Sexy Beast (film review)

I know it's a few years old, but remembering that the film Sexy Beast got very strong reviews, I watched it tonight (85% on the tomatometer). Don't make the same mistake I did. This movie sucks. It sucks with a power that few suck ass films manage to approach, while somehow garnering high reviews from most critics. I can watch and enjoy some rather slow paced films, even some arthouse films, but the pacing of this film is glacial despite only being 85 minutes long. It may only be 85 minutes, but it feels like far longer. Most of the characters appear to be on heavy tranquilizers throughout the movie. They are boring, lifeless individuals. Ben Kingsley's character is at least more energetic, but not much more interesting. He's just an asshole who rants a lot and calls people "cunts". "Cunt", by the way, is by far the most popular word in the film. Dumb sidenote: near the end one of the women uses the more unusual cockney rhyming slang version "berk" (berk = berkshire hunt = cunt).

Most of the critics said Kingley's performance was superb, jaw-dropping, oscar worthy, etc. Kingsley is an excellent actor, but I'd have to disagree on this one. His character was fairly boring and 1 dimensional (not that that's Kingsley's fault that the script sucked), which was simply a minor improvement over the rest of the utterly unlikeable, soporific characters.

I want that 85 minutes of my life back.