Steven Soderbergh's follow-up to his sexy thriller Out of Sight is an equally stylish but far more austere crime drama, a work of memory that mixes flashbacks, flashforwards, and ruminations on the present into an invigorating cinematic quilt. Terence Stamp is Wilson, an aging cockney criminal fresh out of prison who flies to Los Angeles to search for his daughter's killer. She died in a car wreck, but he suspects that her lover, a music industry mogul named Valentine (Peter Fonda), knows more than he's telling. Wilson is a fish out of water indeed, a cool, cruel London thug on the airy, sun-bright street of L.A., a silver-haired criminal taking on street punks and hit men with the relentless drive of a man possessed. It's like Get Carter channeled through Point Blank, a hard-edged revenge thriller steeped in sorrow and regret, trading the warmth of Out of Sight's romantic heat for a more contemplative remove. Fonda beautifully plays off his cinematic history of 1960s hippies and rebels as a nervous, cowardly millionaire sellout in white cotton peasant shirts and a deep California tan. Luiz Guzman and Lesley Ann Warren costar as Wilson's "adopted" guides through modern L.A., and Barry Newman is excellent as Valentine's tough, terse head of security, another aging pro blindsided by Wilson's relentless single-mindedness. Soderbergh quotes from Ken Loach's 1967 film Poor Cow (sadly not available on video in the U.S.) for Wilson's flashbacks as a fresh-faced teenage thug. --Sean Axmaker
(67 votes)
2.
With THE LIMEY, director Steven Soderbergh has crafted a stylish revenge thriller that also contains a refreshing sense of humor. Wilson (Terence Stamp), a tough English ex-con, travels to Los Angeles to avenge his daughter's death, which he is convinced was not accidental. After meeting Ed (Luis Guzmán), a friend of his daughter’s who sent him a letter informing him of her passing, he finds out about her affair with Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda), a drug-dealing, money-laundering record producer, and begins to hunt him down. Partnered with Ed as well as Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren), his daughter’s former voice coach, Wilson encounters a near-fatal beating, is thrown from a building window, survives a dangerous car chase, and battles an army of L.A.'s toughest criminals. Soderbergh's follow-up to the critically beloved OUT OF SIGHT finds him in similar neo-noir waters, but this time he utilizes atypical editing and narrative technique for the film’s entirety. In a striking move, he ingeniously incorporates footage of Stamp as a young man in Ken Loach's 1967 film POOR COW for truly realistic flashbacks. As the fuming Wilson--a hell-bent, white-haired avenging angel--Stamp proves, once again, to be a truly magnetic screen presence.
(64 votes)
3.
Oscar nominees Terence Stamp (Billy Budd), Lesley Ann Warren (Victor/Victoria) and Peter Fonda (Ulee's Gold) team up with the director of Out Of Sight and Sex, Lies And Videotape for this critically acclaimed thriller that Newsday called "a lean and mean treat for savvy action lovers."
British ex-con Wilson (Terence Stamp) arrives in Los Angeles to investigate the mystery of his daughter's "accidental" death. His prime suspect, the wealthy, heavily guarded music promoter Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda), is no easy target. Propelled into an increasingly brutal search for truth, Wilson, with single-mindedness and terrifying precision, moves unstoppably toward revenge.
(56 votes)
4.
Two icons of 60s cinema, Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda, go head-to-head in Steven Soderbergh's stylish reworking of the lone avenger theme. Stamp plays Wilson, an ageing Cockney villain newly out of jail, who arrives in Los Angeles to ask some awkward questions. His beloved daughter, mistress of powerful rock promoter Terry Valentine (Fonda), has died in a car crash; but Wilson's far from convinced it was an accident. With his gaunt, grim features and sparse white hair, Stamp's a dead ringer for the angel of death. Or maybe, as Soderbergh hints with some intricate flashback and flash-forward cutting, the whole story is a dying man's dream of vengeance. Echoes of Get Carter and Point Blank aren't far to seek. Though it's tense, gripping and often funny--Wilson's rhyming-slang dialogue bemuses every American he meets--The Limey is shot through with an aching sense of loss and wasted years. The final showdown between Wilson and Valentine feels like the epitaph of an era once rich in dreams. Some of the film's most poignant moments are its "flashbacks" to Wilson's younger days, which are actually clips from Ken Loach's 1967 movie Poor Cow, featuring the twentysomething Stamp, insolently and heart-breakingly beautiful. --Philip Kemp
(59 votes)
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