Saturday, August 26, 2006

Gangster No. 1

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Gangster No. 1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Last night, as I flipped through the channels before heading to bed, I landed on IFC at the beginning of this British gangster flick and was hooked.

This is one hell of a movie. Looking at reviews this morning I see I am not the only one to have thought of A Clockwork Orange and Sexy Beast as I watched it. I also thought of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Layer Cake, but there was nothing funny about this flick.

There was a lot to admire about this movie, particularly the performance by Paul Bettany. Hell, all of the performances were great, but Bettany's portrayal of an absolutely intimidating psycho was something else entirely.

The Brits make some pretty good movies.

2 comments:

jj mollo said...

I don't have cable, so my dial doesn't spin quite as far. Nevertheless, I do stumble on British stuff that I love. In particular, I ran into a PD James story that I didn't know they were doing. Dalgliesh is my favorite detective. Morose, but persistent. Reminds me of a blogger I know. Morse was too, but I like his assistant better. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are good, but the best today is Foyle.

My relatives who disagree with me on evolution, however, thoroughly agree that the PBS version of Sherlock Holmes is better than Basil Rathbone. Jeremy Brett was the true incarnation of the way Conan Doyle meant Holmes to be, maybe even more true to life than that.

Hetty Winthrop is wonderful, though I can't stand the Buckets. There is also another woman, a police detective who is incomparable. Can't remember her name. Red Dwarf and Dr. Who have also given me pleasant TV surprises.

I like some of the American stuff. Homicide, Life in the Streets was so good. I liked Hack, too. Numb3rs is OK.

Steve said...

Yeah, that's the sort of stuff we watch when we watch TV. You're more up on your Holmes though.

My wife and son really like Hetty Winthrop (Keeping Up Appearances, right?), but I'd much prefer it if they just silenced the laugh track so they usually watch it after I've gone to bed (Tivo is great!).

I'm not familiar with any of the American shows you mentioned.