ThiefHott Too much of everything

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

videorama-759-859391 I don't think I've ever seen a film, try as much as The Limey. Sadly it's a movie, dressed up more than it is, a straight out revenge story told in Tarantino-esque sort of way with many repeated annoying clips, if a walking shot, or what a revenge driven ex con, Stamp, wants to do to a seedy Music executive, Fonda. It's great watching an unhinged Stamp, where he has his moments and does sometimes lay it on thick, but that's what makes it fun. He flies out to L.A, hell bent on finding out the real truth, about his dead daughter, Oz's Melissa George, who might as well not exist in this, where Fonda has shacked up with a new teen hottie, and seriously some scenes near the end, with their little trip, had "Why bother?" or "What's the point" moments to em'. Lesley Ann Warren, was wasted here as a casting director, whatever, while Luiz Guzman, a Soderburgh favorite, who wrote him, about his daughter, was a gladdened presence who teams up with Stamp, crashing Fonda's house party, whatever. When you find out the truth, it's really kind of a let down, if cliché'd. This is the SS film that sat between Out Of Sight and Traffic. This, with it's story tricks and shots, tries to pull the wool over the eyes, with an unimpressive, lightened story line, ala revenge motivated tale, where Stamp's sometimes over acted moments, epitomizes the film's frustrating trying efforts, yet still, The Limey is still a film of interest, you should see, esp, if a Soderburgh fan.

SnoopyStyle Wilson (Terence Stamp) gets out of prison and goes to L.A. Eduardo Roel (Luis Guzmán) had sent him news that his daughter Jenny Wilson (Melissa George) is dead. His is convinced that her music producer boyfriend Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda) is responsible. Valentine was involved in a drug deal which he is now trying to hide and presently has a young girlfriend Adhara (Amelia Heinle). Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren) was once a famous actress and a mentor to Jenny. Valentine's right hand man Jim Avery (Barry Newman) hires Stacy (Nicky Katt) to kill Wilson.Soderbergh is trying his disjointed editing style and a bit of shaky camera work. The style is really fascinating for awhile but it becomes more of a gimmick later on. It overwhelms anything happening in the story and takes away some of the tension. Even the dialog becomes secondary. I really like the use of the old movie but even that has diminishing returns. He's done this in the past like in 'Out of Sight' but it wasn't quite as pervasive. Terence Stamp has terrific menace. He's able to maintain the tension and there is a nice payoff at the end.

daggersineyes I'm getting to the point now where I'm distrusting the ratings on this site because so many movies with above 7 ratings turn out to be boring pretentious tripe. Honestly, there was nothing in this movie that redeemed it. The acting was almost non-existent, the editing was clumsy and bizarre (possibly in some mis-guided attempt to appear "artsy") and the plot..... well there really wasn't one. There was certainly no action, no suspense, no thrills, no warmth, no likable characters, no intrigue, no message, no interesting dialogue, no gripping relationships or drama .... just a lot of repetition of boring scenes (for what purpose is beyond me), blank stares for long periods of time (possibly an attempt to build drama but all it did was build frustration with how awful the film was) and lots of pointless badly written wooden conversation between characters. I got just over half way through and felt proud of myself for having suffered so long but at that point I started skipping bits of the film. I started carefully, only skipping small sections and soon realised I could easily jump several minutes at a time and miss nothing at all. Finally made a huge skip to the last 10 mins or so. YAY! I thought, a bit of action! Even tho I couldn't care less what happened to anyone. I was just hoping for relief to the tedious boredom. But my hope was short-lived and actually changed to anger because the ending made not one bit of sense in the context of the rest of the movie. It was lame and silly. I fail to see how anyone can give this a score above 2. I might have to start watching movies rated below 5 and maybe I'll have better luck. So dear reviewers, slow, boring and badly written/acted/shot/edited/produced does NOT equal meaningful and artsy. It just equals a waste of everyone's time. Conclusion: Don't' bother. Watch In Bruges instead. That's one of the few movies with a decent rating that actually deserves it.

johnnyboyz A year after Steven Soderbergh's The Limey was released, Stephen Kay unleashed upon us their remake of 1971 British thriller Get Carter; a film about a low level hoodlum travelling a relatively long distance to look into the death of a family member, before indeed uncovering sordid plots and such they always suspected were there. The fact The Limey is as good as it is would make it doubly unforgivable if one were to opt for the said Get Carter remake if faced between picking it and Soderbergh's film here. Principally, the man has taken a similar idea but brought a great deal of substance where in Kay's effort there was fatuity; a degree of life and ingenuity where there was formula and this sense of verve and energy where there was a just lot of bland 'muscle' going through the motions. Invoke Get Carter at your peril, remake it at your ***. But where The Limey's catalyst is the suspicious death of one of its anti-heroic lead's family on account of a driving accident, it does so well with the material anyway that it gets away with it – telling an engaging tale with a dynamic visual approach.The film is about a titular "limey" (American slang for an Englishman) in the sunny city of Los Angeles, a man omnipresent on account of doing some of his own investigations into a little driving incident wherein his daughter died. Where everything looks harmless and natural enough, our Limey lead Wilson (Stamp) has suspicions that he believes will lead to finding out what really happened. As a character, Wilson is almost certainly of both his era and ilk: that is to say, hardened and from a time and place in 1960's Britain that is light years from where he finds himself now. Rough and often emotionless, although not without a degree of kindness revealed through the way he reminisces and speaks enthusiastically about his past and things such as the music he likes, there is something appealing about watching a tale about this carefree Londoner, who knows what it's like to kill, maim, thieve and serve time, plopped into a contemporary California dominated by the beating sun; houses up in the bluffs and punk African American hit men.Soderbergh doesn't hang around, he drops us headfirst into L.A. and Wilsons's universe. A musical track belts out over the images, a singer singing about "searching low and high"; the lyric "they call him the seeker" as our Wilson stands on screen - immediately inferring a man on a mission to find someone/thing. We're at an airport, and Wilson has just stepped off the plane from Great Britain. Amidst all the activity out front, it is the two seemingly innocuous police officers of the L.A.P.D. that catches Wilson's eye suggesting some sort of history or link to the law. He knocks about town for a while; meets up with a man of Hispanic descent named Eduardo (Guzmán), who'll provide help and answers, then demonstrates his truly unhinged nature when he marches into a blue collar warehouse and starts pushing around those who run it. "Tell him I'm coming!" he shouts, and we get a feel for just how both determined and angry he really is.Cut to he who it is Wilson will eventually come to seek: Peter Fonda's Terry Valentine; a record producer who lives behind his bodyguards inside of a secluded mansion. Soderbergh pulls a trick on us here, in that while Valentine is essentially the villain of the piece, he is not some snarling; foaming-at-the-mouth; evidently evil individual who slots into the role of the antagonist just as easily as Wilson does the hero. Valentine is softly spoken, even frail looking. We get the feeling should Wilson and this man come face to face; it'll be over quite quickly. He talks to a young woman named Adhara (Heinle), his girl friend, about things such as how one should name their children after star consolations because, like, y'know, it's kind of a cool thing to do. Even his name, "Valentine", conjures up the sort of immediate imagery more inclined towards love and fondness and not spite or wickedness, etc. Wilson is, by comparison, much more aggressive and hard bodied; a man not afraid of violence nor probably much into talking about the esoteric qualities of naming kids after star signs.The editing in the film is of particular interest, a film unfolded using stock footage from an old Ken Loach film doubling up as flashbacks of Stamp's character's past; an array of filters and the sort of manipulation of time that sees Wilson recount the same story twice to two different people whilst only ever presenting to us one instance of him telling it. Such an approach calls to mind John Boorman's techniques that he applied to a similarly realist/avant-garde crime picture in 1967's Point Blank; a film told as such so as to replicate its lead's damaged, perhaps even confused, outlook on the world as they recovered from a gunshot wound. Here, having got a sense our lead Wilson (not too far from "Walker", Lee Marvin's Point Blank character) is as damaged (albeit in a psychological sense), the idea of splicing the film up by cutting back and forth from strand to strand; tense to tense is inspired so as to invoke a shattered mentality. In a sense, The Limey is the hard boiled revenge film for people who do not like hard boiled revenge films. It is the antidote to those people who get it into their heads that specific genres or 'types' of films are for set genders or those in a particular age bracket. The Limey is very much, as a standalone film regardless, works really well and should be seen.