy Ritchie</a>'s lad-centric crime movies. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide19Tag Target (>10)35433http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/u14472jtl72.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Layer_Cake/244581/default.aspxFilm Spout Post: Re:Layer Cake http://www.spout.com/groups/Of_Criminals_and_Hit_Men/Re_Layer_Cake/576/27213/1/ShowPost.aspx

Post By: lopezdash
Post To: Of Criminals and Hit Men
Post Date: 4/11/2008 1:29:25 PM
Body: [quote user="amberbariaktarinyfilm"]Layer Cake is a fast paced film starring Daniel Craig, Tom Hardy, and Jamie Foreman. Daniel Craig is a successful cocaine dealer who gets two tough assignments from his boss just when hes about to walk away forever. This film has a great pace and feel to it as Daniel's reluctantly participates in his new assignments and no longer being "just the drug dealer". [/quote]I agree with you, I love films in which the characters evolve, and this is a perfect example.
]]>Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:29:25 GMTlopezdashOf Criminals and Hit Men4/11/2008 1:29:25 PM[quote user="amberbariaktarinyfilm"]Layer Cake is a fast paced film starring Daniel Craig, Tom Hardy, and Jamie Foreman. Daniel Craig is a successful cocaine dealer who gets two tough assignments from his boss just when hes about to walk away forever. This film has a great pace and feel to it as Daniel's reluctantly participates in his new assignments and no longer being "just the drug dealer". [/quote]I agree with you, I love films in which the characters evolve, and this is a perfect example. Spout Post: Layer Cake http://www.spout.com/groups/Of_Criminals_and_Hit_Men/Layer_Cake/576/27110/1/ShowPost.aspx

Post By: amberbariaktarinyfilm
Post To: Of Criminals and Hit Men
Post Date: 4/8/2008 7:22:26 PM
Body: Layer Cake is a fast paced film starring Daniel Craig, Tom Hardy, and Jamie Foreman. Daniel Craig is a successful cocaine dealer who gets two tough assignments from his boss just when hes about to walk away forever. This film has a great pace and feel to it as Daniel's reluctantly participates in his new assignments and no longer being "just the drug dealer".
]]>Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:22:26 GMTamberbariaktarinyfilmOf Criminals and Hit Men4/8/2008 7:22:26 PMLayer Cake is a fast paced film starring Daniel Craig, Tom Hardy, and Jamie Foreman. Daniel Craig is a successful cocaine dealer who gets two tough assignments from his boss just when hes about to walk away forever. This film has a great pace and feel to it as Daniel's reluctantly participates in his new assignments and no longer being "just the drug dealer". Spout Post: Layer Cake http://www.spout.com/blogs/analogzombie/archive/2007/7/13/14045.aspx

Post By: analogzombie
Post To: analogzombie Blog
Post Date: 7/13/2007 8:39:00 PM
Body: Finally, the British mob movie I've been thirsting for! In the tradition of 'The Long Good Friday' and 'Get Carter', 'Layer Cake' is a British gangster flick where everybody gets fucked over, and everyone gets killed. Forgetall that Guy Ritchie, gangster comedy nonsense, I want violence, I want a movie with balls. This movie was originally intended for Ritchie, but his career killing marriage to shemale extraodinaire: Madonna, created the opportunity for his producer: Matthew Vaughn, to have a go at the director's chair. What we get is a movie whose complex plot of double deals, and backstabbing isn't muddled with comic book baffoonery as in Ritchie's work. Vaughn is much more adept at handling this sort of material. He doesn't have to resort to the type of cheap plot explanations that Ritchie's films needed to survive. Layer Cake's complex story unravels itself with the greatest of ease. There's no need for extraneous narration to explain to the audience what's going on. The director, in this case, is decent enough that he doesn't have to resort to that shit.The story is your basic set up: cool middle level gangster wants to get out while he's ahead. Unfortunately for him and his associates, he's in too deep and those above him are going to try to use him for everything they can get. Only his cool manner, and supreme intelligence can get him out of it. That's pretty much it. Ensue your typical cadre of British heavies beating, and shooting, and smarting off to each other. But instead of doing so with the chimpish grin of Snatch's Jason Statham (Transporter 1 and 2), we are treated to the calm and collected deadpan of Daniel Craig. This is the sort of performance Clive Owen became famous for. But unlike Owen, Craig brings a slightly warmer feel to his gangster. All this adds up to the best modern British gangster film around. Much better than 'Gangster #1', and any of Ritchie's films, Layer Cake is an excercise in genre perfection.
]]>Sat, 14 Jul 2007 00:39:00 GMTanalogzombieanalogzombie Blog7/13/2007 8:39:00 PMFinally, the British mob movie I've been thirsting for! In the tradition of 'The Long Good Friday' and 'Get Carter', 'Layer Cake' is a British gangster flick where everybody gets fucked over, and everyone gets killed. Forgetall that Guy Ritchie, gangster comedy nonsense, I want violence, I want a movie with balls. This movie was originally intended for Ritchie, but his career killing marriage to shemale extraodinaire: Madonna, created the opportunity for his producer: Matthew Vaughn, to have a go at the director's chair. What we get is a movie whose complex plot of double deals, and backstabbing isn't muddled with comic book baffoonery as in Ritchie's work. Vaughn is much more adept at handling this sort of material. He doesn't have to resort to the type of cheap plot explanations that Ritchie's films needed to survive. Layer Cake's complex story unravels itself with the greatest of ease. There's no need for extraneous narration to explain to the audience what's going on. The director, in this case, is decent enough that he doesn't have to resort to that shit.The story is your basic set up: cool middle level gangster wants to get out while he's ahead. Unfortunately for him and his associates, he's in too deep and those above him are going to try to use him for everything they can get. Only his cool manner, and supreme intelligence can get him out of it. That's pretty much it. Ensue your typical cadre of British heavies beating, and shooting, and smarting off to each other. But instead of doing so with the chimpish grin of Snatch's Jason Statham (Transporter 1 and 2), we are treated to the calm and collected deadpan of Daniel Craig. This is the sort of performance Clive Owen became famous for. But unlike Owen, Craig brings a slightly warmer feel to his gangster. All this adds up to the best modern British gangster film around. Much better than 'Gangster #1', and any of Ritchie's films, Layer Cake is an excercise in genre perfection. Spout Post: Layer Cake - Ladies in Lavender http://www.spout.com/blogs/moviebabe/archive/2007/7/13/13987.aspx

Post By: MovieBabe
Post To: MovieBabe Blog
Post Date: 7/13/2007 6:46:00 PM
Body: By Tricia Olszewski You can do one of two things while watching Layer Cake: You can relax and take in its sleek style, its occasional humor, and the low-burn loveliness of its leading man, Daniel Craig. Or you can try to figure out what’s going on. Doing both, unfortunately, is not an option. But that’s what can happen when a 400-page, seven-hour screenplay is whittled down to 105 minutes and placed in the hands of a first-time director—in this case, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels producer Matthew Vaughn. Britpulp!-anthologized author J.J. Connolly wrote the script, as well as the crook’s-eye-view novel on which it was based. His many characters are well-drawn, with intricate histories and personalities that are strong without being movie-thug clever. But the concentrated version of Layer Cake’s underworld is so jam-packed with names and background that you never quite get over feeling like a stranger at a family reunion. A bit of the unfamiliarity is intentional. Craig’s character, a “businessman” whose commodity just happens to be cocaine, is never named, though you might just be too caught up in getting everyone else’s story straight to notice. All you really need to know about XXXX, as he’s referred to in the script, is given in Craig’s opening voice-over anyway: He’s been very successful, but he wants out. His immediate boss, Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham), has asked him to do one last job. Obviously, disaster won’t be long in coming. Vaughn’s original intention was to produce Layer Cake for his buddy Guy Ritchie, as he had Barrels and 2000’s Snatch. Ritchie declined, but Vaughn reportedly figured he’d watched his friend carefully enough to give directing a go of his own—after all, Layer Cake even takes place in the same seedy-London milieu as Ritchie’s popular flicks. It’s clear Layer Cake wasn’t helmed by the same person who oversaw Snatch, though the difference isn’t due to a lack of experience. Quite the opposite, in fact: Vaughn’s debut feels as if it were directed not by a novice but by a grown-up. There are fewer MTV-furious cuts, more elegantly slow pans and transitions—one of Vaughn’s favored tricks is closing in on the details of one scene, then pulling back as another comes into focus. Energy is provided Danny Boyle–style, with a few moments here and there—during a chase, say—sped up by a barely perceptible degree. Not that Vaughn doesn’t get into the violence: One of Layer Cake’s most compelling scenes angles the camera from the point of view of an unfortunate bloke getting the crap beaten out of him in a diner. But instead of topping things off with frenetic electronica, Vaughn chooses Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World,” subtly adding melancholy to a situation that Ritchie would have staged with glee. Still, the film isn’t an indictment of the thug life, exactly, or even a self-referential lesson in how seductively good looks can conceal soullessness. Connolly’s characters love what they do, from XXXX’s cool, confident helper, Gene (Colm Meaney), who finds disassembling guns “relaxing,” to the Duke (Jamie Foreman), a status-hungry dumb shit who’s the regrettable holder of the large stash of Ecstasy XXXX is charged with getting his hands on. Whether the Duke’s girlfriend, Slasher (Sally Hawkins), is shrieking at the first sign of stress or Gene is dismissing XXXX’s newfound giddiness over guns—muttering “Oh, for fuck’s sake” as his friend starts sneaking around corners with a pistol like a secret agent—Layer Cake offers lots of small, entertaining moments with its crew. And Craig is an enjoyable antihero, as likable when he’s being a badass as when he’s drinking, drugging, and generally agonizing over a situation gone very wrong. If only Vaughn & Co. got the bigger picture right. Layer Cake’s title refers to the tiers of power in the criminal world, and it becomes clear that although XXXX initially seems to be a know-it-all on top of the game, he’s really at the mercy of quite a few even sharper people above him. (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’s Michael Gambon, playing the boss of ’em all, is a highlight.) The main problem with the movie is that the intricacy of this universe is presented in apparently unconnected fragments: First something happens with characters unknown and reasons unclear; then we hear people talking about the whys afterward—sometimes. The rest of the time, the whys are probably just an excuse to get Craig out of his shirt again. At one point, XXXX is dragged out of a hotel room by a bunch of people he doesn’t know and told a long story about why the mission he’s on is a setup. He asks questions and listens intently but eventually admits, “I’m still not with you.” You won’t be, either, but if you just like looking, you’ll probably be content to nod along. Ladies in Lavender suffers from the opposite problem: It requires no straining whatever to understand its trifle of a plot, which writer-director Charles Dance has stretched beyond its limit from a short story by William J. Locke. The film’s opening forewarns of the drivel to come: Elderly sisters Ursula (Judi Dench) and Janet (Maggie Smith) are cavorting on a beach in 1936 Cornwall, with Dance slowing frames and then freezing them at moments of maximum whimsy. They go back to their large home overlooking the shore, where they occupy themselves with gardening, knitting, dining on the suppers provided by their brusque housekeeper, Dorcas (Miriam Margolyes), and listening to the radio. When night falls, the sisters take to their twin beds, set up side by side in an upstairs room. Ursula and Janet’s routine is upset—but only slightly—when a young man (Good Bye Lenin!’s Daniel Brühl) washes up on the beach after a storm. He’s barely alive, so the sisters summon help to move him to their spare bedroom, where they nurse him back to health. He doesn’t speak English, but he communicates with Ursula and Janet in German well enough to tell them that his name is Andrea and he is Polish. They also find out that Andrea plays the violin, when he responds to Janet’s impromptu but competent turn at the piano as if hearing nails on a blackboard. Of course—don’t all violinists hate the piano? This is just one of Ladies in Lavender’s more bizarre moments, though the prize goes to the development on which the story turns: The usually chipper Ursula becomes petulant and melancholy after the dopey Andrea, who can’t be a day over 20, stays around for a while. She dreams about rolling around in the grass with him, her gray hair once again brown; whenever Janet speaks to him, Ursula pouts. Needless to say, fans who prefer to see Dench playing strong characters should look elsewhere. Her Ursula can charitably be described as childlike, though a dim old fool is a bit more accurate. Smith’s Janet has a little more edge, unleashing the rare barb in this strenuously quaint drama. (She responds to the maid’s query of what Polish people eat for breakfast, for example, with “Probably some awful kind of sausage.”) But neither of Britain’s great dames is challenged here—sure, Dench’s character has some serious inner conflict going on, but she’s not often asked to express it. “He’s up!” “He’s home!” and “He likes the lunch!” are the biggest developments the actresses are typically asked to negotiate. But this isn’t the most infuriating thing about Ladies in Lavender. Neither is the icky subplot about a borderline stalker—the middle-aged town doctor (David Warner), who becomes enamored of a young artist (Natascha McElhone), a bohemian, landscape-painting type who irritatingly shows up at the sisters’ home whenever Andrea happens to be playing the violin. No, the worst part of Dance’s film is that its most dramatic moments are completely contrived, situations that would have been prevented if only people had passed on some simple information—why, for example, would anyone tell a friend to drop by tomorrow for a surprise without mentioning that the surprise is that he needs to leave town immediately and no, he doesn’t have time to pack? Details such as how Andrea even ended up on the beach, meanwhile, go unexplained—the more time to focus on things such as his giving Ursula a pebble when they go for a stroll. She’s thrilled, Janet’s annoyed, and you’ll be longing for some real drama—such as having the sisters shove their guest back into to the sea from which he came.
]]>Fri, 13 Jul 2007 22:46:00 GMTMovieBabeMovieBabe Blog7/13/2007 6:46:00 PM By Tricia Olszewski You can do one of two things while watching Layer Cake: You can relax and take in its sleek style, its occasional humor, and the low-burn loveliness of its leading man, Daniel Craig. Or you can try to figure out what’s going on. Doing both, unfortunately, is not an option. But that’s what can happen when a 400-page, seven-hour screenplay is whittled down to 105 minutes and placed in the hands of a first-time director—in this case, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels producer Matthew Vaughn. Britpulp!-anthologized author J.J. Connolly wrote the script, as well as the crook’s-eye-view novel on which it was based. His many characters are well-drawn, with intricate histories and personalities that are strong without being movie-thug clever. But the concentrated version of Layer Cake’s underworld is so jam-packed with names and background that you never quite get over feeling like a stranger at a family reunion. A bit of the unfamiliarity is intentional. Craig’s character, a “businessman” whose commodity just happens to be cocaine, is never named, though you might just be too caught up in getting everyone else’s story straight to notice. All you really need to know about XXXX, as he’s referred to in the script, is given in Craig’s opening voice-over anyway: He’s been very successful, but he wants out. His immediate boss, Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham), has asked him to do one last job. Obviously, disaster won’t be long in coming. Vaughn’s original intention was to produce Layer Cake for his buddy Guy Ritchie, as he had Barrels and 2000’s Snatch. Ritchie declined, but Vaughn reportedly figured he’d watched his friend carefully enough to give directing a go of his own—after all, Layer Cake even takes place in the same seedy-London milieu as Ritchie’s popular flicks. It’s clear Layer Cake wasn’t helmed by the same person who oversaw Snatch, though the difference isn’t due to a lack of experience. Quite the opposite, in fact: Vaughn’s debut feels as if it were directed not by a novice but by a grown-up. There are fewer MTV-furious cuts, more elegantly slow pans and transitions—one of Vaughn’s favored tricks is closing in on the details of one scene, then pulling back as another comes into focus. Energy is provided Danny Boyle–style, with a few moments here and there—during a chase, say—sped up by a barely perceptible degree. Not that Vaughn doesn’t get into the violence: One of Layer Cake’s most compelling scenes angles the camera from the point of view of an unfortunate bloke getting the crap beaten out of him in a diner. But instead of topping things off with frenetic electronica, Vaughn chooses Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World,” subtly adding melancholy to a situation that Ritchie would have staged with glee. Still, the film isn’t an indictment of the thug life, exactly, or even a self-referential lesson in how seductively good looks can conceal soullessness. Connolly’s characters love what they do, from XXXX’s cool, confident helper, Gene (Colm Meaney), who finds disassembling guns “relaxing,” to the Duke (Jamie Foreman), a status-hungry dumb shit who’s the regrettable holder of the large stash of Ecstasy XXXX is charged with getting his hands on. Whether the Duke’s girlfriend, Slasher (Sally Hawkins), is shrieking at the first sign of stress or Gene is dismissing XXXX’s newfound giddiness over guns—muttering “Oh, for fuck’s sake” as his friend starts sneaking around corners with a pistol like a secret agent—Layer Cake offers lots of small, entertaining moments with its crew. And Craig is an enjoyable antihero, as likable when he’s being a badass as when he’s drinking, drugging, and generally agonizing over a situation gone very wrong. If only Vaughn & Co. got the bigger picture right. Layer Cake’s title refers to the tiers of power in the criminal world, and it becomes clear that although XXXX initially seems to be a know-it-all on top of the game, he’s really at the mercy of quite a few even sharper people above him. (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’s Michael Gambon, playing the boss of ’em all, is a highlight.) The main problem with the movie is that the intricacy of this universe is presented in apparently unconnected fragments: First something happens with characters unknown and reasons unclear; then we hear people talking about the whys afterward—sometimes. The rest of the time, the whys are probably just an excuse to get Craig out of his shirt again. At one point, XXXX is dragged out of a hotel room by a bunch of people he doesn’t know and told a long story about why the mission he’s on is a setup. He asks questions and listens intently but eventually admits, “I’m still not with you.” You won’t be, either, but if you just like looking, you’ll probably be content to nod along. Ladies in Lavender suffers from the opposite problem: It requires no straining whatever to understand its trifle of a plot, which writer-director Charles Dance has stretched beyond its limit from a short story by William J. Locke. The film’s opening forewarns of the drivel to come: Elderly sisters Ursula (Judi Dench) and Janet (Maggie Smith) are cavorting on a beach in 1936 Cornwall, with Dance slowing frames and then freezing them at moments of maximum whimsy. They go back to their large home overlooking the shore, where they occupy themselves with gardening, knitting, dining on the suppers provided by their brusque housekeeper, Dorcas (Miriam Margolyes), and listening to the radio. When night falls, the sisters take to their twin beds, set up side by side in an upstairs room. Ursula and Janet’s routine is upset—but only slightly—when a young man (Good Bye Lenin!’s Daniel Brühl) washes up on the beach after a storm. He’s barely alive, so the sisters summon help to move him to their spare bedroom, where they nurse him back to health. He doesn’t speak English, but he communicates with Ursula and Janet in German well enough to tell them that his name is Andrea and he is Polish. They also find out that Andrea plays the violin, when he responds to Janet’s impromptu but competent turn at the piano as if hearing nails on a blackboard. Of course—don’t all violinists hate the piano? This is just one of Ladies in Lavender’s more bizarre moments, though the prize goes to the development on which the story turns: The usually chipper Ursula becomes petulant and melancholy after the dopey Andrea, who can’t be a day over 20, stays around for a while. She dreams about rolling around in the grass with him, her gray hair once again brown; whenever Janet speaks to him, Ursula pouts. Needless to say, fans who prefer to see Dench playing strong characters should look elsewhere. Her Ursula can charitably be described as childlike, though a dim old fool is a bit more accurate. Smith’s Janet has a little more edge, unleashing the rare barb in this strenuously quaint drama. (She responds to the maid’s query of what Polish people eat for breakfast, for example, with “Probably some awful kind of sausage.”) But neither of Britain’s great dames is challenged here—sure, Dench’s character has some serious inner conflict going on, but she’s not often asked to express it. “He’s up!” “He’s home!” and “He likes the lunch!” are the biggest developments the actresses are typically asked to negotiate. But this isn’t the most infuriating thing about Ladies in Lavender. Neither is the icky subplot about a borderline stalker—the middle-aged town doctor (David Warner), who becomes enamored of a young artist (Natascha McElhone), a bohemian, landscape-painting type who irritatingly shows up at the sisters’ home whenever Andrea happens to be playing the violin. No, the worst part of Dance’s film is that its most dramatic moments are completely contrived, situations that would have been prevented if only people had passed on some simple information—why, for example, would anyone tell a friend to drop by tomorrow for a surprise without mentioning that the surprise is that he needs to leave town immediately and no, he doesn’t have time to pack? Details such as how Andrea even ended up on the beach, meanwhile, go unexplained—the more time to focus on things such as his giving Ursula a pebble when they go for a stroll. She’s thrilled, Janet’s annoyed, and you’ll be longing for some real drama—such as having the sisters shove their guest back into to the sea from which he came. Spout Post: Cake or Death http://www.spout.com/blogs/captowen/archive/2007/6/20/11513.aspx

Post By: CaptOwen
Post To: CaptOwen Blog
Post Date: 6/20/2007 4:57:00 PM
Body: Debut director Michael Vaughan clearly had a list of boxes to tick: sleek cool blue and boltgun metal color pallette, electro moody Michael Mann-like soundtrack whacked into place, drugs and clubs, copious profanity, a cocky middleman trying to escape from his line of work just as a maelstrom blasts into view to tear everything he was used to to hell. Control slips, bodies pile up, guns are brandished, more hired guns with their own freaky m.o's are brought in. The camera swirls and sweeps gracefully through the neon green and grey urban sprawl of greasy spoons, bars, and cars as deals, hits and beatings are carried out. But it never really escapes from the shadow of Guy Ritchie and his Brit crime flick imitators despite the style and cast. Its a shame this film really doesnt speak with its own voice as there are plenty of glmpses of potential, but at least Vaughan is stealing from the best and knows how to bolt the thing together to carry the audience along for the ride. Best viewed as a chance to see a new director's first major work, and Daniel Craig in a pre-Bond role (the scene where he tries out a Luger pistol can now be seen in an unintentionally funny light as it foreshadows his later career choice). Not worth devoting special time for, but if you bump into it when its on, pop a few pills and watch.
]]>Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:57:00 GMTCaptOwenCaptOwen Blog6/20/2007 4:57:00 PMDebut director Michael Vaughan clearly had a list of boxes to tick: sleek cool blue and boltgun metal color pallette, electro moody Michael Mann-like soundtrack whacked into place, drugs and clubs, copious profanity, a cocky middleman trying to escape from his line of work just as a maelstrom blasts into view to tear everything he was used to to hell. Control slips, bodies pile up, guns are brandished, more hired guns with their own freaky m.o's are brought in. The camera swirls and sweeps gracefully through the neon green and grey urban sprawl of greasy spoons, bars, and cars as deals, hits and beatings are carried out. But it never really escapes from the shadow of Guy Ritchie and his Brit crime flick imitators despite the style and cast. Its a shame this film really doesnt speak with its own voice as there are plenty of glmpses of potential, but at least Vaughan is stealing from the best and knows how to bolt the thing together to carry the audience along for the ride. Best viewed as a chance to see a new director's first major work, and Daniel Craig in a pre-Bond role (the scene where he tries out a Luger pistol can now be seen in an unintentionally funny light as it foreshadows his later career choice). Not worth devoting special time for, but if you bump into it when its on, pop a few pills and watch. Spout Post: Re: Favorites http://www.spout.com/groups/British_Invasion/Re_Favorites/188/6857/1/ShowPost.aspx

Post By: Jymkata
Post To: British Invasion
Post Date: 4/9/2007 9:31:41 PM
Body: My UK Favorites:I'm not sure if you're only looking for movies set in the UK (with stiff upper lips & veddy,veddy Brittish accents), but these are my favorite productions made in the UKTelevision: The Office, The Singing Detective, Yes, Minister, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and Smiley's PeopleI'm All Right JackBrazilThe Bridge on the River KwaiThe Red ShoesA Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven)Layer CakeBloody SundayEnigmaThe General (Boorman)The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her LoverThe Draughtman's ContractThe Killing FieldsThe Great Train RobberySleuthBedazzled (1967)The HillThe Spy who Came in From The ColdGoldfingerThe Masque of the Red DeathZuluThe HauntingLawrence of ArabiaThe InnocentsThe LadykillersThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Lavender Hill MobThe Browning VersionOdd Man OutThe Third ManBlack NarcissusThe Life and Death of Colonel BlimpThe 39 StepsStage Fright
]]>Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:31:41 GMTJymkataBritish Invasion4/9/2007 9:31:41 PMMy UK Favorites:I'm not sure if you're only looking for movies set in the UK (with stiff upper lips & veddy,veddy Brittish accents), but these are my favorite productions made in the UKTelevision: The Office, The Singing Detective, Yes, Minister, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and Smiley's PeopleI'm All Right JackBrazilThe Bridge on the River KwaiThe Red ShoesA Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven)Layer CakeBloody SundayEnigmaThe General (Boorman)The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her LoverThe Draughtman's ContractThe Killing FieldsThe Great Train RobberySleuthBedazzled (1967)The HillThe Spy who Came in From The ColdGoldfingerThe Masque of the Red DeathZuluThe HauntingLawrence of ArabiaThe InnocentsThe LadykillersThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Lavender Hill MobThe Browning VersionOdd Man OutThe Third ManBlack NarcissusThe Life and Death of Colonel BlimpThe 39 StepsStage Fright Spout Post: Layer Cake http://www.spout.com/blogs/fb2/archive/2006/3/9/374.aspx

Post By: fb2
Post To: FB2 Movie Blog
Post Date: 3/9/2006 6:03:00 PM
Body: Against all odds, the movie is very enjoyable. It was originally planned to be the next Guy Ritchie movie, but it was directed by Guy's producer partner. The humor is toned down, there are no big box office names attached, and the movie is better for it. Quirky, fun, oddly compelling, with a strong lead by future Bond Daniel Craig.
]]>Thu, 09 Mar 2006 23:03:00 GMTfb2FB2 Movie Blog3/9/2006 6:03:00 PMAgainst all odds, the movie is very enjoyable. It was originally planned to be the next Guy Ritchie movie, but it was directed by Guy's producer partner. The humor is toned down, there are no big box office names attached, and the movie is better for it. Quirky, fun, oddly compelling, with a strong lead by future Bond Daniel Craig. Spout Tag:Great http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/Great/MemberTagFilms.aspxGreat
Number of films tagged: 231

Number of people who tagged: 202

Number of times used: 371

]]>Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:11:49 GMT231202371Tag Spout Tag:drugs http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/drugs/MemberTagFilms.aspxdrugs
Number of films tagged: 1643

Number of people who tagged: 130

Number of times used: 489

]]>Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:42:19 GMT1643130489Tag Spout Tag:Cool http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/Cool/MemberTagFilms.aspxCool
Number of films tagged: 103

Number of people who tagged: 97

Number of times used: 188

]]>Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:20:50 GMT10397188Tag Spout Tag:british http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/british/MemberTagFilms.aspxbritish
Number of films tagged: 610

Number of people who tagged: 75

Number of times used: 264

]]>Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:53:04 GMT61075264Tag Spout Tag:crime http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/crime/MemberTagFilms.aspxcrime
Number of films tagged: 401

Number of people who tagged: 70

Number of times used: 303

]]>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:51:32 GMT40170303Tag Spout Tag:gangster http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/gangster/MemberTagFilms.aspxgangster
Number of films tagged: 4065

Number of people who tagged: 60

Number of times used: 145

]]>Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:37:08 GMT406560145Tag Spout Tag:bond http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/bond/MemberTagFilms.aspxbond
Number of films tagged: 30

Number of people who tagged: 27

Number of times used: 85

]]>Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:36:14 GMT302785Tag Spout Tag:drugdealer http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/drugdealer/MemberTagFilms.aspxdrugdealer
Number of films tagged: 555

Number of people who tagged: 11

Number of times used: 24

]]>Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:02:48 GMT5551124Tag Spout Tag:organizedcrime http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/organizedcrime/MemberTagFilms.aspxorganizedcrime
Number of films tagged: 399

Number of people who tagged: 11

Number of times used: 17

]]>Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:04:09 GMT3991117Tag Spout Tag:crimering http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/crimering/MemberTagFilms.aspxcrimering
Number of films tagged: 72

Number of people who tagged: 5

Number of times used: 9

]]>Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:05:31 GMT7259Tag Spout Tag:duke http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/duke/MemberTagFilms.aspxduke
Number of films tagged: 27

Number of people who tagged: 5

Number of times used: 5

]]>Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:07:44 GMT2755Tag Spout Tag:brit http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/brit/MemberTagFilms.aspxbrit
Number of films tagged: 3

Number of people who tagged: 3

Number of times used: 4

]]>Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:49:27 GMT334Tag Spout Tag:crimelord http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/crimelord/MemberTagFilms.aspxcrimelord
Number of films tagged: 189

Number of people who tagged: 3

Number of times used: 3

]]>Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:13:22 GMT18933Tag Spout Tag:ritchie http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/ritchie/MemberTagFilms.aspxritchie
Number of films tagged: 2

Number of people who tagged: 2

Number of times used: 2

]]>Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:49:43 GMT222Tag Spout Tag:British-Mob http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/British-Mob/MemberTagFilms.aspxBritish-Mob
Number of films tagged: 1

Number of people who tagged: 1

Number of times used: 1

]]>Fri, 30 Dec 2005 14:37:52 GMT111Tag