SYNOPSIS:
Planning to retire and begin a new life, Mr X, a
successful West End drug dealer has been asked for one last
favour: to negotiate the sale of one million hits of Ecstasy.
Unfortunately, for Mr X, the pills were stolen from a Serbian
drug lord who'll cut off his head if he sells them. And with
a London crime czar promising to retire him permanently if
he doesn't, Mr X may be rightfully concerned about his future.
Nothing worth losing his head over.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Matthew Vaughn, producer of Guy Ritchie Brit-gangster parables
Lock, Stock and Smoking Barrel as well as Snatch, went it
alone with Layer Cake in 2004 and his directorial debut is
a welcomed effort matching the buddy humour of Ritchie’s
films with a steady stream of dark thoughts, razor-sharp plot
twists and beautiful shots of London.
There
is nothing like a posse of established actors to take the
pressure of your directorial debut and Daniel Craig has to
be one of the finest leadings men right now. Having Michael
Gambon’s sheer presence and Siena Miller to take the
dudes’ minds off the shaky storyline helps as well.
Having
stated that he consciously tried to keep Ritchie-like humour
from creeping into his film, Matthew Vaughn might have taken
his genre a tad wee bit too seriously. Come on, how many heists
take place in London on any given day? Loosen up on the uppity
pursed lips and clenched jaws (yes Daniel, I am talking to
you) and flash a rascally grin at us, won’t you?
SPECIAL
FEATURES:
This disc is jam-packed with features and audio commentaries
alone deserve an additional star on our ratings. Getting the
writer and director to sit down and go through their movie
again could be more painful to some people than others. The
aforementioned features include an entire slew of deleted
scenes, not one but two alternate endings, a Q&A recording
with Matthew and Daniel, a behind-the-scenes featurette as
well as some trailers.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
visual transfer is first-rate for a better resolution on Daniel
Craig’s chest and Siena Miller’s pegs. The movie
can be viewed in either English or French; subtitles are in
Chinese, English, French, Korean or Thai.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review
by Lim Mun Pong
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