Premise - Gary 'Gal' Dove is a retired Cockney gangster living the high life in Spain with the woman of his dreams. However when Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) flies over to try and persuade Gal to take one more job, his peaceful life is turned upside down. British gangster films are ten-a-penny at the moment thanks to the baffling success of both 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and Guy Ritchie's follow up 'Snatch'. Most of them are terrible so when one sneaks through that is actually worth your precious time (Gangster No.1 for example) it's a reason to rejoice. Sexy Beast is a British gangster film that is definitely worth rejoicing over. Core to the success of the movie is Ben Kingsley as Don Logan. Don is a psycho prone to going off at any moment. His clothes are impeccably pressed and he talks to himself consistently, he's not someone you want to piss off. Kingsley lays to rest the ghost of Ghandi to become a genuinely disturbing movie psycho and claims the film as his own. Kingsley is certainly a very versatile actor, few people could play a part like Ghandi and later in his career play a completely off the wall nut job like Don Logan convincingly. It's an excellent piece of work and one which was well deserving of the various nominations he received last year. That's not to say the rest of the cast are slouches. Ray Winstone (Who seems to have spent his entire life playing Cockney's.) play's Gal as a quite vulnerable man. A man whom is just trying to hold together the life that he has made for himself in Spain. Like I say, this is the kind of performance that Winstone has made his bread and butter with and he doesn't disappoint. In support you have the usual selection of familiar faces from British television that seem to populate every other film made in this country. I did however, appreciate James Fox having a small role and I was pleasantly surprised by Ian McShane. He is best known for the Godawful mid 80's British show 'Lovejoy' that I was tortured with as a child, but he puts that behind him and is actually quite good. Sexy Beast is a fairly simple film story wise, there's not much to confuse or tax the viewer. So it was up to debut director Jonathan Glazer to draw the viewer in via some other means than a gripping story. This is achieved through the intriguing characters and with Glazer's lush, visual style. Glazer plied his trade in both commercials and music videos (The Guinness ad with the surfing horses was his creation) before moving to feature length films. His background is clear to all in Sexy Beast through some startling visuals. The Spanish portion of the film is filmed brightly with a clinical look, whilst the London scenes are dark, brooding and rainy. Glazer also piles on the dream imagery with some almost Lynchian sequences featuring a kind of devil/goat man with an automatic weapon. Sexy Beast is an impressive looking film and I look forward to what Glazer will come up with for his next project. I also enjoyed the music in the film which was created by British Trip Hop outfit Unkle. When I first heard Unkle's album 'Psyence Fiction' I thought that they would be capable of doing an excellent movie score, I was proved right. The film does lose some steam when it moves to London, but the second half contains enough quality not to take away from the first too much. Indeed, the technique employed for breaking into the bank in the final heist is quite inspired an makes for some good viewing. Also good in the second half is the interaction between Ian McShane and Ray Winstone, some good scenes with those two. Sexy Beast is a superior film that bucks the trend of recent British gangster films and is actually worth watching. Those with sensitive ears should be wary however as the film is liberally peppered with swearing, including a lot of uses of the 'c' word. But, hey you can let them off as that's how these people talk, 'dahn London way'.

7/10 for Sexy Beast. Poster Quote - Sexy best?